McFALL, MO, Jul. 22 – A rumor that a group of ‘hippies” was living it up on a farm just south of McFall was more or less nullified when a representative of this newspaper visited the scene last Friday afternoon, approximately 11 month after the Rev. William R. Cole, formerly of Kansas City, and members of his Youth-for-Life organization leased two farms in the area and began raising organic foods for sale in Kansas City. Pictured above checking for insects in some of their 4,000 tomato plants are Linda, 22, at the left, who is a native of Pennsylvania, and has traveled much and calls the United States home, and John Weaver, 19, of Simi Valley, Calif., who is working at the Nubian farms this summer and will return in September to his second semester at Morepark Junior college in Ventura, Calif. The story is below.

Youth-for-Life Flock Raises Food Organically Near McFall

A rumor that a group of “hippies” was living in their reputed, traditional style on a farm just south of McFall sent the editor of this newspaper scurrying to the scene last Friday afternoon — just 11 months late.

The rumor wasn’t without a certain amount of foundation, but it certainly didn’t lead us to what we expected to find. It wasn’t anything like we’ve read about the Haight-Ashbury area in San Francisco or other hippy-lands.

The first thing we found was a large “No Trespassing” sign. That we ignored. Then we found a run-down, ramshackle farm house, an old school bus, one goat, two pigs, one sheep, three rabbits, 100 “crazy” chickens, numerous dogs, two young women and a young man.

That was our introduction to the Nubian farms, which is supervised by the Rev. William R Cole, pastor of the Youth for Life organization, which was chartered in January, 1970, in Kansas City, Mo., by the Calvary Grace Christian church of Faith at Fort Lauderdale, Calif.. and the Rev. Mr. Keck. The latter church is approximately 20 years old.

The Rev. Mr. Cole. who was not present last Friday afternoon. and a group of his followers arrived in the McFall area in August, 1970, with the express aim of making a living by putting organic farming on a paying basis. They leased two separate farms, approximately 200 acres, and two farm houses, then had a pretty rough time getting through a hard winter. They sold wood in Kansas City to make ends meet, no we understand.

Now apparently things are looking up for the Youth for Life members, the changing population of which usually runs around 10 adults and two or three youngsters. They can’t be hippies, because they’ve put in too much labor in their non-profit enterprise of raising food organically. They were working when we arrived, which we’ll admit surprised us. A hippy and work just aren’t compatible. They don’t go together.

With the Rev. Mr. Cole away, we had to gather our information from Linda, 22, who neglected to furnish a last name, who has been on the project since it started last August, and the young man, John Weaver, 19, of Simi Valley, Calif.. who is working at the Nubian farms this summer before returning for his second semester at the Morepark Junior college in Ventura. Calif. The other young woman didn’t care much for it “press” and made no secret of the fact. She did, however, relent long enough to borrow one of our tailor-made cigarettes.

The organic farmers obviously are rolling their own cigarettes until their crops begin producing sorne revenue. We share their hope this won’t be long now.

They put out 4,000 tomato plants, which was less than they hoped to raise this season: five acres of sweet corn, sweet potatoes, soybeans and field corn. The plan is to market their crops in Kansas City, but local purchasers will be welcome. Just ignore the “No Trespassing” sign if you’re a customer.

Organic farming, a mystery to this writer, doesn’t sound too easy. The Rev. Mr. Cole and members of his small, ever-changing flock use only manure for fertilizer and only organic pesticides, which excludes DDT and most of the accepted chemical products of that nature.

The Nubian farms group is working on a pesticide of its own, which apparently uses tobacco, that might some day be marketed on a commercial basis.

The energetic group is not overly supplied with farm equipment. They have a horse-drawn plow, an old Allis-Chalmers tractor, a manure spreader and a few other minor pieces of equipment, such as a chainsaw. The group would be interested in receiving any old farm equipment, especially horse-drawn, that anyone in the area is planning to “junk.” They realize, of course, that antique dealers are latching on to most such items.

There are two other such organic farms operated in much the same manner, minus the religious affiliation, according to Linda. One is near Gallatin; the other in Oklahoma.

This writer did not delve too deeply into the religious aspect of the Youth for Life movement. It’s too easy for us to get in over our head in that phase of our culture. Linda was kind enough to sum it up for us: “Total acceptance of all churches and beliefs with no prejudices at all.”

It was easy to see the young woman was more interested in discussing organic farming – and the good year they hope to have in 1972 with the crops they plan to grow on a much larger scale. The land was far from productive when they leased it, but they’re enriching it with plenty of lime, we learned. So the group is planning ahead.

The only “grass” we saw, incidentally, was being used to mulch the tomato plants, which may or may not prove something. We commented upon leaving that we had not exactly found what we expected to find in conjunction with the rumors we had heard.

“What did you expect to find, wild parties and nearly nude women?” Linda asked, with a twinkel in her eye.

“Nope, not exactly,” we lied like a trooper. “We just didn’t expect to learn so much about organic farming and horse-drawn plows and that sort of thing.”

There’s no doubt in this writer’s mind that the Nubian farm folks live differently than we and most of our readers. Their outlook is different. Their philosophy on life is different. They dress a little differently, but not much. And they seem to work much harder than most of us. Television is on their “taboo” list, by the way.

The McFall businessman who directed us to the unusual organic farm, commented that the Rev. Mr. Cole and the members of his constantly changing flock mind their own business, don’t bother anyone and work like the very dickens to scratch out a living from the soil. He was all for them, we gathered.

So is this writer. Rumors or no rumors, we have to remove them in our mind from the “hippy” class. They’ve worked too hard with too little to fit that classification.

Indications are that what little trouble this small “commune” has experienced is when friends, usually from the Kansas City area, drop by for a weekend visit – like 35 persons did one Sunday.

“That was just too much,” Linda declared with a grimace. “Just too many people.”

The Youth for Life group’s address is McFall, Mo., if you’re interested.