In December 2017, The New York Times published an opinion piece titled “My Year of No Shopping” by environmental writer and activist Ann Patchett. That year, she had decided to stop shopping (with some exceptions), and it had been an eye-opening experience.
In the piece, Patchett wrote, “Once I could see what I already had, and what actually mattered, I was left with a feeling that was somewhere between sickened and humbled. When did I amass so many things, and did someone else need them?”
Anna Von Mertens read the article and was inspired to set a similar goal in 2018. She and her husband Chris Anderson were already environmentally minded. They lived off the grid in their solar panel-powered Peterborough home and Anderson had co-founded a solar company. They were curious about what they would learn and how their life would change.
Von Mertens, Anderson and their two children had to figure out what the year was going to look like for them. Their goal was to not buy anything new unless they really needed it.
“Part of it, of course, was defining ‘What is a need?’” Von Mertens explained.
Clothes could be bought second-hand, and Von Mertens and her friends started getting together for clothing swaps. It worked well for growing children, and “still to this day my favorite clothing items are things I got at the swap,” she said.
They also had to reconsider birthday gifts and realized how often gifts are bought just to have something to hand over. Instead of buying new items, they gifted experiences like bringing their son and his friend to a trampoline park.
“The quality of our life switched,” Von Mertens said. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in our capitalist society.”
Her family recognized that they were happier when they weren’t attaching joy to material things, and she was impressed with how well they stuck to their plan, but she admitted they weren’t perfect.
“One really huge fail was that we bought Halloween costumes,” Von Mertens said with a laugh.
Since 2018, “some habits remained, but it’s so easy to slip back,” Von Mertens said. They continue to consider the environmental impacts of their purchasing choices because it feels better for their family, but they are aware that in order for a major, global shift to take place, it’s going to have to come from policy change.
Von Mertens said she feels lucky to live near so many local farms. They’re members of the Temple-Wilton Community Farm, and it has been an opportunity to feel more connected with their food, the local economy and the community.
The Temple-Wilton Community Farm was founded in 1986 by three farmers who separately moved to the Monadnock region from abroad: TraugerGroh, Lincoln Geiger and Anthony Graham. They wanted to start a biodynamic farm. Geiger, who is originally from Sweden, had been exposed to biodynamic farming in Europe and noticed it wasn’t as widespread in the United States.
Biodynamic farming, like organic farming, doesn’t use chemical fertilizer or pesticides. But it’s also part of a larger philosophy, anthroposophy, which encompasses different fields such as farming, education, medicine and art. It takes into account modern science but also studies factors that cannot be measured, such as phases of the moon, constellations and spirituality.
“Different from organic farming, biodynamic farming looks at itself as an organism,” Geiger explained.
The farmer is the brain of the organism. The Temple-Wilton farm has cows and chickens. Manure is used as a fertilizer for vegetable beds, and this past summer, the farm installed solar panels.
“It’s been a goal for a long time,” Geiger said.
For Geiger and the other founders, farming sustainably and connecting to the community are essential. Farm members pay to keep the farm running and in return receive vegetables and farm products. Currently, there are about 105 members and a waiting list.
Anthroposophy is a pillar of Waldorf education, which according to the Waldorf education website, waldorfeducation.org, works to “integrate the arts in all academic disciplines for children from preschool through 12th grade to enhance and enrich learning. Waldorf education aims to inspire lifelong learning in all students and to enable them to fully develop their unique capacities.” Pine Hill School and High Mowing are strongly connected to the farm. Students often work on the farm, and the farm has a field at High Mowing.
Geiger started Wild Rose Farm, an extended learning program that includes students from public schools, Waldorf schools and students who are homeschooled. They focus on farming, woodworking, blacksmithing and hands-on projects.
Geiger also often works with people with disabilities, or as Geiger prefers “special abilities,” and was one of the founders of the Lukas Community in Temple, a residential community for adults with developmental challenges.
“I work with people with autism,” Geiger said, “In our specific work with them, we realize these folks aren’t a burden. They force us to think differently about human nature and human needs.”
Geiger said people with disabilities are sometimes considered a burden in schools and society because they don’t conform, but rather than thinking of that as a bad thing, he wonders if they are here to change society’s mode of operation. He gave the example of Greta Thunberg, a teenage Swedish climate activist with Asperger syndrome who has inspired people globally.
Geiger would like to be able to produce more food at the farm, but they are limited by the land, and “in order to grow sustainably we have to put some land to rest,” he said. But he said, “It wouldn’t take too many farms our size to feed Temple,” and explained that if every town thought about food production that way, everyone could eat locally.
Florence Steven of Hillsboro wants to offer the community a new way to shop.
“I’ve always been conscious about plastic, the environment, wasting,” she said. “It’s been in the back of my head for about three years now.”
Steven is planning to start a bulk goods store, possibly in Peterborough, but it will depend on where she finds a storefront. She believes it could help reduce single-use plastics and waste and save people money. She hopes to carry products like laundry detergent, dish soap and shampoo. Customers will come in with their reusable containers, fill up as much as they need and pay by weight.
Steven is fairly new to the area, but she has connected with the owner of a similar store in Contoocook that has been successful.
“Talking with the owner, we agreed every community should have one of these stores,” Steven said. She thinks that once people experience shopping like this, they’ll realize how easy it is and be less inclined to go back to supermarkets and chain stores to buy plastic containers and products with harmful chemicals.
Steven hopes to open the store at the end of this year or early next year and is cur rently working on pricing products, developing a budget and securing a location.
How are you changing your lifestyle in order to live more sustainably. Let us know by sending email to news@ledgertranscript.com.