Media

As promised last week, here’s that free link to the recent Financial Times article about Seventh. It’s a nice piece that's well worth a few minutes whenever you got them to spare. Just make sure you've got all your voting out of the way first...

Yesterday, Treehugger posted a much-needed look at the new Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change, a comprehensive British report on Global Warming that’s been big news elsewhere but has scarcely caused a ripple here in the complacent waters across the pond. The Stern Report assesses the economic impacts of climate change. In a sentence, it says that if humanity ignores the situation and does nothing, we will all be very sorry.

As part of its coverage, the Treehugger post talked about the newspapers in Britian that have placed coverage of the report and the issue center stage. One of the papers mentioned was the Financial Times, a newspaper I have subscribed to for many years because of it’s exceptional coverage of responsible business. (The FT actually ran a small story on Seventh Generation a few days ago, which we’re trying to set up a free non-subscriber link to. Stay tuned…)

In her post, Treehugger’s Bonnie Alter says that the Financial Times “only started mentioning this subject in the last year.” Not so! The Financial Times has covered the issue for a lot longer than that. In fairness to the paper, the record deserves to be corrected. Below are a sampling of stories that go back to 2001:

1. Sept. 8, 2005: The World Must Act on Climate Change Despite Bush
2. Jan. 15, 2004: Investors Demand Action on Climate Change
3. March 12, 2003: Global Investing: Chilling Advice on Climate Change
4. June 26, 2003: Romania looks at Ways to Improve Its Climate
5. November 30, 2001: Survey World Economy: Governments Press Ahead On Climate Change Without The US

Congratulations to Jeffrey! He’s been named one of the Best Bosses of 2006 by Winning Workplaces, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping companies create great work environments. Though it’s no surprise to anyone lucky enough to work with him, it’s nice to see the recognition spread beyond our office walls. To celebrate Bosses Day this past Monday and discuss the award, Jeffrey was a guest on the Dave & Bob Show on the Grape Vine Talk Radio Network.

Click our player and you can listen in…

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No, but…

Business Week’s cover story on The Organic Myth continues to stir up a debate that first appeared in the mainstream press when Michael Pollan (an excellent writer who went to the same grade school as I did at the same time!) wrote a terrific book, and an excellent article, and provoked a debate of sorts in the New York Times.

He was among the first to challenge the impact of Wal-Mart’s entry into the organic food market and ask whether it’s better to buy local than organic and what benefits organic food really brings to the table when it’s being shipped half way around the world.

Business Week reveals more information about the industry that I, for one, find troubling. “Sometime soon a portion of the milk used to make that organic yogurt may be taken from a chemical-free cow in New Zealand, powdered, and then shipped to the U.S. True, Stony field still cleaves to its organic heritage. For Chairman and CEO Gary Hirschberg, though, shipping milk powder 9,000 miles across the planet is the price you pay to conquer the supermarket dairy aisle. ‘It would be great to get all of our food within a 10-mile radius of our house,’ he says. ‘But once you're in organic, you have to source globally.’"

This debate is complex but important. The Business Week cover story is a sad statement about the media’s need to get attention to sell magazines. Organic, for all the challenges it faces is no myth. In fact, the USDA certification program is a rare regulatory success at a time when the current White House administration is dismantling decades of hugely important environmental legislation.

My advice? Buy locally grown food when ever possible, and when local isn’t available buy organic, but ask where it came from first!

There’s more at Grist.

I just finished watching Bill Moyers’ amazing special, Is God Green? If you missed it, take some time to watch this documentary and and check out one of the most amazing and hopeful movements I’ve ever seen, one that’s bringing everyone concerned with sustainability and global warming together with the hugely powerful and rapidly growing segment of the population that identifies themselves as evangelical Christians.

Richard Cizik, of the National Association of Evangelicals, is deserving of special praise. He is a brave man willing to challenge the Republican Party and the old guard of the Christian Right. These conservative evangelicals are joining the fight to save our environment, arguing that man's stewardship of the planet is a biblical imperative and calling for action to stop global warming.

Just wanted to drop this quick note to say that Jeffrey's Q&A with Grist readers is now on-line as part of his Interactivist participation this week. The questions posed are pretty interesting as are Jeffrey's answers, and it makes for a good snapshot of some things that don't often get discussed. Worth a look if you've got some time this weekend.

I’ve been busy mingling with the media over the course of the last handful of days and a couple of the resulting Q&As have now been published. In case you didn’t catch it, this week I’m the featured Interactivist over at Grist. There’s an interview posted now and later in the week I’ll be answering reader questions. Should be fun.

And last week, I sat down with a reporter from our local paper, the Burlington Free Press, to talk about my trip to Bentonville, Arkansas for a conversation with Wal-Mart CEO, Lee Scott. The Free Press interview resulted in an article about my experience and that in turn prompted an editorial on the op-ed page.

The world spins on and the news stops for no one. Here’s the latest word on reporters not reporting, beasts going bye-bye, happy food, and more…

The world is changing. First one of my favorite journalists, Simon London quits the Financial Times to go work at McKinsey. I think, wow, we just lost one of our best thinkers, but then the recent McKinsey Quarterly issues an in-depth report revealing to all their clients (Wal-Mart included) that they can’t afford to not only take corporate responsibility seriously, they must become involved. Corporate responsibility as a strategic imperative?