Having grown up in Lancaster County, green and sustainable
principals have always been a part of our consciousness. It does not escape my predilection for irony
that these fundamental ideas are historically more prominent in the rural areas
than in more developed parts of the City.
One can drive a car or ride a bike down the lanes that
divide one farm from another and see the originators of sustainability and
conservation. I have been aware of
harnessing the wind to create power my entire life, for instance. It is not a new technology by any means, nor
has the technology been improved significantly in the last 40 years aside from enhancements
to battery storage. The rotational
moment is still the means to produce electricity. Amish and Mennonite farms in the area have
powered their electric fences with wind mills or water mills for centuries. Now we see wind farms out our windows on the PA
Turnpike. I always wonder why some of
the giant turbines are never rotating – you never see that happen on a farm.
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| High Tech wind power on the landscape. |
Composting has also made it to the mainstream in urban and
suburban centers. From the zero-waste
hotel I stayed in during a visit to Boulder, CO (good luck finding a
non-recyclable or compostable trash - trash can), to the little compost mixer
in my neighbors back yard, more is being done with our waste to keep it out of
landfills. As a 16 year old working on a
produce farm just a few miles from here, however, I was all too aware of
compost. I dreaded the times when I
would have to accompany my boss, Farmer Jim, out to the "pit" - a
foul smelling and fly infested hole in the ground that I would have to
"feed" with the rotting remains of cantaloupes, pumpkins or peaches.
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| Farmers allow unsold produce to compost in fallow fields. This is the field I worked as a kid. |
And it is funny more me to think that a trademark feature of
a modern home is a laundry room on the second floor. On those bike rides through the farmland, almost
all the homes I saw had a very specialized technology to that not only
delivered the laundry to the second floor of the homeowner's house, but also
harnessed solar and wind power to complete the drying process at the same time. It's called a clothesline on a pulley.
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| Solar and Wind dry these bloomers. |
Because of our unique heritage here, Lancastrians have been
exposed to sustainable ideas since the first settlers utilized them out of
necessity. The expansion and reliance
upon the mechanical revolution may have clouded this vision to modern
inhabitants, but because of the traditions and perhaps the frugality of our
neighbors (all ancestors of the first settlers in the 1700's), we can take some
pride in their continued vigilance and excellent stewardship of our natural
resources.
