It is a familiar battle-cry from greens the planet over. Increasing evidence of the ecological problems generated by industrialisation and over exploitation of natural resources have led many to call for a radical re-think of the way in which we live. The key, he suggests, is to live and work in tandem with nature, rather than battling against her. The centre is far from completed, but Adams manages to be more or less self-sufficient. Water comes from rain collected in containers or channelled into storage barrels off roofs.
Home is a wooden structure covered in canvas - hot in the summer and cold in the winter.
He believes that, with appropriate technology and careful management, the finished centre could keep up to ten people in reasonable comfort and excellent health. Food would be produced by intensive but environmentally-friendly methods, power by harnessing the wind and sun. This is why I stayed, there is much need here. Mixed cropping, careful recycling of all wastes as fertiliser, crop rotation and a judicious guarding of water resources would, Adams believes, provide a rich harvest. Pesticides kill not only harmful insects but those that are useful too.