JAYFORCE

Huts, tents, and lean-toes… hand-made tools and Mad Max style construction and farming equipment… and canned goods and toiletries from Wal-Mart? Seeing this outside a Missouri town, you’d be thinking one of three things:

1. What the f##k??
2. No really, WHAT THE F##K??!!
3. Hmmm… something here is… off. Dialing Homeland Security RIGHT NOW!

But hold the phone…

‘Marcin Jakubowski’s 30-acre compound near Maysville, Mo., is named Factor e Farm. The goal is to create a completely self-sufficient community that produces not only its own food, but also energy, tools (that is, a minimum set of machines necessary to sustain a modern civilization), and raw materials for making those tools.’

– Ashlee Vance

So, Marcin and his people are up to good, not ‘no good.’ In a way though, this looks like what it is, a bunch of folks who have gone ‘off the grid.’ But do not make the mistake of following that thinking with thoughts of cult combine, domestic terrorist encampment, very creative homeless shelter… Rather, many of the world’s brightest have joined Marcin – for short visits or the long haul – to learn by doing and teach. What do they want to learn (and teach)? How to survive and re-build ‘off the grid.’ Moreover, the applications (beyond a real post-apocalypse) could prove very useful to people today.  Marcin and his folks look to create a DVD (called a ‘Civilization Starter Kit’) that will document how individuals could make tools and equipment like tractors and a brick press from scratch for comparatively little or no cost in today’s world. In a post-apocalyptic world, cost would not matter… because money would not matter, right?

A word about basic needs on the current Factor e Farm: What about FOOD? Well, they are working on that (but it’s mostly store-bought for now). Clothing? Folks apparently wore what they had. Shelter? If you build it, you can sleep in it. And air-conditioning? Well, it was hot as f##k (hey, going shirtless means less wear on clothes); according to Businessweek reporter Ashlee Vance. Maybe they’ll eventually get fans. According to Ms. Vance, they’ll need something, as the place had it’s own… smell.

Hey, it’s a dirty job; but I believe Marcin and Factor e Farm can do it! See the awesome TED Talk Marcin gave on Factor e Farm after the jump.

READ ASHLEE VANCE’S FULL BUSINESSWEEK ARTICLE HERE.

– @ojones1
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