Hesco bags for quick, relatively cheap build?

Hey all,

I found this idea (see below) to quickly (and, potentially, affordably) construct a sort of "earth bag"-type home, and was curious if anyone had any thoughts on it. Pros and cons?

Seems like an interesting idea, but I haven't found anyone who's actually attempted it, and I haven't built any sort of "alternative home" before, so I have zero construction experience myself.

http://busy-livin.blogspot.com/2011/12/hesco-bag-home-construction.html

The concept is good, the execution difficult.
But that does not mean its no good.
Normally the soil needs to be compacted as its stacked, and I dont know how to compact a 9 foot deep bag easily.
If you can call compacting easy!

I'm not sure how well it would work in climates like mine.  The foundation has to be 4' below ground level.  I don't know how you would make a foundation for the bags.  You can't sink them that far or you would have 5' walls :)  You could probably use a rubble trench foundation but it would take an awful lot of material to fill a trench that big.