Since the mid-1980’s, Douglas has been the principle media interface for The Farm Community, working with writers and producers to create dozens of news stories for print. He has been interviewed on radio and appeared in numerous and television shows and documentaries. Although most of his work is behind the scenes, below are a number of articles, radio and television interviews in which he features prominently.
To see these and other articles about The Farm Community, visit the Press Listings page on The Farm’s web site.
2016 The Ledger, Nashville, TN The Farm Still Thrives After 45 Years
2016 The Ledger, Nashville, TN Outreach, from Midwifery to Foreign Aid
2016 News Ch 2, Nashville, TN Making Salsa with Douglas Stevenson
2016 CNN United Shades of America, Off the Grid
2015 Lawrence Co Advocate An Original Member of The Farm Shares Its Story
2015 Democrat Union, Lawrenceburg, TN A book review and interview with Douglas Stevenson
2014 Mountain Xpress Author Douglas Stevenson at Malaprops Bookstore
2012 CNN American Journey
The Atlantic, 2011: Douglas Stevenson, a 57-year-old former Farm manager and unofficial spokesman for the community, said that for many, communal living was a youthful experiment rather than a lifelong commitment. Because so many young adults joined communes in the 1960s and 1970s, it followed that they left en masse in the 1980s when they grew older.”
“There were people who were in it for the long haul and those that weren’t,” said Stevenson. ” It’s like hair. There were the people who grew out their hair and it became their life and the people who had long hair then they had curly hair then they had short hair and it wasn’t a whole lifestyle change.”
Asked about what will happen when age and illness takes more of the population, very few on the Farm seem worried. “We started off communally,” said Stevenson, “and we’ll probably go back to more communal living with people who are in better shape taking care of people in less better shape.”
Memphis Flier, 2007: “We’re trying to create a space where our kids feel welcome,” Stevenson says. “We want them to settle down here, because in addition to green building, sustainability is about how to pass on ideals from one generation to the next. When we’re dead and gone, we’d like for them to stay here and carry on.”
LA Times, 2004: “The Farm may have relinquished the free-floating exuberance of youth, but perhaps it has acquired an equally valuable idealism of another vintage. “Now The Farm has the wisdom of older people,” said Douglas Stevenson, the 30-year Farm veteran who steered the Swan Creek project to fruition. “That kind of experience helps guide you to success. It’s one thing we didn’t have in the old days.”
USA Today 1991: “I want to do things that make a difference,” says Douglas Stevenson, who makes videos in a trailer studio behind his home. “I want to make educational things. It gives me a good feeling to know I am putting out a message.”
USA Today, 1991, Douglas, second from the left
The Daily Statesman, Columbia, KY, 1975 A Spiritual Community in Pellyton