Living Energy Farm

USA

Living Energy Farm (LEF) is an intentional community, education center, and farm in Virginia (US) that demonstrates that a fulfilling life is possible without the use of fossil fuel. The farm serves as an example and actively promotes lifestyles and technologies that are truly sustainable, and makes these sustainable technologies accessible to all persons regardless of their income or social position, and has been built at modest cost so it can be replicated around the world. LEF empowers people to dramatically reduce their dependence on the corporate economy, and it represents a viable solution to climate change. By employing renewable energy at the community level, LEF shows that we can both radically reduce our need for energy and compensate for the intermittent nature of wind and solar. In addition to local energy self-reliance, LEF also aims towards local organic food self-sufficiency, producing open-pollinated seeds and the majority of its own food, along with farm-grown fuel. At LEF, the guiding ethos is that “cooperation is by far our most important “technology.”

Learn more from the LEF website: https://livingenergyfarm.org/

and here: https://livingenergyfarm.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/foodatlef4.pdf

and this interview of LEF founding member, Alexis Zeigler: https://www.resilience.org/stories/2025-04-10/alexis-zeigler-living-without-fossil-fuels-how-living-energy-farm-created-a-comfortable-off-grid-lifestyle/