BBC: How to lead a simple life

Thanks to Charlie for sending this BBC iPlayer link. The Rev Peter Owen-Jones tries to give up his "addiction to money" and develop a "simple life" (haybales, sheep etc) following the teachings of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology.

(If he puts you off a bit in the beginning, stick with him, gets quite adorable by the end.)

92% of people think self sufficiency is important now

92% of people in the UK say that self sufficiency and traditional skills like growing your own food, crafting and rearing your own livestock have become more and more important during the financial crisis.


But half of the 1230 people surveyed (by Pollab Limited for the Soil Association) said they have lost the practical skills of their grandparent's generation: 45% admit they have fewer cooking skills, 47% say they are less able to grow their own food, 48% have lost the rural craft skills that make self sufficiency possible and 51% say they would have no idea how to rear animals.


More: Soil Association

Lammas

Wow.

Lammas, a group of people trying to create an eco-village in Pembrokeshire, submitted a planning application for 9 smallholdings and a community hall in June 2007.

Their application was rejected once, twice, but their third application was successful on August 27 2009.

This was the crowd in the courtroom last month.

Pembrokeshire County Council adopted a low-impact policy (Policy 52) that allows new-build eco-smallholdings in July 2006. Lammas' application is the first to be passed under it.

"The planners require that 75 per cent of all household needs must be met directly by land-based means," says the press release.  Wow. That's not blended living. Blended would be more like 50%. "Each smallholding has had to be meticulously planned to meet this requirement with a broad spectrum of enterprises ranging from strawberry production to basketry, from smoked hams to furniture making, from woollen crafts to medicinal tinctures."

More here.