What does ethical living actually mean - seminar notes (long)

[nick the grief]

..........Point is why is the government forcing me to travel just for a pittance? .....

Cos they hit a target then

I think some people confuse ethical living with Green living. I admit the two are (or could be ) linked but if you don't want to be "green" you can still be ethical. I assume thats what he meant wit the argument with GYO & local farmers. We (well me anyway) are lucky in as much as I have a large garden & an allotment so I can grow my own but some people ar not able to ( people who live in tower block for instance) but they can still live ethicaly by buying locally produce foodstuffs. I happened to be doing the shopping and nearly crashed the trolley a there were some nice looking apples on display lovely yellow & red colour but they were from China !!!!

This has just decided it for me I am digging out pne of the borders at home and I am going to plant it up with Cordon Apples & Pears as it seem ludicrous that the traditional English apple has been replace with stuff from all over the world........

[madderbat]

...there were some nice looking apples on display lovely yellow & red colour but they were from China !!!!

This has just decided it for me I am digging out pne of the borders at home and I am going to plant it up with Cordon Apples & Pears as it seem ludicrous that the traditional English apple has been replace with stuff from all over the world........

We got enough apples from windfalls outside the local school to make plenty of pies and two gallons of wine last year! Hope to do the same again.

Hope my little cox tree will fruit this year too.

[OverWyreGrower]

Hi

Just caught up with this from the weekend. Thanks for your comments everyone!

Ethical living and green living are not necessarily the same thing.

What Leo meant by the comment re GYO and local farmers was that to live ethically, everything must be considered in terms of who/what it impacts.

If you GYO, in theory this impacts local farmers, as you are not buying their produce. If you buy free trade, this impacts local farmers as you are not buying their produce, but it also impacts on your food miles.

Practically, since so few people (in terms of the UK population) GYO, you are unlikely to impact local producers.

In terms of being ethical myself, we:
1) grow as much as we can ourselves
2) use local producers if we can't grow/make it
3) try and buy the product as fairly as possible with as few food miles as possible

Those are our priorities, but they are not everyone elses. Some people don't GYO, instead they buy organic everything... its all a priority.

[OverWyreGrower]

Another thing...

There has been quite a bit on TV at the end of last week and the weekend about people's rubbish collection changing to fortnightly. Everyone is up in arms about it apparantly.

We've had fortnightly collections for over 2 years now. We get recyclables collected one week and non-recyclables collected the following week.

We separate out our glass, plastic, paper and cardboard. We compost everything that can be.

We have 3 wheely bins and a box and have no trouble with rubbish collections.

Are people who whinge about the change unwilling to recycle? Are they living unethically?

P.S. I realise that the reason councils are changing to fortnightly collections is probably something to do with cost rather than "green-ness"!

[SueA]

Thanks for the report O.W.G., most of it just comes down to common sense doesn't it.As for the rubbish collection issue, I don't think I'd have a problem with it as we don't fill our bin & recycle as much as possible but I can see it being a problem for big families especially those with babies or small children & do think it stems from councils being idle/cutting costs/trying to meet government targets etc. & not on ethical or 'green' grounds.

[OverWyreGrower]

Yup, mostly common sense!

Sadly, not everyone sees it like that. A lot of people can't be bothered or haven't got the time, or don't understand why we do it etc.

[nick the grief]

........Are people who whinge about the change unwilling to recycle? Are they living unethically?

P.S. I realise that the reason councils are changing to fortnightly collections is probably something to do with cost rather than "green-ness"!

I guess these are the same sorts of people who are up in arms about the EEC banning ordinary light bulbs The fact that the low energy ones actually save you money doesn't seem to matter. Ah well you can please some of the people none of the time .....

[Alison]

I guess these are the same sorts of people who are up in arms about the EEC banning ordinary light bulbs The fact that the low energy ones actually save you money doesn't seem to matter. Ah well you can please some of the people none of the time .....

Bloke I work with was ranting on about this the other day, complaining that he was being forced to buy these very ugly bulbs - tried to point out that there are much better looking ones these days and although there was an initial outlay, he'd get his money back. Suggested he swapped them one at a time, perhaps as old style bulbs blew, but that just seemed to get him more wound up. There's no telling some people. He is definitely of the why should I do anything, regardless of if it's a good idea.