Mark Ruffalo's Callicoon

He may be the reincarnation of Marlon Brando, but Mark Ruffalo really just wants to own a cow. NPR pays a visit to Callicoon, where Ruffalo lives in a farmhouse with his family and knows the names of his neighbors. (He already has chickens, but the bovine is in the works, the reporter notes.) 

Ruffalo has been making waves in Sullivan County and nationwide recently for his active opposition to hydraulic fracturing. He visited Dimock, Pennsylvania last month with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In recent interview with AlterNet, he says the Millenium Pipeline runs behind his house, and describes why a farmer-neighbor of his was tempted to lease his land to drilling companies: 

One of my neighbors, I love him, an old farmer, said to me, “I can’t live like this. I want to leave my wife some money so when I die she’ll be OK.“

“Where you going to go after this?” I asked him. He said,“I’m going to Florida.”

I said, “What if I told you I’m working on starting a creamery and red meat processing plant?" He said, “I don’t care. I’m leaving.”

Photo of Mark Ruffalo by gdcgraphics, 2007.