Mags I Love - Plenty Magazine

I read my first issue of Plenty Magazine (#15 – The Way We Eat) when, after having moved from Toronto to St Thomas in the spring of this year, my bro and sis-in-law gifted us with a subscription as a house-warming.

Fittingly the cover image was an update of the familiar 1930 painting of the farmer with pitchfork and wife, American Gothic by Grant Wood. In the 2007 Plenty version the couple, still holding a pitch fork, are young, urban-looking and are now standing in their Toronto-esque, Ikea-style kitchen preparing to harvest wheat, presumably their own crop. An eerie premonition of what will become our own attempts to morph our big city world into a small town lives, and a sign that this quarterly mag might be in the right place at the right time for us.

In their own words, Plenty is an environmental media company dedicated to giving voice to the green revolution that will define the 21st century. Plenty is about abundance, with hopes that the world will move away from fossil-fuel dependence toward bounty of green energy sources.


Ambitious goals and I’d say right now they’re a bit on the corporate side of the green wave, but I appreciate we can’t all be steering our dinghies in front of whaling trawlers. Further to that, this is not an insider’s membership magazine, the kind you receive when you pay a fee to join a group. Nor do the editors want it to be. Your $5.95 can. will get you 80ish pages of good gloss and pretty solid information, and you’ll have a tricky time accusing them of not trying to make the world a better place.

The format is standard for a magazine, with a few significant, eco-type enhancements; it is printed on recycled paper, 80% in the April/May issue and up to 85-100% in the current issue; their carbon footprint (which I actually feel is more about P.R. than good conscience) is 100% offset through Green Mountain Energy; and an electronic copy of each issue is available on-line in it’s entirety for those subscribers who want to completely avoid the whole ink-to-paper process.

In another positive variation, their advertising, which is significant at just over 20% of the total content, is managed quite differently from the usual “general interest” model. You won’t find any ads within the feature sections; in fact, you can read page after page without interruption. As well, a large percentage of the advertising real-estate is dedicated to conferences, workshops and publications. And I’d have to say I actually read most of the ads.

The content consists of an unusual, but effective, balance of solid environmental education, with good old fashioned commercialism, which I guess is because as much as we may want to advance ourselves, we still need to buy cereal and go on holiday. This mix might also explain why it’s available at both our national drugstore chain, Shoppers, and our national bookstore chain, Chapters/Coles.

My biggest criticism of Plenty would be that it has a very narrow target market; their ideal reader would have to be equally interested in reading good-sized, solid feature articles about our impact on the world’s natural balance as well as learning about “apres ski indulgences”.

I confess many of the features are not interesting enough to hold my attention, and I have been known to skip the odd article about Christmas decorations made from circuit boards, yet I aspire to become the kind of relaxed, patient person who can live harmoniously somewhere between the shallow and the deep; a position that Plenty also seems to be striving for and often reaches.

Quite an achievement for a glossy mag.

And as they say on every issue, sustainable living doesn’t have to be Spartan – it’s easy being green.

Greening of Magazines - The Mags I Love

I’ve always loved magazines.

When I was in college studying design and photography, I fully expected to continue-on into editorial design and eventually create my own magazine. I was going to call it “Talisman” and it was going to change the world, one loyal reader at a time.

Unfortunately, college (and some very real-world freelancing) undermined what little confidence I had and I abandoned that dream. Still, magazines remained magnetic to me; my drug of choice quenching an unknown thirst.

I used to think the attraction was about speed – fast, information paired with exciting images; easy to consume eye-candy. In retrospect, I think what really appealed to me was the excitement of not knowing what was on the next page, perhaps in sharp contrast to my somewhat plodding, premeditated life.

And when my life finally accelerated, magazines ensured some down time; my coffee break and my time to think. Unlike a well-written novel which can carry you away, I expect a really good magazine to ground me, to focus and challenge me.

An unfortunate downside of magazines is that they are basically a one-use item. As apposed to books, magazines are rarely re-sold and most end-up being read once or twice, then recycled or trashed. Though many of mine get shared at least once, they still end up somewhere in a blue bin, and recycling is the last, least desirable “R” (refuse, re-use, recycle). Luckily, I’ve discovered a creative way to “refuse”; as my subscriptions come to an end, instead of renewing, I’m planning to gift my subscriptions to our local library which has an “Adopt a Magazine” program (actually, my first adoption will be from Santa, in my name).
I can sign them out whenever I desire, photocopy the pages I want to keep for reference and can begin to undo my many years of waste.

I’m also subscribing to more electronic newsletters and reading more blogs which, in many respects, are the greenest magazines. Roughly half of my favourite magazines have either blogs or e-newsletters which, I suppose, adds even more to their appeal for me.

I'm curious now to take a critical look at my favs, to discover why I like them and explore what they give me.

Plenty
Spacing
Nutrition Action Healthletter / Prevention
Our Canada
Ready Made
Scottish National Trust
O Magazine
Harrowsmith Country Life

My white walk

I can't imagine a better way to spend December 24th than to watch the birds at our feeders, then to take a nice long walk in the fresh snow.

Lucky for me, this happens to be my journey to work if I decide to walk, which I did today. I left behind this wonderful view of our back yard and found plenty more on my way to work.

It doesn't get much better than this.

Who's taking care of us?

2001

A German company called Bayer creates a strain of genetically modified rice called LLRice160, or Liberty Link® rice, at the Agricultural Centre of Louisiana State University in the U.S. This super-tough designer rice is engineered to survive Bayers Liberty® herbicide glufosinate, which will kill everything else living in the same field (animal, vegetable and mineral) virtually stripping it sterile.

2001-2006
In typical, predictable GMO fashion, LLRice160 spreads to other crops either because it is unmonitored, or because it is unstoppable.

August 2006

It became apparent that the United States rice crop had been devastatingly contaminated with LLRice160 as undisclosed amounts were found in commercial rice supplies. According to Greenpeace, 63% of exports were affected by the contamination, and the illegal rice was found in over 30 countries. Approximately 100 varieties of rice produced primarily in the following six states: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and California. It is estimated that the US rice crop is valued at approximately $1.88 billion annually (wikipedia).

Later that month
UK Food Standards Agency releases an emergency brief;
EU EMERGENCY MEASURES regarding the presence of non-authorized genetically modified organism LLRice160 in rice products from the United States

The European Commission has adopted Commission Decision 2006/578/EC on 23 August 2006 which sets out emergency measures applying to rice products from the United States of America. The Decision takes effect immediately .….. Consignments found to contain GM rice LL RICE 601 should be refused entry to the EU

September, 2006
The Food Standards Agency Director of Food Safety Dr. Andrew Wadge said, "The presence of this GM material in rice on sale in the UK is illegal under European food law, even at extremely low levels. This is why we are taking steps to test American long grain rice and ensure future imports are GM free."

November 2006
GM rice removed from the shelves of UK Tesco stores landed in Poland Tesco stores?
According to Polish Chief Health Inspectorate GM rice of variety LL601 was found in 6% (3 out of 48) of samples taken in the Tesco stores of three regions of Poland: Pomerania, West Pomerania and Lower Silesia. The contaminated rice came to Poland from US via France. This situation creates fears that the affected rice, removed from the shelves of the stores in Western Europe, ended in the shelves of the same companies in countries like Poland. Tesco Poland, asked by Greenpeace about GM rice, answered in writing that Tesco's own name rice is GMO free and refused to answer similar question concerning other producers on Tesco shelves.

February 2007
High Court: UK Food Standards Agency Made GM Rice Mistakes
High Court Judge has ruled that the UK Food Standards Agency did not act unlawfully by allowing genetically modified rice unapproved for human consumption to remain on the shelves of major grocery chains across Great Britain. In a judicial review requested by Friends of the Earth, the judge did fault the agency for a number of mistakes, including its decision not to issue a food alert and the late provision of advice to local authorities. In his ruling Thursday, the judge also said that public authorities such as the Food Standards Agency should be allowed to make mistakes without attracting legal sanction.

December 2007 (16 months after the EU ban)
Rice on Canadian store shelves contaminated - Government fails to detect illegal, genetically engineered variety MONTREAL and VANCOUVER, Dec. 17 /CNW Telbec

An independent investigation by Greenpeace has found rice sold in Canadian supermarkets to be contaminated with an experimental, genetically engineered variety accidentally released into the environment. Greenpeace is demanding that all long grain rice imported from the United States be removed from store shelves in Canada after independent testing confirmed that rice purchased at two supermarkets in Vancouver and Montreal was contaminated with a variety of genetically engineered rice not approved for human consumption by Health Canada

- No Name brand, long grain white rice, imported by Loblaws, product code 166J2, bar code, 60383 00833.
- Western Family brand, imported by Overwaitea, best before date: 09 07 16, bar code 62639 17323

Sweet Charity (no, I don't mean Shirley)

The desire to do good or the act of generosity towards others or towards humanity

It seems to me that there are two ways to be charitable; you can dig-in and get your hands dirty, or you can write a cheque. Since I’m pretty much a clean-hands guy, our benevolence is usually financial. We give $1 a day to each The Caring Cupboard (our local food bank), to The Aids Committee of Toronto and to our local animal shelter of choice, Animal Aide. Annually, that’s a very small percent of our income, perhaps the yearly cost to run a car, which we don’t have, or maybe the cost of a gym membership, which we also don't have but likely should. It’s an amount we feel we can regularly commit to, and still live a life which is far more comfortable than 90% of the planet.

We also aspire to be charitable of spirit and try not to judge because, in reality, most of us are just one bad twist-of-fate away from being bumped to the bottom of life’s ladder.

For those of us who would do more if we could afford to and if it was convenient, I've discovered a couple of easy-peasy www-ways to do good;

A Scottish organization we support, called Trees for Life, brought to our attention a U.K. search engine (just like Google or Yahoo) called Everyclick. I use foreign search engines fairly often, especially when I'm searching for something which is specifically not North American, or when I want to double-check something reported in the Canadian or U.S. news. And when I use Everyclick, the charity of my choice benefits.

Just by doing my regular internet search, using Everyclick instead of Google, advertisers who pay for ads or sponsor links will compensate Everyclick, who will, in turn, make a charitable donation. So far my searches have helped raise $1,200.00 cdn for Trees for Life. As well, Everyclick has won several awards, including the Hottest New Start Up at the Imperative Digital Awards and Entrepreneur of the Year at the Women in Ethical Business awards for co-founder Polly Gowers.

A bit closer to home ...



I recently received an e-newsletter from the Canadian Wildlife Federation announcing their partnership with an organization called Clickgreener. If you use the Clickgreener website to connect with an on-line retailer and make a purchase, Clickgreener will donate 51% of the referral fee to one of the four connected charities (CWF, World Wildlife Foundation Canada, Carbonfund.org or Tree Canada).

All you have to do is start your shopping at the Clickgreener site and proceed to whatever store, Amazon.com for instance, then Amazon will pay Clickgreener a referral fee (4 – 8.5% for Amazon, which would be $2 to $4.25 on a $50.00 purchase), of which clickgreener.com will donate 51% ($1 to $2.17) to one of the 4 charities. And you pay exactly the same price – it’s a win-win arrangement!

Their top five stores and referral fees;
Amazon.ca – 4 – 8.5%
Apple Store Canada – 1 – 5%
Canadian Tire – 5%
Indigo Books and Music – 5 – 8.5%
Tiger Direct Canada – 3 – 6%

So, charities are taking the lead from financial corporations, banks and investment companies, and are making it convenient and stress free for us to put our money to work for us, in a manner that can make a difference.

Now, if banks would just donate a few cents every time you went to their website to pay a bill or manage your money.

What a wonderful world it would be.

Pickin' and Deckin'

We are still determined to live a happy life without traditional conveyance, as Brian would say (a.k.a. without a car) so it was with some faith that we set our hearts on a pick-your-own tree for Christmas, given the fact that most tree farms are not located within walking distance.

As luck would have it, our friends at Orchard Hill Farm have, for the past few years, held an annual evergreen tree sale. We were actually quite lucky to squeeze in this year as they’re basically sold-out; they're getting out of the tree business and growing their C.A.S. business.
In the words of Blanche Dubois, we've always relied on the kindness of strangers, so we borrowed neighbour Laura's car, the interior of which we protected with a tarp large enough to cover the exterior, and headed south to the farm.
Once there we met up with bro and s.i.l. who were on a tree-hunting mission of their own, and before long 2 trees had been felled and we all were busy tying and wrapping.


At home our tree was quickly installed in it's stand and we decorated it while watching that warm and fuzzy holiday fav, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Our colourful hodgepodge of ornaments remind me of past Decembers and of friends who are longer with us, so decorating the tree is as much about 2007 as it is about the 43 years that came before. And with my folks enjoying their 50^th Christmas as Mr. and Mrs., it’s also a celebration of their lives together, and our time with them.

Christmas often feels like “looking back” to me, in nostalgia and reflection, whereas New Year's Eve serves to focus me on my future goals and new horizons.

So as much as decorating the tree felt like the beginning of the Christmas season for me, bringing it home from Orchard Hill Farm really felt like New Year's.

Taking the spider for a walk

a.k.a. Frankie gets a Bootie Call

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves ...

* please note - this poodle is not, and will not, be wearing;
baby clothes
father-and-son outfits
animal prints
antlers or bells

In short, he won't be wearing anything I wouldn't be willing to wear.
Now Robin is another story - do the words Wellingtons and Balaclava give you any visuals?

Frankie has told me in confidence that, in spite of appearances, he is thrilled to be wearing these snuggly boots. Along with protecting his paws from snow-removal chemicals, these boots will ensure the chemicals do not get licked or tracked into the house for others (like Buster) to lick.