Dear Dot

dot DEAR

Illustrations Elissa Turnbull

How do I green my ride if I can’t afford an electric car? And how, eggs-actly, can I support happy hens? Dot answers your thorniest questions from a perch on her porch.

Dear Dot,

I can’t afford a new electric vehicle. Is there a way to make my internal combustion engine more energy efficient? Does it matter what grade fuel I use? – Poppy MacCormack, Oak Bluffs

Dear Poppy,

For too long, the notion of being environmentally responsible has been tangled up with the purchase of new eco-friendly things. Electric vehicles, for instance. But using what we have as responsibly as we can is often more virtuous, so your question is a good one.

I took your query to Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the Center for Biological Diversity. Becker worked hard to get achievable fuel-efficiency standards passed in 2012 by the Obama administration only to watch them be gutted in 2017 under Trump. But Becker is a man who does not accept defeat, nor should we. At the top of Becker’s list of how to reduce our fuel emissions is a simple one: Drive less. “Every gallon burned emits 25 pounds of CO2 whether in a Hummer or a hybrid,” he says, which is why efficiency and electric vehicles are so important. Don’t buy premium gas unless your car requires it, he says, as “higher levels of ethanol — E-10 is currently standard — will only reduce mpg.” If premium gas is simply recommended rather than required, you can get the same performance from regular fuel. It also doesn’t matter which brand of gasoline you buy. Becker has personally boycotted Exxon since the Valdez spill in 1989, 32 years ago, a level of conviction I tip my hat to. My grudges are measured in the lifespan of a fruitfly.

Save your money and don’t bother with fuel additives, Becker adds. Their claims are meaningless.

Perhaps most importantly (besides driving less), says Becker, “urge President Biden to set the strongest clean car standards to force automakers to use the best technology.” The folks at Moms Clean Air Force have already written a letter that you can download, personalize if you’d like, and send (bit.ly/3i9Envf). You can also contact Gov. Charlie Baker toll-free at 888-870-7770 or reach him on Twitter — his handle is @MassGovernor — and tell him you support clean car standards for automakers and would very much like him to help make them happen.

In the meantime, oil your bike or get a good pair of sneakers and, as often as you can, leave your car in the driveway. Not only will that improve air quality and your own health, your bank account will breathe easier too.

If you do find yourself in the market for a new vehicle, you’re smart to buy electric and not just because it’s better for the planet. A hot-off-the-press study by the federal Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy reveals that there’s a whopping 40 percent less expense associated with an electric vehicle over a conventional internal combustion engine. And that’s not even including the reduced expense from using less fuel. The reason is that, while an internal combustion engine has roughly 10,000 parts involved in making it move, an electric vehicle has less than 10, say the clever folks at CleanTechnica. (https://cleantechnica.com/2021/06/22/ its-official-us-government-sayselectric-vehicles-cost-40-less-tomaintain/?edf=380) which means there are a lot fewer parts requiring service or replacement. And don’t feel you have to purchase an off-the-lot vehicle. A used electric is a great option.

What else can you do? • Keep your tires properly inflated, which lowers rolling resistance. • Lump errands together so that it takes just one car trip to satisfy your to-do list.

• Stick to the speed limit and ease up on the accelerator and brake for a smoother, more fuel-efficient ride. • If your roof-top box is empty, remove it.

Dear Dot,

– Gaslessly, Dot

What is the difference between pasture-raised hens (and therefore eggs), cage-free or free run? I want eggs only from the happiest of hens. – Rona, West Tisbury

Dear Rona,

Oh, my hen-loving friend … your innocent question has opened up a can of mealworms that has, no yolk, seriously ruffled my feathers. It would seem that the $6.1 billion U.S. egg industry has more than its share of rotten ova. Eggproducers have taken carton blanche to mislead us with labels and making sense of the various egg classifications is enough to scramble our brains. But let’s crack this open. I hope my response meets your eggs-pectations.

Both cage-free and free-range are USDA-certified terms that may conjure up images of chickens strutting blissfully around a farmyard but that, under closer scrutiny, are actually fairly meaningless. While cage-free is what it says — uncaged chickens — there’s a pecking order among poultry that means less aggressive birds are often cowed by the bullies and denied access to move about. Free-range means only that there’s a door to the outside and a farmer may or may not open it at some point.

Which isn’t to say that some cagefree and/or free-range-designated birds aren’t strutting about like feathered royalty. It’s just that, without more information, you can’t be sure.

Pasture-raised is a step up in poultry parlance because, as cookbook author and Edible Vineyard editor Tina Miller says, “chickens are insectivores so being outside eating grass and bugs is what you want.” If you want happy hens, she says, look no further than Grey Barn.

Indeed, Grey Barn’s site tells us that all 500 of their laying hens have access to the farm’s organic pastures and woodlands every day of the year. They earn their freedom by acting as pest-control — devouring ticks, flies, and insects. During the summer, they are rotated after the cows through pastures so their tiny little chicken feet can better work the cow’s manure into the soil (see “What’s So Bad About … Carbon” on page 23 to learn more about just how valuable this, ahem, step is in regenerative farming).

Julie Scott, executive director and farm manager for Slough Farm on Edgartown’s Great Pond, has long been exasperated by marketing claims by egg manufacturers. It’s not enough to take the claims at face value, she says. Instead, go to companies’ actual websites (like I did with Grey Barn). Or, better still, find local honest farmers staking their reputations on their claims. – Peckishly, Dot