wastebook2014

WASTEBOOK 201416ChroniclingVermont’s RadicalHippie Movement inthe 1970’s$117,521“Nudity, psychedelic drugs and freelove” is how one person remembers life atthe Tree Frog Farm, a Vermont commune.It and other Vermont communes will bethe focus of new federally funded project todocument life among the state’s communalhippie radicals during the 1970’s.The Vermont Historical Societyis launching a two-year project called“Colleges, Communes and Coops: 1970’sCounterculture and Its Lasting Influenceon Vermont” to conduce oral interviewsand collect artifacts from the time period.274 Support for the effort is being providedby the Institute for Museum and LibraryServices in the form of an $117,521 grant. 275With the federal money, “VermontHistorical Society (VHS) will undertakea project to research and document thepolitical, social, and cultural changes of the1970s in Vermont to create a body of primaryresources for this period in Vermont’s statehistory.” 276“In the 1960s and early 1970s,” VHSexplains, “Vermont acquired a reputation forbeing a haven for hippies and a hotbed ofcountercultural communal living.” 277Peter Simon lived on Tree Frog Farmfrom 1970 to 1972, recalling, “The highlightswere the sense that we were doing somethingtotally unique and different, rebelling againstsociety … Getting away from city life wasone of the ingredients. I always liked walkingaround barefoot and going around naked.” 278Life at the Free Farm was similar untilit burned to the ground, remembered onetimeresident Robert Houriet, noting thatthey weren’t always appreciated by thelocals, “‘The Free Farm was in plain view of abuilding where the local Democrats met, andthey got offended by all the weeds and thebare-breasted women.” 279Verandah Porche, a former communedweller who later became a successfulphotographer, summed up her experiencethis way, “In 1968, we were a bunch ofignoramuses … but the commune became avillage.” 28017plusUSDA’s “Perfect Poop Pak”Smells Like Government Waste$50,000One man’s waste may be another man’streasure, but in the case of a $50,000 federalgrant, one animal’s waste has become its owner’streasure.Virginia Mary’s Alpaca, LLC received a$50,000 Value-Added Producer Grant fromthe U.S. Department of Agriculture to process,package and market Alpaca manure as plantfertilizer,” commercially sold as “Poop Paks.” 281The company boasts that its product isthe “perfect POOP.” 282“Packaged in colorful, unmistakablegreen bags,” the Alpaca Poop Paks are “handtiedusing rustic hemp twine and recycled papertags.” 283 Twenty Poop Paks retail for $29.95shipping costs. 284“The” Mary, for which the company andfarm are named, has been winning awards forher alpaca pets for over 15 years. 285 Her 160acre farm located in The Plains, Virginia, ishome to 140 alpacas that she raises and sells(A “roaming” camera will soon be installed tobroadcast the movements of the alpacas liveon the internet). 286Of course, buying and selling Alpaca manureas fertilizer is not new. It is widely availablefrom retailers online and from those whomay have pet alpacas. It has become a popularfertilizer, in part, because it doesn’t smellas bad as other types of waste, unlike the foulodor of misspent tax dollars.18Virginia Mary’s Alpaca received a $50,000 USDA grant to process, package and market alpaca “Poop Paks.” 287