After a long pause — our most recent issue was last October — Vermont
Commons is back. We return as a bimonthly, and subsequent issues will
appear according to Vermont’s unique transformative seasons, six in
all. Our first issue is our “Winter/Town Meeting” issue, to be closely
followed, in month’s time, by our second, the “Mud Season/Spring
Planting” issue (due out in early March).

I am unsure of the exact date but the fall of 1957 will do. Forces
in Montpelier were (and had been for some time) making war on the small
schools of Vermont. I was a sophomore at Newbury High School which, on
a good year, graduated about a dozen students. I was to graduate in
1959, a very good year indeed. My class had seven students.

With all of the hoopla swirling around the topic of the state’s energy
affairs (can you say: “$100 dollars per barrel,” “expiring power
contracts,” “commercial wind energy,” “energy efficiency funding,”
“nuclear energy safety,” “food versus biofuels,” and “carbon
footprint”?), we thought we’d jump into 2008 by focusing on what’s
going right on the Vermont energy front.

Our rationale? Just maybe, a focus on the positive will inform our next
steps toward a more secure, independent, clean, prosperous, and
nurturing Vermont.

The following essay, by Thomas Moore of the Southern National
Congress Committee, is the start of a mission statement for a new
organization that will explore and develop the ideas, processes, and
tools for the kinds of sustainability that we all will need to know as
and when the empire collapses. The full document can be read at
www.sislinc.org. Kirkpatrick Sale.

The Southern Institute for Sustainable Living, Inc.

Lisa McCrory and Carl Russell operate Earthwise Farm and Forest,
based in Randolph, Verrmont, which teaches a variety of skills for
sustainable living, including the use of draft animals in raising
organic crops. Their lifestyle and work model not only a broad
knowledge of survival essentials, but an intimate connection with the
earth and the non-human world. Mark your calendars now for the
September 26-28, 2008, Northeast Animal Power Field Days, Trade Fair
and Conference at Tunbridge Fairgrounds, where you can see Earthwise

It’s early February, temperatures are in the l0s and 20s, there is a foot or more of snow blanketing the veggie garden.

What’s a Localvore to eat?

Despite what dedicated local eaters in warmer climates may think,
Vermonters can survive on a totally local diet even in the dead of
winter and live to tell about it come summer. After all, that’s
what people in Vermont did when the state was first settled, and in
large part up until 60 years ago when food started to become an
industrialized commodity.

It is early morning in January 2008, and the GN is pedaling his bicycle through the Florida Everglades.

Back home in Vermont, a run of powder days not seen since, well, last season, is coming to a close.

In Florida, near-record cold has swept across the state, and the GN
shivers as he pedals, a cold breeze whipping through his shirt. One of
his great loves is deep powder skiing, and here he is, in Florida,
riding a bicycle with goose bumps on his ass. It is almost more irony
than he can bear.

 1. According to the latest figures, for 2005, from the Tax Foundation
in Washington, more than half the states of the U.S. – 32 of 50 – get
more money from the federal government than they pay in. New Mexico
gets the most – $2.03 for every dollar it puts in – and New Jersey gets
the least – a meager 61 cents for every dollar.

Read the "Reviving Town Meeting" issue as a printable PDF file, or subscribe to "Vermont Commons" today and get a news print copy delivered right to your door.

Speech at the Conference of December 15th, 2007Boston's Faneuil Hall, capital city of the sovereign state of Massachusettsby Ethan AllenMr. McGovern, Mr. King, Mr. McCampbell, worthy delegates and friends: I humbly thank you, and make bold to congratulate you for the wisdom you have shown in your choice of Founding Fathers.