I kept meaning to watch American Commune because I'm interested in intentional communities. I actually didn't like one of the sisters at first - I believe her name is Nadine, rather than Rena - because she expressed such embarrassment of her hippie parents and life on a commune, and I thought "what a shallow person, her upbringing apparently didn't affect her enough" but later in the documentary a big reveal is that in their middle school years/early teens, Rena and Nadine were relocated to their upper middle class grandparents' home in Los Angeles. I can see how at that age it would not only be a culture shock, but instill an extreme sense of shame and alienation in the world of LA and Santa Monica in the 1980s and early 90s. In fact, I found myself relating to the sisters more and more, since I too lived in LA as a young adult (though not in my teens) after spending the first 10 years of my life on a rural dirt road in a log cabin in West Virginia. I admitted to myself that I had developed some of the same defense mechanisms, and felt a similar sense of confusion about my identity until I was about 35 years old because of it. And I didn't even grow up on a commune. So it must have been a real struggle for them.
The commune itself is so deeply fascinating, I want to learn more about it. I couldn't believe how much charity work they did and still continue to do, that The Farm still makes an impact on the world at large. I am disappointed that they were not able to make it work, and transform into a different kind of working intentional community. There is an intentional community nearby the original farm, but it reeked of capitalism to me. There must be something in between the two extremes.
What was incredibly moving was to see the outpouring of love and financial support Nadine received while suffering from cancer, given by former members of the commune. Just a really amazing documentary to watch, I highly recommend it.
I do wonder though as a former vegan, how they were all so healthy on a strict whole foods plant-based vegan diet without any B12 supplements. It seems strange to me that so many healthy children were born and raised vegan without supplementation. Maybe I'm missing something, maybe they did take vitamins, because their diet mainly seemed to consist of soy beans, grains, vegetables, fruits, a little bit of sugar, tortillas, and soy milk, all produced on the farm.
EDIT: I looked up The Farm and The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook (the original Farm Vegetarian Cookbook published in 1975) shows that B12 supplementation came from nutritional yeast. I should have known, but I was very curious about it.
The commune itself is so deeply fascinating, I want to learn more about it. I couldn't believe how much charity work they did and still continue to do, that The Farm still makes an impact on the world at large. I am disappointed that they were not able to make it work, and transform into a different kind of working intentional community. There is an intentional community nearby the original farm, but it reeked of capitalism to me. There must be something in between the two extremes.
What was incredibly moving was to see the outpouring of love and financial support Nadine received while suffering from cancer, given by former members of the commune. Just a really amazing documentary to watch, I highly recommend it.
I do wonder though as a former vegan, how they were all so healthy on a strict whole foods plant-based vegan diet without any B12 supplements. It seems strange to me that so many healthy children were born and raised vegan without supplementation. Maybe I'm missing something, maybe they did take vitamins, because their diet mainly seemed to consist of soy beans, grains, vegetables, fruits, a little bit of sugar, tortillas, and soy milk, all produced on the farm.
EDIT: I looked up The Farm and The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook (the original Farm Vegetarian Cookbook published in 1975) shows that B12 supplementation came from nutritional yeast. I should have known, but I was very curious about it.