The NNFCC's Green Tales are fairy tales with a renewable twist.

Three little pigs were building their houses. They had lovely little farms, with trees and fields of wheat and hemp. They wondered what to use to build their homes?

The first little pig decided to use concrete, with a steel frame. He wanted his house to be big and strong, but he hadn’t thought about the energy it would take him to make it! He dug up his land, crushed rocks he chipped out of the earth, and toiled from dawn until dusk. Then he had to mine iron ore, melt it and mix it with carbon to make steel. Soon, his little farm had disappeared and there was a deep, dark mine there instead. He had no land left to build his house on, because he’d dug it up and burned all his trees and crops.

By the time he had done all this, the little pig was so exhausted that he fell down a hole and spent all the next day there, asleep.

Meanwhile, the big bad wolf was wandering through the land, looking for something to eat. All the forests had disappeared and everywhere he looked there was concrete. He couldn’t find any dinner at all!

Then he came across a deep dark hole, and in the bottom he could see a fat little pig, asleep. He decided to wait until he woke up and help him out of the hole. He sat down and dangled his big long head over the side.

Soon the little pig woke up. “Hello, little pig!” said the wolf. “Would you like me to help you get out of this deep, dark hole?” 

The little pig woke with quite a fright. He hadn’t seen the big bad wolf before, and was very afraid. But he was stuck down the hole, so he scrambled up when the wolf put out his paw. Then he slumped on the ground at the top.

“You’re not hungry, Mr Wolf, are you?”

“Oh, yes, I am!” said the wolf, and he opened his large mouth and snapped!

Suddenly, the little pig was running as fast as he could across the land, the wolf not far behind him! He almost lost his tail!

The second little pig had taken a different approach. He had a beautiful patch of land in the woods, with lovely trees and a little patch of ground as a garden. He cut down some trees and thought, “I’ll make a house from my wood!”. So he set to, with a saw and a lathe, and built a beautiful wooden house. He put earth mixed with straw on the walls and the floors, and was sitting peacefully on his porch when the first little pig came puffing up to him, the wolf hard on his tail.

“Help!” said the first little pig. “I was too tired from my mining and smelting to build my house in time. I got stuck in one of my holes, and the wolf came and caught me!”

“Oh, you silly little pig,” said the second little pig. “Why didn’t you use what was above the ground, instead of digging up your garden and ruining the land? Come into my house where it’s safe and warm, and the wolf won’t catch you.”

“Let me in, little pigs,” said the wolf. “I am tired and hungry, and want to see inside your wooden house, little pig.”

“Oh, no, you big bad wolf,” said the little pigs. “Our house is safe and warm, and our forest is full of birds and rabbits: go and hunt them if you must, but leave us alone!” And the wolf did exactly that.

Next day, the two little pigs went to call on their sister, the third little pig. She had built herself a house just down the road.

“Hello, sister pig!” they called. “Can we come in?”

The third little pig’s house was most beautiful of all. It was small, and strong, and painted yellow, with roses around the door. In her garden, the little pig was growing industrial hemp, which she had cut and mixed with earth and lime to build her house. Some of her walls were built from straw which the farmer had given her, and she had mixed it with lime, to make it hard and strong. 

“Come in! Come in!” she said. “I’m happy to see you, brother pigs! Did you have any trouble from the big bad wolf? I can tell you all about him!”

The third little pig told her brothers what had happened to the wolf. He had been happy in the forest, hunting small creatures here and there and carrying on just as a wolf should. But one day, the forest where he lived had been cut down and burned, and the ground had been dug up, and turned into concrete. He had nowhere to go, and nothing to eat, so he tried to eat the little pigs.

Now the wolf was happy again in the woods, and not hungry for little pigs at all. He even came for tea now and again (they made him sit outside though).

The first little pig hung his head in shame when he heard this.

“I’m a stupid little pig, trying to live in a house dug up from under the ground. Why didn’t I look at what grows in the fields, and build a beautiful house like yours?”

“Don’t worry: we were all like you once, little brother. But now we can live happily in our beautiful houses in the wood, and the wolf won’t be hungry enough to eat us.”

And they all lived happily ever after.

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