Mother Earth Living

Last updated
Mother Earth Living
EditorJean Denney
FrequencyBimonthly
Total circulation
(2011)
55,000
First issueMay 1999 (1999-May)
Company Ogden Publications
CountryUnited States
Based in Topeka, Kansas
LanguageEnglish
Website www.motherearthliving.com
ISSN 2159-7812
OCLC 700289635

Mother Earth Living (previously Natural Home & Garden) [1] is an American bimonthly magazine about sustainable homes and lifestyle published by Ogden Publications. The headquarters is in Topeka, Kansas. [2]

Contents

Acquisition and rebranding

In 2012, Ogden Publications re-branded Natural Home & Garden as Mother Earth Living after the merger with the more popular magazine The Herb Companion [3] and re-directed the domain naturalhomeandgarden.com to motherearthliving.com.

In 2006, Ogden Publications acquired Natural Home. [4] Editor-in-chief Robyn Griggs Lawrence explained:

Natural Home started out in 1999 with a much stronger focus on building new homes with alternative materials such as straw bales and adobe, and technologies such as solar power. That focus was unique and cutting-edge — and there was no shortage of material to cover. Problem was, there just weren’t enough hip readers to make a sustainable magazine. After five years of circulation that’s barely reached six digits, the painful truth is that we now must reach beyond the boundaries of the eco-conscious consumer markets (Boulder, Berkeley, and Burlington), or we simply can’t afford to make the magazine anymore. From the beginning, our overarching mission has been to bring green, healthy homes and lifestyles to a mainstream audience; we have to be more accessible. [1]

The magazine was revamped in 2005 and includes a column on eco-conscious money management, a "Try This" easy home projects section, and more articles on food, decorating, gardening, and remodeling.

Related Research Articles

Sustainable development Mode of human development

Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desired result is a state of society where living conditions and resources are used to continue to meet human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system. Sustainable development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Ecovillage Community with the goal of becoming more sustainable

An ecovillage is a traditional or intentional community with the goal of becoming more socially, culturally, economically, and/or ecologically sustainable. An ecovillage strives to produce the least possible negative impact on the natural environment through intentional physical design and resident behavior choices. It is consciously designed through locally owned, participatory processes to regenerate and restore its social and natural environments. Most range from a population of 50 to 250 individuals, although some are smaller, and traditional ecovillages are often much larger. Larger ecovillages often exist as networks of smaller sub-communities. Some ecovillages have grown through like-minded individuals, families, or other small groups—who are not members, at least at the outset—settling on the ecovillage's periphery and participating de facto in the community.

Permaculture Agriculture practices using few energy resources and human intervention

Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principles in fields such as regenerative agriculture, town planning, rewilding, and community resilience. Permaculture originally came from "permanent agriculture", but was later adjusted to mean "permanent culture", incorporating social aspects. The term was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, who formulated the concept in opposition to Western industrialized methods and in congruence with Indigenous or traditional knowledge.

Sustainable living describes a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual's or society's use of the Earth's natural resources, and one's personal resources. It is often called "earth harmony living" or "net zero living". Its practitioners often attempt to reduce their ecological footprint by altering their home designs and methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet. Its proponents aim to conduct their lives in ways that are consistent with sustainability, naturally balanced, and respectful of humanity's symbiotic relationship with the Earth's natural ecology. The practice and general philosophy of ecological living closely follows the overall principles of sustainable development.

Ecological footprint Individuals or a groups human demand on nature

The ecological footprint is a method promoted by the Global Footprint Network to measure human demand on natural capital, i.e. the quantity of nature it takes to support people or an economy. It tracks this demand through an ecological accounting system. The accounts contrast the biologically productive area people use for their consumption to the biologically productive area available within a region or the world. In short, it is a measure of human impact on the environment.

In social behavior downshifting is a trend where individuals adapt simpler lives from what critics call the "rat race".

Eco-capitalism, also known as environmental capitalism or (sometimes) green capitalism, is the view that capital exists in nature as "natural capital" on which all wealth depends. Therefore, governments should use market-based policy-instruments to resolve environmental problems.

<i>Mother Earth News</i> Bi-monthly American magazine

Mother Earth News is a bi-monthly American magazine that has a circulation of 500,520 as of 2011. It is published in Topeka, Kansas.

BackHome was a magazine that was created in 1990 as a competitor to Mother Earth News after the latter was taken over by a major publisher. Richard Freudenberger is the co-founder of BackHome. Following the earlier, simpler, style of Mother Earth News, it became a strong competitor in the homesteading and simple living tutorial and instructional print market. The headquarters was in Flat Rock, North Carolina. It was formerly based in Hendersonville, North Carolina.

<i>Sunset</i> (magazine) American lifestyle magazine

Sunset is a lifestyle magazine in the United States. Sunset focuses on homes, cooking, gardening, and travel, with a focus almost exclusively on the Western United States. The magazine is published six times per year by the Sunset Publishing Corporation which was sold by Time Inc. in November 2017 to Regent, a private equity firm led by investor Michael Reinstein.

Regenerative design

Regenerative design is a process-oriented whole systems approach to design. The term "regenerative" describes processes that restore, renew or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials. Regenerative design uses whole systems thinking to create resilient and equitable systems that integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature.

Ecological design or ecodesign is an approach to designing products and services with special consideration for the environmental impacts of the product during its whole lifecycle. It was defined by Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan as "any form of design that minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with living processes." Ecological design is an integrative ecologically responsible design discipline. Ecological design can also be defined as the process within design and development of integration of environmental consideration into product and service design and development with the aim of reducing environmental impacts of products through their life cycle.

An eco hotel, or a green hotel, is an environmentally sustainable hotel or accommodation that has made important environmental improvements to its structure in order to minimize its impact on the natural environment. The basic definition of an eco-friendly hotel is an environmentally responsible lodging that follows the practices of green living. These hotels have to be certified green by an independent third-party or by the state they are located in. Traditionally, these hotels were mostly presented as ecolodges because of their location, often in jungles, and their design inspired by the use of traditional building methods applied by skilled local craftsmen in areas, such as Costa Rica and Indonesia.

<i>Ever Manifesto</i>

EVER Manifesto is a free print publication focusing on fashion and sustainability. It is distributed at fashion shows and selected stores as well as published in PDF for its now defunct, though archived, website.

Bryan Welch is the former publisher and editorial director of Ogden Publications and an author and speaker on Eco-friendly matters. He is author of the 2011 book, "Beautiful and Abundant: Building the World We Want," and writes a blog titled Beautiful and Abundant: Publisher Bryan Welch on philosophy, farming and building the world we want., on the Mother Earth News Web site.

Environmentally sustainable design is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of ecological sustainability.

John Schaeffer (environmentalist) American environmentalist

John Schaeffer was born November 9, 1949 in Los Angeles, California. He is an American environmentalist, author, entrepreneur, and the founder and president of Real Goods, a sustainable lifestyle catalog and Real Goods Solar, a solar electric system installation business in California and Colorado. He has been actively involved in promoting and popularizing renewable energy since the mid-1970s.

Slow fashion is a concept describing the opposite to fast fashion and part of the "slow movement", which advocates for manufacturing in respect to people, environment and animals. As such, contrary to industrial fashion practices, slow fashion involves local artisans and the use of eco-friendly materials, with the goal of preserving crafts and the environment and, ultimately, provide value to both consumers and producers.

Summer Rayne Oakes American model, environmental activist, author and entrepreneur

Summer Rayne Oakes is an American fashion model, environmental activist, author, and entrepreneur, known as the world's first "eco-model". Oakes grew up in rural Pennsylvania, where her concern for the environment began early. She studied ecology in college, where she noticed that scientific papers on the environment received much less attention than popular media. She became a model in New York City, and insisted on only modeling clothing made from organic or recycled materials. These principles cost her work, but gained her notice and the title of world's first "eco-model".

References

  1. 1 2 Robyn Griggs Lawrence, editor of Natural Home & Garden magazine, answers questions, Grist, 29 March 2005 (retrieved 28 January 2012)
  2. "Home and garden magazines". Book Market. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  3. , foliomag.com 28 June 2012 (retrieved 07 November 2012)
  4. The Four Questions-Bryan Welch, Ogden Publications Inc. Archived 2010-01-07 at the Wayback Machine , MPA - the Association of Magazine Media, 14 November 2006 (retrieved 28 January 2012)