To Own & Use or Not To Own & Use A Car

"To be or not to be, that is the question."



Actually, no it isn't; not for me at this precise moment in time.  As a Christian determined to live a sustainable lifestyle the question is whether I own a car at all and, if so, about when it is and isn't appropriate or sensible for me to use it.



I do own a car, a W registered Ford Mondeo Ghia X as it happens.  On old but very comfortable vehicle that does reasonably well at 42 miles per gallon on a good run, driven economically and sensibly.  Which reminds me of a tip I was given about 2nd hand cars.  If you buy a second hand car buy the top of the range model with all the extras; at second hand prices the cost is the same.



The question arises, of course, as to whether I actually need to own a car.  Could I manage without one?



Well, I spend my time as a Methodist Minister in a rural and semi-rural circuit near Leeds.  Travelling just between the churches I have pastoral oversight of can mean journeys of thirty or so miles a day.  There is no bus service to or between the villages I travel to and time constraints (as well as the asthma I suffer from) mean that cycling would not be practical.  In my case I do need a car for some of my journeys in God's service.  If I ministered in an urban or city area with a frequent bus service, or with short distances involved, I could probably manage without a car and maybe use a bike or walk.  I will certainly review the situation when I move on from my present station.



But owning a car does not mean that I always have to use it.  For journeys of two or so miles I can just as easily walk.  It is far too easy to just hop into the car and drive around to the shops, or drive to one if my churches on a Sunday which is about 3/4 of a mile away.  I don't do that anymore, I walk.



For longer journeys, when time allows and there is an appropriate route, I use the local bus service.  Sure, it takes a little longer and the times aren't always as convenient, but if I go on the bus it's one less car clogging up the road and belching out pollutants.  Besides which, bus journeys give me a chance to do some reading.  Oddly, I've found that if I wear my clerical collar on a bus nobody sits next to me (this works on trains too).



Really long journeys should be taken by train, of course, but as a Minister I have to watch the spending and nukes I know well in advance that I'm travelling it's much cheaper to travel long distance by car.  I feel guilty about this sometimes, but also have to be financially realistic.  I can do Leeds to London and back in the car for about £60.  I just can't do it for anything less than about £89 by train, unless I know well in advance that I'm travelling.



I have wrestled with the size of car I own and thought about replacing it with a more fuel efficient and theoretically less polluting model.  However, I have found that my current 2 litre engined car is actually more fuel efficient than my previous 1.6 litre engined car.  Weird but true.  New card cost the environment in their manufacture and still cause pollution - even electric cars because they still need electricity to power them, which is still mostly generated using fossil fuels.  All the advice I've been given is that it's greener to continue an existing car rather than purchase a new one.  So I'll be sticking with my old Mondeo.



What about you? Do you think I've got this right?  Do you need your car or could you live without it?

The Temptation of the Takeaway!

One of the things I’ve enjoyed in my life over the years is a good takeaway.  I love that classic British takeaway, fish and chips.  I’m quite a fan of the doner kebab, but only from one takeaway, Cyprus, in the market town of Poulton Le Fylde.  I quite like McDonalds burgers these days now that they taste of beef instead of, well, nothing really.  And I love KFC, Chinese and pizzas.

One of the things I had to think really seriously about as I embark on living a self-sufficient and green life is whether takeaway meals can form a part of that new life.  Quite apart from the fact that the takeaway meal is almost the complete opposite of self-sufficiency there are a whole host of factors to consider.

The first issue is that where I am buying food as opposed to growing it myself, which at the moment is pretty much all of it except bread, it is my intention to buy local food and where ever possible organic food.  I am almost certain that the food served by the big takeaway chains is not, on the whole, locally sourced and it certainly isn’t organic.  It falls at the first hurdle.

The second issue is one of traceability and animal welfare.  If I buy beef from my local butcher he can tell me where is has come from and how the livestock on the farm is treated.  I have yet to find a local source of organic beef, but at least I know that the beef I eat is local and that the cows it comes from have been treated well.  Can the same be said of a fast food burger?

What of one of my favourites, KFC?  Well, in their favour their website states that “Our chickens are raised in barns where they are free to roam. All our original recipe chicken on the bone comes from British and Irish farms and bears the Red Tractor symbol guaranteeing standards of quality and welfare. And all our suppliers, all over the world, are held to the exact same standard.  All our suppliers in the UK and Ireland make sure the chickens have natural light coming in from windows in the barns; wooden perches and hay bales for exercise and nesting; and pecking objects. We're working with our suppliers to see some of these enrichment methods introduced in our suppliers' farms overseas as well.”  This is good, but how many food miles are used to get that chicken to the restaurant?  These welfare standards are better than some, but they are not free range chickens.  Neither are they organic chickens.  In good conscience can I, as somebody who is trying to be self-sufficient and live ethically buy KFC?  The answer has to be a reluctant ‘no’!

It takes more effort, but what could be better and safer than preparing your own equivalent to takeaway food?  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall championed this idea in one of his River Cottage series on Channel 4. 

My bread machine makes fantastic pizza dough which I can top with fresh, organic, local ingredients (and eventually home produced ingredients).  I may even build a clay wood fired pizza oven in the garden! 

Free range and even organic chicken can be sourced locally in most areas and can be prepared and cooked in all sorts of ways, including the use of home grown organic herbs and garlic.  Chips can be made at home in the fryer from freshly peeled and cut organic potatoes.

Burgers can be made at home from organic or local ethically raised meat, seasoned with chopped home grown organic onions and enclosed in homemade bread buns.

Fresh sustainable fish can be bought from a fishmonger and fried in homemade beer batter (batter made from organic ingredients and home brew beer).

I’ve yet to try a homemade equivalent of a Doner kebab, but when I do I’ll let you know.

The fight against the takeaway temptation is hard though.  Only this morning I was driving from Poulton Le Fylde to Otley when I stopped off at McDonalds for a sausage muffin.  It was only when I was half way through it that I realised what I was eating.  It’s so easy to slip back into bad habits…..

Making A Start: Baking Bread

So, assuming that you've decided to make a start on Self-sufficient green living, where to actually begin.



It may depend on the time of year.  Some people might rush out into the garden and start digging over their useless lawns to make productive organic vegetable beds.  Others might start a brew of wine or beer.  Still others might go through their cupboards and throw away all the environment harming cleaning products they own.



The first thing I decided to do, something that most people are perfectly capable of going, was to bake my own bread.



I will admit that I use a bread machine for part of the process: for the initial mixing of the ingredients and for kneading the dough.  I was fortunate that we bought a bread machine several years ago which, apart from occasional use, has spent most of its life living in a cupboard.  You can buy a new bread machine for around £50:00, though there are both cheaper and more expensive models available.  I've also seen them in charity shops for £10 to £20.



You don't need a bread machine to make bread if course.  Many people mix and knead their dough the old fashioned way, by hand, and gain great satisfaction from doing so.  I use the machine for mixing and kneading because I can put the ingredients in and then go off and get on with something else whilst the bread maker does its work.  Hand mixing and kneading is cheaper and more environmentally friendly since the bread machine uses electricity.  Which method you decide to use is up to you.  For me, the machine is a compromise because as a busy minister time can be one thing I'm sometimes very short of.



So, why make your own bread when it is do easy to just walk into a supermarket or bakers and buy it?  Partly because when you make it yourself you know exactly what had gone into it.  When I bake my bread it has a few simple ingredients: organic bread flour, organic butter, organic milk (just a very tiny amount, it helps the bread to brown), filtered water, salt, Fairtrade sugar (I've yet to find a source of organic Fairtrade sugar) and yeast.  That's it.  That's all you need for bread,  Look at the ingredients if the average supermarket bread.  You find additions like soya flour, dextrose, emulsifiers:E471, E472e, flour treatment agent And calcium proportionate.  These extra ingredients are not their for thief health benefits or to make the bread better; there are there to enable the bread to be made more quickly and packaged whilst still warm, thus increasing the profits of the bread making companies.



E471 is a synthetic oil whose side effects include kidney problems and liver problems.  E472e also has similar side effects.  Calcium propritionate is an anti fungal and is slightly toxic.  It can cause migraine in some people (I am one of them).  It has also been linked to stomach disorders and behavioural changes.



It's worth baking your own bread because you know exactly what has gone into it.  It's worth baking your own bread because it can be cheaper than buying it.  Ok, there are sometimes some very cheap breads out there, but they are not good in either texture or taste.  It's worth baking your own bread for the lovely smell of baking bread that pervades the house.  It's worth it for the sense of satisfaction you gain from eating something nutritious and delicious that you've made yourself.  Perhaps most of all, it's worth it when you cut a slice from a still warm loaf and spread it with butter that melts into the bread as you eat it!



There are many good books that will tell you how to bake bread, as well as Paul Hollywood's recent BBC series.



If you want to make a start on the road of self-sufficient green living then baking your own bread is a good first step.

Why Self-Sufficient Green Living?

At the outset of this blog I must be honest and admit that I am not writing as an expert in either self-sufficiency or green living.  In fact I’m very much the opposite and am just starting out, but I thought it might be useful for others if I documented my successes and inevitable failures and what I have learned along the way.

I write this as a Christian Minister who serves in the British Methodist Church.  Immediately, at the outset, I have to address the question of whether self-sufficiency is compatible with Christian discipleship.  After all, Christianity is about community; it is about loving the Lord our God with all our mind, heart, soul and strength and loving our neighbour as ourselves.  In some ways the words self-sufficiency imply a withdrawal from society and self-isolation.  Actually, I believe that is a false impression.  Over the past few weeks I’ve read every book on self-sufficiency I could get my hands on and all have a great sense of community and involvement with others. 

Self-sufficiency is about growing your own fruit and vegetables, perhaps having livestock (I’m thinking about chickens and bees), making food from raw ingredients, brewing wine, beer and cider at home, perhaps providing your own energy, mending things rather than just replacing them and so on.  None of these things has to be done in isolation; indeed it is helpful and beneficial to involve others, perhaps by giving them a gift of your surplus produce or by sharing skills etc.

If there is a question mark about self-sufficient Christian living, which I hope I’ve briefly covered, then there should be no question mark over Christians living sustainably, living as ‘green’ a life as they can.  It is obvious from page after page of the Bible that our God cares very much about the earth he has created, about all the living animals, birds, fish, insects and plants; about a creation He pronounced to be ‘good’.  Walter Brueggemann commented “the central vision of world history in the Bible is that all creation is one, every creature in community with every other; living in harmony and security toward the joy and well-being of every other creature.” (Living Towards A Vision, page 15)  Our actions and choices about how we live our lives can potentially affect not only the other human beings we share this planet with, including future generations, but also the other living creatures God has made.

If I drive my car when I could have walked or used public transport I have added to the pollution that many scientists claim is causing global warming; and certainly to the pollution that makes it more difficult for people to breathe clean air.  If I use bleach to clean my toilet (as opposed to one of the plant based eco-alternatives) I am adding to the chemical pollution of precious water resources.  If I buy eggs from battery chickens I am contributing to the suffering of creatures created and given life by God.  If I buy food that has been grown using chemical fertilisers then I am contributing to the pollution of precious life giving soil.  I could go on, but I think you get the general picture and I’ll be writing much more about these things as the weeks go by.

It is one thing to have one’s conscious pricked by these things; it is another to do something about them.  I was captivated by a TV programme a few years ago. It Isn’t Easy Being Green, presented by Dick Strawbridge. This was a programme about both green living and self-sufficiency; the two often seem to go together.  After watching it I was inspired to live differently, but soon slipped back into old, bad habits.  This time it will be different, this time I have truly repented of the selfish consumerist lifestyle that seems to drive the vast majority of people in Britain today to the ultimate detriment of not only others and our environment, but themselves as well.