Sustainability

As a family we are passionate about leading a sustainable lifestyle. We believe that the current western lifestyle of consumerism and disposability is simply not sustainable long term and that modern food production methods are environmentally destructive, not just here but world wide.

It is not simply the animal welfare and environmental impact in this country we are concerned about but a more holistic view of how our everyday choices regarding clothes, food, drinks and so on can impact remote countries, animals and people.  For example, many animal feeds in this country contain palm oil which has been grown in areas of rainforest deforestation and destroys biodiversity for mile upon mile of the tropics.

What we do to help

Our animal feeds do not contain any palm oil and the soya it contains is sourced from sustainable plantations in Europe. Furthermore, as a family we try to be consistent with our purchases of food, clothing, shoes, bedlinen, household cleaning products and so on, choosing products which, hopefully reduce our international environmental impact. Our children wear washable nappies and are potty trained early, our clothes are organic or second hand and our food is usually organic, fairtrade and seasonal.

We are having a wood burning Rayburn installed for our heating, hot water and cooking and a bore hole for our water. Next year we hope to get photo voltaic solar panels on the roof but in the meantime our electricity is bought from goodenergy, a renewable energy company.

We try to do what we can, however, we are far from perfect and still have a long way we could go on the 'eco-continuum'. We do drive cars (although our choice of vehicle was based largely on efficiency) and occasionally use planes, and although we try our hardest to not buy products containing palm oil, I'm sure if you went through our cupboards you'd probably find at least one product containing it!