Well, well, well. Five months after my problems began with BT, things appear to have finally resolved. Yes, I’ve said that before… but today I received my final bill (the massive sum of nine pounds, since you’re asking). It took dozens of phone calls, letters and blood sacrifice to Mercury (the god of communication, obviously!) but it seems that it’s at an end. Hooray!

The temperatures are rising, too. There is a local wood shortage however; it may even be national. The high gas prices and prolonged winter have pushed many people into returning to solid fuels. My local saw mill is only supplying to existing customers, and last week ran out; hardware shops have no kindling left; coal has gone up in price as demand has risen. According to The Guardian, sales of woodburner stoves are up by at least 40% on last year.

An Australian study in 2003 (this is also gleaned from the Guardian) showed that burning wood produces up to 10 times fewer greenhouse gas emissions per unit of heat than other sources. And my wood is local and from sustainable, managed woodlands. I am both warm, and smug.

My bid to avoid supermarkets persists. Since Christmas, I have had to lapse once, which is pretty good going I feel. Most of my stuff is bought locally now. My one ongoing issue is Earl Grey tea bags! I had bought some from Marks and Spencers, and found that one bag, in a pot, was good for two cups. The equivalent from Co-op barely wrings out enough flavour for one cup. It is far better economy to buy the M and S ones… but does it count as a supermarket? Yes, though not the ‘big four’ I suppose.

Further fuel to my vendetta against supermarkets came last week, when I picked up a copy of Farmer’s Weekly magazine. It was lying on a desk at work, next to Pig World Magazine. Of the two, it looked marginally more interesting. The statistics were frightening. Half of British dairy farmers are now out of business due to low prices being paid for milk, and now we import a million litres a day. This fact was echoed only yesterday on Radio Four, so it wasn’t just a hysterical farmer claiming it; not that farmers are known for their hysteria. The British pig herd has also halved. We have strict welfare codes on livestock rearing and management here (I ought to know, I’ve been learning the welfare codes so I can teach Basic Stocksmanship at work), but not all countries adhere to similar levels of welfare. In fact, 70% of imported pig meat are raised in conditions that would be illegal here. I was aghast, and blurted it to the stockman who came into the office as I read this.

“Yep,” he agreed, “and don’t forget that if the pig is raised and killed somewhere else, but shipped here for packaging then the label can say ‘British’ so you think you’re getting decent meat.”

That’s the really cheap stuff you get in the supermarkets, of course. Families with no time and low incomes have no choice. In the words of New Model Army, “Nobody needs morality when you haven’t enough to eat.” So I’m claiming no moral high ground over those who buy and eat this stuff.

And all the answers I can come up with are rather radical, and involve a complete destroyal and rebuiling of society. Which is not terribly practical. Bugger.

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