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These days, “going green” has moved from a mantra among the uber-crunchy to the painfully hip, to where it is practically a fashion trend all its own. Green has become the new black: everyone is wearing it. But can the average person sustain a truly green lifestyle and reduce his/her carbon footprint, without giving up the frills, such as Netflix and reliable hot water, which make us uniquely American? In Farewell, My Subaru journalist and author Doug Fine forgoes life’s conveniences to find out just what it takes to “get off the grid”.
“I started my career as a gentlemen rancher naively thinking that raising dairy goats would be easy,” says Fine. “I mean, I’d throw them some hay, breed them and soon enough they’d be giving me hormone-free milk, with enough left over for me to barter locally for things like hay, buffalo meat, and massages. How hard could it be?” Harder than he thought.
In a yearlong experiment to wean himself off the bitter teat of oil dependency and to live locally, Fine converts a diesel truck to run on grease from local diners, installs solar panels to heat his hot water and power his subwoofers, and inadvertently plants an all-you-can-eat buffet for the likes of deer and ground squirrels in the arid New Mexican desert.
Along the way Fine recounts, with humor uniquely Long Islander-cum-world-traveler-cum-organic-farmer, how he finds love in his kids (two goats dubbed the Pan Sisters) as well as his community (part “woo woo” hippy, part UN-fearing rifle toters). He also attains not only a more sustainable lifestyle free of oil, but a more sustaining type of satisfaction— minus a few scratches, near death encounters, and a possible bribe of a government official via eggs.
Throughout the book, Fine also reveals a slew of surprising facts about the green lifestyle made to impress any trivia lover (New Yorkers only emit 1/3 the carbon per capita compared to the average American), insights into what it takes to “go green,” and even recipes you can make at home, such as Grilled Rattlesnake Dijon.
Using all organic, locally grown, and hunted ingredients, of course!
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