Small Revolutions: Voluntary Simplicity in Devon

Rising Energy Prices call for Efficiency

uSwitch and Martin's Money Tips have respectively emailed me in the past two weeks. The first predicts as worst case scenario of a 46% price rice in gas & energy prices and a best case of 10%. The second predicted a 35% price rise.

I've no idea whether switching from one supplier to another will make any difference, but here are some things we can do to reduce fuel bills:

Electricity

• Turn off wireless modems when not being used
• Unplug mobile phone chargers
• Switch off anything at the wall with a standby
• Use low energy lightbulb
• Only boil the water in the kettle you need
• Switch computers off / into sleep modes
• Do short washes in your washing machine

I'm good at this lot. With OCD and a thing about plugs, it's dead easy. Small appliances may not seem like big things - but their cumulative effect really mounts up.

Gas

• Use your microwave more, your oven less for basic reheating
• Use a lid on pots to retain heat
• Turn off radiators in rooms you don't use
• If the flame licks up the sides, the heat is too high or the pot too small
• Let things cook in residual heat

Water

And just for good measure, let's save water too. I argued about our direct debit level when we moved here. The water company wanted it higher. Now, even though we're paying the lower monthly level, our account is at least £20 in credit.

• Flush the toilet when you need to, not every time
• Have showers instead of baths
• Don't have the tap running when you brush your teeth or wash your dishes

Now, more than ever, if we use our energy and resources inefficiently, we'll be working to earn money which simply goes down the drain (or up the flue).

There's another load of tips which you can use for more efficient driving (I'm expecting fuel prices to soar too) - apparently it is possible to save 40% of your petrol bill - but I will blog this another time.

Food Crisis: The Silent Tsunami

I've been meaning to write more about the food crisis, but I've been studying for my massage exams coming up soon, so it's bee a little quite on this front.

The next thing I was going to mention in my exploration of food was something Mahatma Gandhi espoused. He said that people should try to look after themselves. If they could not, then the family should look after them. And if the family cannot look after them, the village should. And if the village couldn't the region should etc.

In short, he espoused self-reliance and autonomy at the most local level possible.

Particularly in the developing world, I believe that developing countries are better off developing their internal economies and their internal level of affluence at the most local level. Because the globalised market is pitted against them.

Take supermarkets sourcing vegetables for example. They don't buy from poor individuals, they buy from large companies that pay lots of workers small wages. The trickle down effect of wealth is negligible particularly if individuals and families, becoming landless through the process of industrialisation - then sink below the level of subsistence because they can no longer grow their own food or forage on common land.

These people would be far better off if they had some land on which they could grow food, and  be able participate in small scale economic activities and production on a local level as part of a local economy, rather than being employed by large companies and the smallest and least powerful units in a massive globalised industrial complex.

Globalisation was supposed to make everyone richer.

My professional insight and analysis of this is this: bollocks. It was designed to leverage open national economies across the world to the clutches of large companies seeking new markets, cheaper labour with fewer human rights, supporting their transnational expansion.

Globalisation was supposed to work because of "comparative advantage theory". In short, we all do what we're best at. On a superficial level, it sounds quite smart. I mean, no-one can be good at everything so it;s good to share jobs out.

That's as may be in a town or a city with people, but on a global level it doesn't work for a number of reasons - prior accumulation of capital and information advantage through colonisation of countries; inequal distribution of world resources (forests, minerals, raw materials); different weather patterns etc. etc.

So it ends up being like this: one country which has already got the money and resources, technical knowledge and capital, starts producing computer chips. Then another country without the benefit of similar development and support and resources, gets to be good at making bananas. Who do you think is going to turn out to be richest?

I think that in the long term (and this is quite apart from the forthcoming necessity as a condition of peak oil) we are all better off by becoming more local. Because local economies are going to be what matters in the post carbon age.

In the age of peak oil and resource depletion, efficiency is key. And with spiralling fuel and food prices, globalised economics will actually come to be seen as a bloated, wasteful and inefficient means of meeting our real, basic needs.

To meet the coming challenges, we need to localise our food production, and localise to the closest possible unit - like Mahatma Gandhi's sentiments above. This has happened with Cuba in its (albeit artificial) experience of peak oil. Something like 50% of Havana's vegetable food is produced within Havana itself.

The best way of maintaining food security will be for it to be produced as close to home as possible. Local independence and self-reliance unhitches people from the trials and the uncertainty of global food economics.

Which is why I think we should all be growing our own, and participating localised food economies.

Although it's more contingent for people in developing countries to start moving towards food independence, it's only slightly less relevant for us here in the UK because we're richer. The changes will certainly hit us where it hurts sooner or later.

And I've wondered for a long time whether all this isn't just crazy thinking and maybe I'm some crazed doomster survivalist just itching for societal breakdown.

But then I read this evening on the BBC that the results of a UNESCO report cites a healthy proportion of what I'm saying here. The WTO chief says aid should focus on improving agriculture.

It's late and I'm not sure I have an easy conclusion to all of this. Perhaps I'll just leave it there for tonight.

But I am interested in your opinions. What do you think about food crises being reported around the world? What's the solution? I'd love to hear from you.

 

Being Poor

Financially things are a bit tight right now. Downshifting isn't rosy all the time, and it;s a struggle to save for our wedding in August as well as make sure I have transport to work (purchasing a secondhand moped) and pay off overdrafts.

In money terms, we're poor.

Cliche as it is, we're so much richer in other ways.

Life is no longer about working like a dog and deferring pleasure to some dubious and vague future endpoint. I am living my happiness right now - I am no longer waiting for it to arrive.

Devon is beautiful. and I'm working outside on a farm doing as close to my dream job as it is possible to be (the only difference being that one day, I hope to do similair things with my own land and make a living from it).

There are compromises of course. Things we can't afford, wants that can't be satisfied without the money we haven't got. But it's ok!

Last week, we managed to get 16 meals out of a free range chicken! But every meal was truly delicious (chicken, pumpkin and soya bean barley risotto were the first two, then stir fried wholemeal noodles, and the bones and bits were boiled and made 12 lunches).

I love the buddhist phrase "you only have moments to live". It invokes a brief sense of urgency when you read it one way. But if you only had a few moments left, you'd try to be totally present, experiencing the life that was there, rather than wishing yourself somewhere else. And then you read it the other way - that despite our habit of drawing a line from past to present to future, both the future and the past are not really real - they're only in our minds as anticipation and memory traces. So really all we have are a series of interconnected presents, moments if you will.

Since this life change there have been more moments. Moments when I have stopped to look at sunsets and sunrises, or watch a marvellous earthworm wriggle on my hand. Moments just cuddling up in bed and not wanting for anything. Moments where I am happy to be just here, without wishing myself anywhere else.

I can't honestly say when else I have been happier in my whole life.

So, for moments anyway, those bills don't mean flip.

I know that there is someone lonely executive at my bank who is minted to all hell, not a debt in the world, eminently enviable. And he doesn't have a sniff of the happiness I experience every day.

Every day now I am ready to die because I know I am living my moments on the right path. And may that continue until I get very old and wrinkled like a prune, with my bones barely hanging together.

Voluntary Simplicity Reconsidered

My ideas about voluntary simplicity have evolved in the past year.

Over a year ago, I think it was largely couched in terms of "Freedom from..." Freedom from stress, being in an unhappy job, chronic back pain, not being where I wanted to be, being in a built up busy city. It was largely hinged upon negatives

Now the picture is different. Voluntary simplicity for me has a changed meaning and is about all this:

• The most efficient means of being happy in any given situation. 80/20 thinking - taking the least effort to produce the greatest personal happiness.
• Regulating desire - by deliberately wanting less and questioning consumerism as a culture I've found myself more easily satisfied with less. I have to work less hard to be happy.
• Being mindful - meditation and studying buddhism has taught me (intellectually at least) that there is only one place that exists. And that's here and now. So I don't bank all my hopes on a future that may never arrive. I try my best as often as I can to be present, here and now, experiencing this. Although I'm only at the beginning of discovering this, I have found that somehow I have more 'moments', like this famous quote:

“If I had my life to live over, I’d try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I’d be sillier than I have been on this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would be less hygienic. I would take more chances. I would take more trips. I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets. I would burn more gasoline. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones.

 

You see, I’m one of those people who lives sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I’ve had my moments and if I had my life to live over, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead each day. I’ve been one of those people who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a rain coat and a parachute. If I had my life to live over, I’d go places and do things and travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over I would start barefoot earlier in the spring & stay that way later in the fall. I would play hooky more. I wouldn’t make such good grades, except by accident. I’d ride more merry-go-rounds. I’d pick more daisies.”

-Nadine Starr

I can't say that I've made all the best decisions, or that life is perfect or anything like that. I'm not always happy and far from being permanently serene and zen about life. But somehow, and it's not even to do with where I am, there's been a big change.

Fundamentally, I think it's simply that I have learnt how to be more here and now. The moments have always been happening but I've just been too embroiled in my thoughts and delving into the mud of past memories and the spectres of futures to come, that I never really paid enough attention to here.

And rather than living frugally, or downshifting, or working on the land (all of which I am doing) it's this particular thing, this training, that has given a different surface, texture, quality to my experience of life.

It's crazy, really. Because all I do is sit in front of my light box with a cup of tea and try to follow my breath. And my mind runs off like a puppy. I acknowledge that, then come back.

That's all I do.

But for me, now, it's become the basis of a simplicity that I had never imagined.

I've spent so much of my life zoning out when I've been unhappy, or getting drunk, or going to sleep as an escape, or reading books, or immersing myself in dreams about what I want to happen in the future, or putting shovelfuls of hope into dreams and schemes. I was numbing out, avoiding.

But now I am learning to be here. And it's remarkable.

Sometimes when I get here, it's all so ordinary yet all completely transformed and miraculous.

In 2008, I plan to be 'here' more often.

It's the only place to be.

Microwaved

Because using a microwave is more efficient than using an oven of a hob, we've finally decided to invest in one for reheating food. It  feels weird (just two dials and a button to open the door) so it should last us for many years to come.

Woohoo! Ginger Beer Plant!!

This week I've received a wonderful present through the post from Mel at beansprouts - a genuine ginger beer plant.

It's settled in nicely, and is living in an old golden syrup jar.

What I've read about the culture is really amazing. It's really a symbiotic mixture of organisms such as Saccharomyces florentinus and Lactobacillus hilgardii. They form globules of jelly, looking a bit like candied ginger or something but a lot softer.

So within a week or so I should be ready to start brewing my own ginger beer.

One thing left, I have to give it (them?) a name. What about Simba, as in symbiant?
 

Fresh Mackerel

I was pleased to find out that on the Devon coast you can actually fish for mackerel from the shore. If any seasoned anglers are reading this, I would forgive them for shaking their heads.

But that's actually the extent that most people in the UK are disconnected from their food today.

I've never shown the slightest interest in fishing, but now it looks like there's a possibility of catching food, my ears have pricked up. The promise of free food, the chase betwixt hunter and hunted, man against the elements - all that stuff.

So when we get down there, I'm going to start fishing to catch food. I have no idea how to do it, but I've found a great guide that's helping me no end called Torbay Fishing.

Does anyone know of anything else I can catch from the shore?

Free Book Download: Plan B 2.0 - Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble

Every now and then you come across a book and you want to buy everyone you know a copy of it. This is one of those books.

We know what the problems are for the planet. Now it's time to get behind a solution.

Written by the president of the Earth Policy Institute, Lester Brown, it's an examination of the problems we face right now and how we can make the transition to a new economy which is sustainable - without overshoot, without collapse - and solving third world poverty at the same time.

I haven't read it all yet, and I will review it when I have finished it, but so far this book does what no other book I've read so far has done: it's putting together all the solutions we know we already have, and envisioning them on a planetary scale.

It is big picture stuff. It's about solutions and not problems.

More than ever, we need a shared vision which we can buy into collectively - at all levels - because too many of us just feel like 'individuals doing our bit' which can be lonely sometimes, and frustrating when we see the prevalence of the problems.

More than ever we need the hope and the optimism that we can really bring about change in a cogent and structured way. This book shows how it could all knit together in a plan for a new economy - Plan B.

Whether you buy a copy of Plan B 2.0 - Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble or you download chapters for free it's a book I think will be very important.

I'll try and review it in the next two weeks, but you can dip in and out of it and judge for yourself by visiting the Plan B 2.0 minisite at the Earth Policy Institute.

Free & Subsidised UK Composting, Wormery & Water Butt Schemes.

I am so unbelievably impressed with Hackney Council right now. In the past few weeks they have implemented a blue box scheme for compostable waste. It's composted in Edmonton - which is just 7 miles away and the result is used by the council in local parks and suchlike.

Now, I was in bed with a cup of tea thinking (as I am wont to do) about stuff this morning. I worked out that if just 1 in 10 people in Hackney composted just 2.5kg of vegetable waste each week, it would save the transportation of 2.6 million kilos of waste around the borough each year, reducing our carbon footprint even further.

So I phone up Hackney council asking about subsidised or free (here's hoping) home composting bins. It turns out they have a deal with a company called Original Organics Ltd in Devon. Not only do they offer composting bins substantially subsidised by Hackney Council, they also offer heavily subsidised wormeries. Woohoo!

I have always, and forever, wanted a wormery but never bought one as they have been quite expensive (I have seen models selling for £80 and more).

Here is the current price list (correct in March 2007) for anyone who wants a wormery, a composter or a water butt and lives in the borough of Hackney:

• The Original Wormery - £17.99 (save £31.96)
• The Junior Wormery - £12.99 (save £18.46)
• Rotal 220litre Composter - £9.99 (save £9.96)
• Rotal 300litre Composter - £9.99 (save £12.96)
• Garden King 220litre Composter - £10.99 (save £13.96)
• Garden King 330litre Composter - £12.99 (save £14.96)
• Rain Sava Water Butt - £22.50
• Water butt Stand - £9.98
• Down Pipe Connector Kit - £6.98

Delivery is free, but it will take approximately 3-4 weeks. Alternatively you can pay £4.95 and have it delivered within 5 working days. Please contact Original Organics directly to order them.

What if I don't live in Hackney? For other people looking for schemes in other parts of the UK you might want to check out these:

• Lancashire County Council offers free compost bins
• West Sussex council are offering subsidised rainwater butts for water conservation
• Barnet are offering subsidised composters and wormeries
• Customer of Severn Trent Water can order composting bins & water butts
• Customers of Thames Water can get free hippos (save up to 3 litres every flush) and subsidised composters and rainwater butts

This list is far from exhaustive (please leave a comment if you know of any more), but it shows how the tide is turning and how questions of resource use are coming to the forefront of both local councils and companies. 

It's through the little actions we'll win this.

I'll try to build a more exhaustive resource over the next couple of months - not only do these schemes save money, resources and carbon, but the more we use them and ask for them, the more we positively reinforce the message back to these organisations that they're doing something good and that they are supported and going in the right direction.

Sorry to my chums outside of the UK - this has been a very local post - but if you know of any organisations that are doing this kind of thing elsewhere, please leave a comment.

All the best,

Rob

Room enough for all of us...

If you haven't bought a house in the UK yet, and you're not destined for great things, you're in a pretty awkward situation. Prices have been going sky high.

On my road, in a not so lovely part of Hackney (it's East London, not Chelsea or Mayfair) a 3 bedroom house is currently on the market for £394,000 (that's a shade over $760,000 at today's rates). Which is why we're renting one bedroom in part of a house.

The problem is, I read, that housing stock is increeasing by only 160,000 houses a year. But the numberof people for them is increasing by 200,000. So the market stays high and edges higher.

Green belt laws mean that houses can't be built in certain areas designated as countryside. Meaning that all those fields remain just fields. It has the specific purpose of stopping dwellings encroaching on the countryside, towns merging into each other etc. etc.

This stops new houses being built (any type of house). Although I can see the point of this, I feel disappointed and let down that they don't consider ecological houses as a different class of house.

In the UK, with land at a premium, we're going to have to re-think the way we house ourselves and the way we use our land (and that the rules about using it properly work too).

So it was a welcome sight to see these tiny houses showing that you don't need to build big to have a roof  over your head.

This is my 5 minute crash surfing course on small houses:

• Let's go and look at Henry David Thoreau's house at Walden Pond
• Then watch the video of Gregory Paul Johnson's 140 square foot house (about 3.6m squared) from PBS
• See the gallery of small houses here
• What about a Jot House? Sustainable, low cost, prefabricated.
• Going traditional? Why don't you build your own yurt?
• Visit Jay Shafer's Tiny Tumbleweed Houses - beautiful aren't they?
  

Light-hearted surfing aside though, in the very real housing shortage we have, with sky high prices, houses like this might just become viable prospects for those who, like me and Glenn, don't own our own homes.

Obviously these dwellings test the limits of their art, but living smaller might just be the way that all of us can get the opportunity to live on and own a tiny patch of this, our sceptred isle...

P.S. Antony found a great link to a guy in Denmark who lives in an allotment house. How beautiful life would be if I could live in an allotment house!