David Lee Hoffman is an American tea importer. He also founded and directs The Last Resort, an ecology research center, and The Phoenix Collection, a personal tea collection.

History

David Lee Hoffman is a self-promoted 'tea guru' and was as a vocal importer and public promoter of Chinese teas to the West, particularly puer teas. In the early 1970s he began importing puer teas from

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, and eventually ventured into remote regions in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

to seek out the fine, rare, and wild teas. Hoffman is the subject of filmmaker Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht's 2007 documentary All in This Tea. In 2004 Hoffman sold Silk Road Tea company and now runs The Last Resort and The Phoenix Collection. Several Tibetan monks later contributed to the construction and creation of Hoffman's eastern-inspired sustainable research center in

Lagunitas, California Lagunitas (''Laguna'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Little lagoons") is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Marin County, California, Marin County, California. It is located southwest of Novato, California, Novato, at an eleva ...

, which he calls "The Last Resort".NY Times April 23, 2012-"In Hippie Holdout, a Fight Over Worms and Moats"
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The Last Resort

Hoffman lives and works at a complex of home and business buildings he dubbed "The Last Resort" in

. The mission of The Last Resort is to improve sustainable methods for waste management,

water reuse Water reclamation is the process of converting municipal wastewater or sewage and industrial wastewater into water that can be reused for a variety of purposes. It is also called wastewater reuse, water reuse or water recycling. There are many ty ...

, and

food security Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, healthy Human food, food. The availability of food for people of any class, gender, ethnicity, or religion is another element of food protection. Simila ...

. Using his research into vermiculture (worm composting), Hoffman created "the worm palace," a system that converts all household waste to high grade fertilizer, as part of Hoffman's quest for a "super soil". Hoffman first presented the benefits of vermiculture to the International Symposium on Earth Worm Ecology in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

in 1994. Hoffman has also installed a

greywater Greywater (or grey water, sullage, also spelled gray water in the United States) refers to domestic wastewater generated in households or office buildings from streams without fecal contamination, i.e., all streams except for the wastewater fro ...

system, a two-vault

composting toilet A composting toilet is a type of dry toilet that treats human waste by a biological process called composting. This process leads to the decomposition of organic matter and turns human waste into compost-like material. Composting is carried out b ...

using a simple design formerly approved by the state, and solar systems at The Last Resort. The Last Resort is also known by Hoffman as a 'living history of architectural research', where for over the past 40 years he has directed the construction of over 25 eclectic structures that constitute the complex, using low-cost and recycled materials and building techniques he learned throughout his travels.

References

External links

Official Website of THE LAST RESORT
*[http://www.businessinsider.com/tour-david-hoffmans-sustainable-home-before-its-demolished-2012-7?op=1#ixzz25Op2E6WY Tour The Epic Sustainable Home That California Is About To Demolish, Business Insider, July 23, 2012]
David Hoffman's Lagunitas home a work of art or a dangerous eyesore? Marin Independent Journal, July 24, 2012All in this Tea: Les Blanks' Return, Village Voice, June 24, 2008The Imminent Destruction of Worm Palace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, David Lee Living people American architects American ecologists American educators Businesspeople in tea Year of birth missing (living people)