“The Philosophy of Sustainability,” a new course presented by farmer Rich Douglass, will examine what sustainability means and what it will take to reach it in 10 Monday meetings from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

An information and signup meeting is set for 7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 4 at the Canton Free Library. The cost of the course will be $150.

“An inconvenient truth about our American way of life is it’s diametrically opposed to a truly sustainable future,” says Douglass.

He says that our culture “has taught us since infancy that growth, consumption, and money accumulation are not only desirable, but necessary to keep our economy healthy. In order to get to a truly sustainable future, we need a massive paradigm shift to a completely different way of living, and the way we define happiness and success.”

Douglass and his family live at Sow’s Ear Farm, a 160-acre non-electric horse-powered subsistence farm “similar to the Amish,” Douglass says. Over the last 30 years, Douglass has experimented with low-tech living and sustainability.

The course will be in a reading and discussion format. Each student will also work on a self-designed sustainability project.

A reading list will be available at the Sept. 4 meeting.

More info: 379-9145.