I'm totally loving GOOD, a magazine for "people who give a damn. It's an entertaining magazine about things that matter." I picked it up at an airport about a year ago and read it cover to cover three times. The issue was about "Guess Who's Coming for Dinner?" and discussed our meat eating society and how commercialized the meat industry has become, rampant with disease and controversy. The article focused on a few individuals who were trying to do GOOD and make the meat industry better by going with something called the small-farm movement, which explained by the author, Peter Rubin, is: "It�s animals are free-range, grass-fed, patiently raised; artisanal meats, resurrected from nearly extinct breeds. It can be expensive. And at farmer�s markets, health-food stores, and restaurants everywhere, we�re making the choice to spend a little more to eat�and feel�a lot better." I'm a vegetarian for a very specific reason: I can not eat something that I would have as a pet (even chickens and turkeys, people). Reading this article did make me feel better about the state of the meat industry (Alf eats meat, which means I do still cook it from time to time, even though I have broken down in tears preparing certain dishes... we won't go there right now, though), and it got me thinking (hoping) that there is hope for animals that are only in this world as a food source. So, I read the magazine. I suggested my friends read it. I thought, I need to get a subscription. And then, of course, I forgot about it because it's not a magazine that you'll find in the check out line at the supermarket. However, I was at Barnes & Noble last week and remembered to look for it. After scouring every possible section that I thought it might be in, I found it buried behind The Atlantic Monthly (not for long, though, as I then moved GOOD front and center).
The current issue highlights what's happening to our planet in 2009 and beyond. There's a lot of heavy issues discussed, accompanied with some equally heavy photographs. But, it gets you thinking. It grabs your attention. And, most importantly, it educates you (unlike US Weekly, which is a total guilty pleasure of mine, but...). And what's completely cool, is you pay what you want for a subscription, and 100% goes to a nonprofit of your choice. Now, that's what I call very GOOD.
