WALKING YOUR TALK
Rebecca Laughton explores the challenges of balancing your ecological
principles with the realities of hard work and its impact on your personal health.
L
iving and managing the land
without fossil fuels is rewarding,
but hard work. As the imperative
to cut carbon emissions and find
alternatives to our fossil fuel powered
lifestyles becomes ever more urgent, I
have come to a greater appreciation of
the decision to live without fossil fuel
powered machinery at Tinkers Bubble,
the community where I live. For
twelve years this small community in
Somerset has been managing 40 acres
of plantation forestry, old orchards,
gardens and grassland. Instead of coal,
oil and natural gas we use hand tools,
a horse for traction, wind and solar
power for electricity and firewood
for cooking, heating our homes and
fuelling the steam engine that powers
our sawmill.
It was not until a friend commented
on how tired I seemed at the end of
a summer, as a result of managing a
Above: A group of neighbouring
smallholders in the French Pyrenees
who work collectively one day a
week to get major jobs done.
Right: Rebecca Laughton.
16 Permaculture Magazine No. 47
vegetable garden, frequent farmers’ individual has in varying quantities at
markets, milking and haymaking, any one time. Physical energy, derived
that I realised I had a dilemma on from chemical energy in food that we
my hands. She tried to tempt me eat, might be seen to be the most
with the ‘easier’ option of living in important when looking at land based
a house with mains electricity, having projects, since it is this that enables us
a job with a salary and buying more of to work. However mental and
my food. Having experienced the emotional energy are equally important
satisfaction of living in a house I had because only healthy, happy and
built myself, powered by wind and motivated people are able to contribute
solar generated electricity, growing creativity and enthusiasm to a project.
and selling vegetables to earn a living,
milking our two cows and enjoying the
produce of an integrated smallholding
(cheese, apples, cider, spring water and
timber milled on site), I was loath to
return to a life of detachment from
these basic necessities. Furthermore,
my awareness of the ecological imp-
lications of the fossil fuel powered
consumer lifestyle meant that I would
feel I was betraying my beliefs if I
returned to a more conventional way
of living. Yet my friend was right in
observing that although ecologically
sound, my current way of living was
not sustainable in terms of my own
human energy levels.
By human energy I mean the physical,
mental and emotional energy that any
www.permaculture.co.uk
 My journey took me to nineteen
different projects, ranging from family
farms to intentional communities,
with many permutations in between.
Features that distinguished individual
projects were the level of sharing in
domestic arrangements (housing, shared
meals), subsistence activities (vegetable
and fruit production, dairy and
firewood collection) and commercial
activities (income generating land
based work). Through informal
interviews with project participants, as
well as observation of daily life, I was
able to compare the human energy
implications of communal and more
individual projects.
THE IMPORTANCE
OF SOCIAL STRUCTURES
From a practical perspective it would
seem that there are many benefits to
living and managing land collectively.
For larger tasks, such as haymaking or
HOW DO OTHER PEOPLE
SUSTAIN THEIR ENERGY?
It was with these ideas that I set off on
my bicycle in April 2005 to visit
communities and organic farms in
France and the United Kingdom. By
living and working at a variety of land
based ecological projects I hoped to
find out how other people manage to
reconcile their ecological principles
and need to derive a livelihood with
their personal energy needs in daily
life. I was particularly interested in
understanding how each project
worked as a whole, integrating
domestic, subsistence and income
generating activities.
www.permaculture.co.uk No. 47
coppicing, many hands make light
work. If you’re trying to avoid fossil
fuel use, a group working harmoniously
together with hand tools can turn what
might be seen as drudgery into a
productive and enjoyable party. The
variety of skills and interests found in
a group potentially lends itself to the
management of the kind of diverse
integrated farming/forestry system
that might be too much for an
individual or couple to manage alone.
However, most people in western
society have grown up in a culture of
individualism, and the surrender of
independence required for communal
living presents serious challenges.
For many people, the extra energy
required to interact and come to
agreement with others on a daily basis
is too great a price to pay for the
benefits of communal life, and they
find it easier to manage the land on
their own.
Top: Brithdir Mawr, where Kate
and her partner Ben run a heritage
seed business, The Real Seed
Catalogue. It takes immense energy
and organisation to combine
community life with running a
landbased business.
Above: Taking the produce of
your labours to the people. Selling
vegetables from a horse drawn cart
in France.
Left: Communal vegetable gardens
are very labour intensive. The level
of sharing in day to day tasks makes
a big difference to the participants’
wellbeing.
Permaculture Magazine 17
 Sharing domestic duties, such as
cooking, can potentially release time
and energy for land based work, whilst
a regular evening meal eaten together
can create a sense of solidarity and
belonging. For me the companionship,
conversations and laughter I’ve enjoyed
over meals at Tinkers Bubble have
often given me as much energy as the
food I was eating! For couples and
families, however, mealtimes often
provide a time of intimacy that is
necessary for their relationships. A
community I visited in Wales enjoy the
best of both worlds, sharing daily
coffee breaks and four evening meals
per week, while on other nights food
is cooked and eaten separately.
On the whole, there was a trend
away from very communal set-ups, requires a solid foundation of trust
where domestic, land management and respect within the group.
and economic activity were shared, Despite the theoretical energy
towards partial community in which efficiency benefits to be gained from
subsistence activity (e.g. domestic living communally, my overall obser-
gardening, milking and firewood vation was that land based projects that
management) was shared while land were succeeding in being commercially
based livelihoods and family accom- viable as well as self-sufficient to a
modation had become more separate. significant degree were those run by
In this way differences in working
patterns could be accommodated Above: Firewood for the Tinkers
whilst individuals still benefited from Bubble communal Rayburn is pulled
the support and co-operation of like- by horse.
minded neighbours. I witnessed a very
successful co-operative arrangement, Right: Drying herbs from the
where a group of young couples from mountains and forests in the French
neighbouring smallholdings came Pyrenees.
together for one day each week to help
each other with larger jobs such as Below: Self-built farmhouse in the
building or ground cultivation. French Pyrenees.
The most harmonious group projects
seemed to be those where thought and
effort had been put into building
trust and agreeing clear objectives
before even purchasing any land. I
was impressed by the maturity of two
couples who had moved onto a
smallholding two years ago after seven
years of discussions and working
together on other projects. They were
in the process of consolidating their
individual on and off-site enterprises
(including a vegetable box scheme,
green woodworking, willow work
and community development work)
into a co-operative, which would pay
each individual the same amount for
a five day work week. Thus, each
partner’s contribution (including for
non remunerative work, such as
childcare) would be valued equally,
a desirable situation yet one which

18 Permaculture Magazine No. 47 www.permaculture.co.uk


individuals or families. These people
tended also to be happier, more
motivated and fulfilled. However, very
few people worked in full isolation
since most family farms have many links
with the wider community.
Above: Fossil free forestry at Tinkers
Bubble, hand cut, horse extracted
and sawn by wood fired steam
sawmill.
Left: French horsepower, using
modern horse drawn tools developed
for Africa.
Below: Communal wood store at
Lauriston Hall. Each community
member does wood duties half a day
a week.
www.permaculture.co.uk No. 47
CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY
Any land based project will at an early
stage have to choose what level of
technology to employ. This will
depend on the scale and aims of the
project. If one aim is to minimise the
fossil fuels used, the available
alternatives include hand tools, horse
traction, wood fuel and power tools
using electricity derived from
renewable sources. Often these
alternatives involve the substitution of
human energy for fossil fuels and can
compromise the economic viability of
the project. Also, a technology may not
use fossil fuels on site, but the oil
embodied in equipment such as solar
panels and plastic mulching materials
is significant. With a personal
commitment to minimising my use of
fossil fuels whilst sustaining my own
energy levels, I was interested to
observe how different combinations of
technologies interplayed with the
energy and enthusiasm that participants
had for the project.
The projects I visited encompassed
a range of small-scale agricultural and
forestry activities, including market
gardening, dairying (goats and cows),
arable, egg production, coppicing and
plantation forestry. The most common
tasks to be undertaken by hand were
garden cultivation and milking of
goats and cows. The only other place
where I found people making hay with
scythes and pitchforks, as we do at my
community, was high in the French
Pyrenees where slopes were too steep
for machinery use. These projects were
mainly focused on subsistence prod-
uction, with little if any surplus being
produced for sale.
To produce vegetables commercially
without using fossil fuels, horse
traction is one option. A couple in
France were cultivating 2 hectares / 5
acres of field vegetables using a system
of horse drawn tools adapted from
modern tractor implements for market
gardens in Africa. Every Friday they
would load up a cart with produce and
travel through the local village, selling
vegetables in the suburbs and outside
the supermarket! I also spent a morning
hoeing onions with a horse drawn
‘scuffler’ at a similar scale market
garden in Wales, where 40 vegetable
boxes are delivered each week by horse
and cart. Unlike a tractor, however, a
horse requires daily attention even
Permaculture Magazine 19
when not being worked, and the
making of its winter ‘fuel’, hay,
usually requires large amounts of
human labour or fossil fuel powered
machinery. Both of the farms I visited
produced their hay with a tractor, but
I know that in Europe and the United
States efficient systems exist for hay
making with hand and/or horse-drawn
tools. On the other hand horses, unlike
tractors, produce manure which might
otherwise have had to be transported
from elsewhere.
Domestic energy is an area where
efficiency is vital if warm, well fed and
energetic workers are to be supported.
Firewood is an obvious option for
cooking, space and water heating, but
can absorb large amounts of time and
people power as it is gathered and
processed into logs if only hand tools
are used. Without an efficient system
for firewood management, one can
spend winter feeling enslaved to
feeding the fire. A central shared fire in
a community can save tonnes of wood
each winter, compared to a series of
stoves blazing in separate households.
Not only are the communal meals
we enjoy at Tinkers Bubble good for
the soul, they also save fuel and wood
cutting time. However for most
people, the need to have a warm
space to be alone from time to time
is as important to their well being as
the need to be efficient. At one com-
munity, several households around a
central courtyard were serviced by
firewood collected by horse and cart
on communal workdays and sawn up
using an electric chainsaw powered
by a large wind generator. Through
collective action and shared resources
they were able to minimise their
domestic fossil fuel use, whilst con-
serving their human energy and
enjoying a mixture of communal
and private leisure time.
A FEW FINAL OBSERVATIONS
My journey taught me many valuable
lessons, which I am now trying to
integrate into my life. The issue of
human energy is complex and subtle,
since it concerns both physical work
and interpersonal relationships. I have
realised that my own energy levels
are best when combining physical
and mental work in a supportive
social environment, and achieving a
sense of momentum in work that I
believe is worthwhile.
Good design and sensible selection
of technology are clearly of para-
mount importance in creating land
based systems which reduce fossil
fuel use whilst nurturing human
energy. Yet I would suggest that the
motivation that comes from a sense
of purpose and belief in a project is
as important as physical parameters.
Each individual needs to be allowed
the space to identify their own
direction and groups appear to work
most harmoniously when approp-
riate technology is combined with
a common vision based on a deep
understanding of individuals’ needs
and desires
Rebecca Laughton is a market gardener
at Tinkers Bubble, where she has lived
for four years. Before that she spent
several years integrating work on a
variety of farms with studying geo-
graphy and sustainable agriculture and
researching local food links.

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20 Permaculture Magazine No. 47 www.permaculture.co.uk