Environmentalism: From the Eighteenth Century to Today

From veganism to sustainable energy to social networking sites, “going green” no longer belongs solely to the hemp wearing, scraggly bearded, commune-based hippies of the 1960s counterculture movement. Today,environmentalism is embraced by almost everyone—we recycle anything and everything we can, grow our own fruits and vegetables and buy eco-friendly, sustainable products. But where did it all begin?

The environmental movement, as we know it today, grew out of the reaction to the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe. The emergence of factories, the growth of cities and worsening air and water pollution gave rise to an early “Back to Nature” movement that anticipated modern environmentalism.

In 1854, Henry David Thoreau published Walden, an essay that details his experience with personal independence and self-reliance living in the natural setting of Walden Pond in New England. He refers to the lake as “landscape’s most beautiful feature. It is Earth’s eye. Looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.”

Thoreau, along with other conservationists like John Muir, who successfully lobbied Congress to form Yosemite National Park, believed that people should become intimately close with nature. They believed nature had an inherent right of its own and should be protected and preserved. Muir’s close relationship with President Theodore Roosevelt led to the creation of organizations like the U.S. Forest Service in 1905.

In the twentieth century, the death of the last Passenger Pigeon and the endangerment of the American bison popularized the concerns of conservationists. Groups like the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society were formed with a mission to preserve the wilderness, curb water and air pollution and the exploitation of natural resources.

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published in 1962, detailed the impact the release of large amounts of chemicals could have on ecology, wildlife and human health, with a focus on a harmful chemical known as DDT. The book spurred a greater awareness of environmental issues and the effects humans have on the environment. In 1972 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the agricultural use of DDT.

The 1970s brought about a rapid surge in the environmental movement all around the world. Earth Day, which is now celebrated in over 175 countries every year, was first observed in San Francisco and other cities on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring. The United Nation’s first major conference on environmental issues, The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, was held in 1972. And the Chipko movement, influenced by Mahatma Ghandi in India, set up peaceful resistence to deforestation by literally hugging trees—hence the term “tree huggers.”

Over the past 40 years, environmentalism has dealt with new issues like global warming, overpopulation and genetic engineering. Businesses now aim for sustainable practices and many jobs opening up have environmental aspects. Schools work to create sustainable buildings and students are learning how to live more “green” lives in the future.

http://pinkandblack-magazine.com/2012/12/06/environmentalism-from-the-eighteenth-century-to-today/

Eco Emi Simplifies Your Green Life

Navigating the sustainable world is daunting—from Trader Joe’s to Whole Foods, the rows upon rows of green beauty products, organic food and drinks and naturally-made clothing never gets less confusing. Assortments of chemical-free, organic, hormone-free, eco-friendly and preservative-free items clutter the aisles, and it’s close to impossible to determine what works and what doesn’t without spending hours reading ingredients and instructions in the store.

Enter Eco-Emi: a subscription service that shuffles through the clutter and delivers samples of chic, eco-friendly products right to your doorstep, saving you the trip and the confusion. “Eco-Emi is designed to be an informative and fun way to try and buy eco-friendly products and take charge of what you put on and into your body once and for all,” says Eco-Emi’s founder, Christine Bowman. She began the service after a devastating experience with her disease-stricken dog, Emi, and the unnatural dog food and medications recommended by her vets. “I can’t bring my beautiful girl back, but I can keep her memory alive in the form of a business that can help others.”

Eco-Emi mails a minimum of five samples wrapped in chic, earth-friendly packaging for just 15 dollars per month. Every month brings a new box of varying products like organic chocolate, beauty cream, tea, soap, body glitter, deodorant, vitamins and more. Bowman and her team do all the hard work of sorting through products, allowing customers to try different items from the comfort of their own homes.

Many people feel overwhelmed when trying to lead a more sustainable life—Bowman wants to relieve the stress and help people take control of their green lives. “You need to read, research and learn about what you buy, eat, drink, put on your body and into your body,” she says. “It’s up to you to make a difference.”

http://pinkandblack-magazine.com/2012/11/01/eco-emi-simplifies-your-green-life/

The Perils of Deforestation, for the Environment and Us

Giants, with their arms reaching toward the sky, loom above the forest floor. Their trunks stretch as wide as an SUV and their bark grows tougher every year. Mist creeps through the leaves of the flora and fauna that nestle together at the ground and the only sounds for miles are the rustling of squirrels, the call of an eagle and the soft babble of a stream.

In 1850, before the Gold Rush brought lumbermen out to California, old-growth redwood forest covered more than 2 million acres of land along the California coast. When those men failed to strike it rich, they turned to harvesting the giant trees for the booming development of San Francisco. By 1968, nearly 90 percent of the original redwood trees had been logged.

Deforestation is a common problem all over the world—National Geographic calls it a “Modern-Day Plague.” According to the United Nations, half the world’s tropical forests have been cleared or degraded, and the net loss of the world’s forests is estimated at 18 million acres per year. The Amazon Rainforest once covered almost 100 million acres in Brazil—but over the last 40 years, it has been cut down by almost 20 percent.

Trees provide an important ecosystem function by storing carbon and producing oxygen. A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year. By storing carbon as wood, trees decrease the amount of carbon available as a greenhouse gas, slowing global warming and climate change.

Of the many negative effects deforestation has on the environment, the most drastic is the loss of habitat for millions of species. According to National Geographic, 70 percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes. Parks, like the Redwood National and State Parks in California founded in 1918 to preserve remaining old-growth forest, aim to preserve those threatened animal species, but when 1.6 billion people worldwide rely on forest products for all or part of their livelihoods, parks can only protect so much.

Unfortunately, the simplest solution, that is to stop cutting down trees, is not a practical one. Although deforestation rates have slowed in recent years, the reality is that people need to cut down trees if for nothing more than to provide for their families. A more workable solution is to stop clear-cutting, says National Geographic, allowing forest environments to remain intact, and balance the planting of enough young trees to replace ones that have been cut down.

Individually, people can use sustainable wood alternatives, like mineral-added HDPE plastic lumber, a truly recyclable material that destroys no trees in the manufacturing process and releases no toxic chemicals or greenhouse gases into the environment. The more people turn to these sustainable alternatives, the faster deforestation rates will decline.

http://pinkandblack-magazine.com/2012/10/25/the-perils-of-deforestation-for-the-environment-and-us/

Saving Farm Animals, One T-Shirt At A Time

Kobe beef—a Japanese delicacy renowned throughout the world for its succulent flavor—is hailed as the best beef in the world. But why is it so good? Because relaxed, happy cows make better meat. In addition to special diets and sake massages, the cattle roam freely on small farms, grazing and living as cattle are supposed to live.

“Farm animals feel pleasure and sadness, excitement and resentment, depression, fear and pain. They are far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined,” saysDr. Jane Goodall, most widely known for her research on chimpanzees, in her book,The Inner World of Farm Animals.

However, each year in America billions of cows, pigs and chickens are slaughtered for food in factory farms, which are built on an attitude that regardsanimals and the natural world merely as commodities to be exploited for profit, leading to institutionalized animal cruelty; massive environmental destruction and resource depletion; and animal and human health risks. According to Sustainable Table, a sustainable agriculture advocacy group, factory farms house an unnaturally large number of animals in small spaces and in some cases, like veal calves and mothering pigs, the animals can’t even turn around. In the U.S., two percent of livestock farms now raise 40 percent of all animals.

The excessive waste produced by such large concentrations of animals is handled in ways that can pollute air and water, affecting public health and thereby increasing medical costs for those living nearby.

To help put an end to the factory farming system, CFDA award-winning fashion designer and animal rights activist John Bartlett has teamed up with farm animal rights organization Farm Sanctuary to debut a new t-shirt line, The Ambassador Collection, from which 10 percent of the proceeds benefit the nonprofit’s lifesaving work on behalf of abused and neglected farm animals.

Each black tee features the silhouette of one of the three most endangered farm animals—the pig, the cow and the chicken. The campaign photos feature Farm Sanctuary’s “Ambassadors,” the lucky rescued animals who now live a peaceful and happy life on the 175-acre shelter in Watkins Glen, New York. “These ambassadors give a voice to their species and help to ensure that one day all creatures on this earth will get the right to live a long and happy life,” the John Bartlett website states.

In addition to buying one of the $40 tees and contributing to Farm Sanctuary’s cause, you can buy your food from smaller, sustainable farms that won’t sacrifice the health of the land or the quality of the food simply to make a few dollars more. In her book, Dr. Jane Goodall explains that animals are individual beings in their own right. “As such, they deserve our respect. And our help,” she says. “Who will plead for them if we are silent?”

Pink and Black Magazine, http://pinkandblack-magazine.com/2012/10/10/saving-farm-animals-one-t-shirt-at-a-time/

New Study: Sustainable Fish Are Healthy Fish

Fish is the perfect diet food. It’s low in fat and provides a good source of protein and essential minerals like iron, zinc, iodine and selenium. But navigating the seafood world is daunting—there are so many different types of fish, from salmon to shrimp to shellfish. And for those environmentally conscious, sustainability adds a whole new layer of confusion. Fortunately, a study out of Arizona State University has found a new rule of thumb for eating seafood: sustainable fish are healthy fish.

“Great news for sushi-lovers! Choose the sustainable options and you also are boosting omega-3 intake, without risking mercury poisoning,” says Leah Gerber, an associate professor and senior sustainability scientist at ASU.

Leah and her colleagues ran an analysis of existing literature to find which choices are consistently healthier and which are high in mercury or over-fished. They found that larger fish with long life spans are more likely to have exposure to toxins because of the length of their lives and their place on the food chain, so choosing smaller fish, like pollock or mackerel, is the smarter choice.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the best ways to ensure you’re eating healthy fish is to know where the fish is from. When caught in sustainable ways, Alaskan seafood is generally good for you and the environment because the amount of contaminants in Alaskan waters is very low. However, some regions of the world employ destructive fishing practices, like the muroami technique sometimes used in Southeast Asia, which uses an encircling net along with pounding devices to destroy coral reefs and scare out the fish. These techniques can have lasting and totally destructive effects on fish habitats.

“We want to help people choose fish that are both eco-friendly and healthy,” says Leah, who is also a conservation biologist and seafood lover. The research grew out of her interest in knowing more about the fish she was eating and the choices she was making when dining on fish.

The correlation between sustainability and health doesn’t stop at seafood; it’s a good rule of thumb for all food. Unlike industrial farming, sustainable agriculture involves food production that is healthy and good for the environment without the use of synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides. So, to ensure a healthy diet, buy locally and eat sustainably!

Pink and Black Magazine, http://pinkandblack-magazine.com/2012/10/04/new-study-sustainable-fish-are-healthy-fish/

Ozoshare: A Greener Social Network

Wish there was an easier way to find other people who share your love of protecting the planet? Well, now there is: Ozoshare, the first social networking platform for the green world, is the perfect place to share your eco-focused interests with other individuals and businesses.

The new site, which launched on August 7, is the first and only private, secure and user-friendly social network dedicated to the green community. “Going green is our responsibility for a healthy future and social networking is the current means of mass communication. Ozoshare is the ideal combination of both, it is one step ahead and is the vehicle where people and companies participating in the green world share and connect with others in an interactive, member-driven social media platform,” says Thomas Smith, a partner at Ozoshare. “It’s the first social network of its kind for green community members at every level and category from personal interests to technologies and organizations.”

Ozoshare is a great place for eco-minded individuals to share and connect with each other. Members can share their thoughts and missions with their “partners” (friends) and stay up-to-date with current green issues. The site is also ideal for businesses, groups and organizations like Adonis Eco-Housing, based in Minnesota, who joined to eco-network and raise funds as well as to support other green movements.

Just like on Facebook, members can have a personal page and/or business page and an unlimited number of partners. The homepage consists of “The Buzz,” an electronic wall to log dicussions and posts between partners, and members can create open, private and secret “Pow Wows,” or groups. However, unlike Facebook, the Ozoshare experience provides a platform specifically for members via their green interests, like recycling, solar energy, sustainable fashion or even wine tasting. This allows the website to suggest partners with similar interests.

The customization option lets members create unique pages with custom tabs on their profiles, like a website, a donation page, newsletter, mission statement or blog. When members like or agree with a post by one of their partners, they can “approve” it, similar to “liking” a post on Facebook.

So far, the site has over 3,000 members. “People are realizing that the world ‘going green’ is no longer a choice but our responsibility,” Thomas Smith says.

Pink and Black Magazine, http://pinkandblack-magazine.com/2012/10/03/ozoshare-a-greener-social-network/

Six Eco Living Tips to Help You Save Money and the Planet

Living frugally and eco-friendly go hand in hand—there are so many little things you can do to be kind to the planet and save money while doing it.

This first tip can never be stressed enough: eat local!Buying produce from smaller, local farms is not only healthier for you because those farmers can focus on the quality of the produce rather than packing, shipping and shelf-life issues, but also drastically reduces the carbon dioxide emissions from the fuel used to get it to your table. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking for ways to to bring local farm products to larger established retailers like Walmart and Costco.

Opt for a reusable lunchbox and containers than plastic or paper. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average amount of waste produced by each person in America per day is 4.5 pounds with over half going to a landfill. By bringing a lunch to school or work, you can ensure both a trash-free and minimal-spending day.

Keep hot or cold refreshments in reusable containers. Buying bottled water is not only expensive, but also detrimental to the ecosystem. At least 90 percent of the price of a bottle of water is for things other than the water itself like bottling, packaging, shipping and marketing, the National Resources Defense Council reports. The thousands and possibly millions of gallons of water taken from a single spring decreases the amount of water flowing downstream to communities of trees, plants and animals. There is little evidence that proves that bottled water is healthier than tap water. Further, phalates, which disrupt the human endocrine system, can leach from the plastic into the water and disrupt your body. Drinking tap water and using a reusable takeaway container will be less costly and better for you and the environment.

There are plenty of things you can do at home to save even more money on your energy bill. Even when lights and electronics are shut off, they still use energy by being plugged in. It’s called a ‘phantom load’—appliances that are plugged in, but not on, zap the energy. In the average home, 25 percent of all electricity is used to power electronics that are turned off, a study out of the University of Oregon found. Use a convenient power strip to eliminate the wasted energy.

There are eco-friendly alternatives to air conditioners and heaters. The heat in the summer makes it hard not to keep that air conditioner on. When it’s cold in the winter, all you want to do is curl up next to the heater. However, both can run up big charges on your energy bill. To reduce the cost of heating and cooling, ceiling fans can make a big difference in air circulation. Weather stripping, which is easy to use and requires no tools or skills to install, covers the gaps in your house, making it a more comfortable place to live.

Lastly, to add some environmental character to your home and maintain a healthy living style, buy some plants to place around your kitchen and living room. Research from NASA shows that many plants are useful in absorbing harmful gases and cleaning the air in modern buildings by filtering out toxins, pollutants and carbon dioxide we inhale through the process of photosynthesis. Place an Aloe veraplant, also known as Aloe barbadensis, in your kitchen window to cleanse the air and it doubles as a soothing healing solution for skin irritations.

Written by Erin Peterson, 9/14/12

http://pinkandblack-magazine.com/2012/09/14/six-eco-living-tips-to-help-you-save-money-and-the-planet/

Memories of Paris

The air flurried silently, casting a frozen breath over everything it touched. It stung my nose and cheeks as I walked through a garden of snow and ice. Snowflakes fell slowly to the ground, the thin layer of powder crunching with every step I took. The sky was blanketed with gray clouds as if I had been trapped inside a glass orb covered with cashmere sweater. The trees were barren; not a single leaf hung from their branches. Tire tracks rolled through the snow in front of me, perhaps left from the truck of the gardener on his way to tend to the desolate garden. A large ferris wheel loomed up behind me, its hinges fixed from the chilled air as well.

I was alone.

In the distance, through the fog, I could see the top of Le Tour Eiffel, its hard edges smoothed out by the gray light. I had been taken back in time to what seemed a simpler age, a time when everything was black and white. Writhing branches stood starkly against the white sky and ponds lie still, their beautiful women frozen in longing. Chairs sat empty around the fountain while ravens and swallows pecked at the ground for morning morsels. A door to the summer gazebo swung back and forth with the breeze, revealing more lonely chairs inside.

I walked through the frosted hedges to the edge of the garden, turning right down Rue de Rivoli. Small black cars with round headlights drove past as I skipped across the street in my knee-length white and navy plaid coat with embellished collar toward a cafe in hopes of finding une crepe au nutella et bananes. To my dismay, the cafe was closed on Sundays.

Standing on the corner, the breath rising from my lips frozen within an instant, I tucked my hands in my pockets and looked down the street from left to right, following the small black cars that drove past. To my knowledge, either way was as good as the other, so I chose to turn on my wedge-heeled boots and walk down Rue de Castiglione behind me. Gray buildings rose up around me with white awnings hanging over their doors. A young girl in a red coat and white stockings ran down the steps of Hotel de Vendome, stopping on the sidewalk to turn and wait for her mother and revealing a red ribbon curled around her hair. The doorman smiled and tipped his hat as he opened the door to a black taxi. Several square suitcases sat on the ground.

The air kept biting at my nose, I could feel the tip of it turning pink with the cold. After a while, the black taxis driving by turned into sleek town cars and the narrow street stretched out to both sides and around a large column. The buildings turned a soft peach decorated with snowflake-like lights and terraces framed with black and gold iron. Faces stretched out above each archway and every window glimmered beneath the lights. Despite the gray sky, Place Vendome shone with something, je ne sais quoi. The awnings were still white, but it was the lettering that caught my eye.

Dior. Chanel. Tiffany. Louis Vuitton. Lanvin. Cartier.

– One of the most popular and my favorite post on Musings of Ernie Pete

Borderlands

I have always wanted to try mud pie. When I was little, my brother and I would wait for the puddles that a rainy day left behind. We would prepare pie after pie, but we were never allowed to eat our delicious desserts. My mom said we could only take pretend bites. “Mud is yucky,” she would add, and then her face would scrunch up tightly.

Fifteen years later, I’m in the bateyes (pronounced “bah-tays”) of the Dominican Republic, the poverty-stricken section of the country’s sugar and banana plantations. Here, cooking mud pies is more than a child’s game. When there isn’t enough food, the locals bake a mixture of dirt and water over an open fire to make mud cookies. In the bateyes, mothers feed their families mud pies simply to stay alive.

It’s March 2011 and I’ve signed up for a community service trip with the University of Oregon, thinking that the experience will satisfy my desire to help save the world. As I board the plane with a group of 15 students and advisors, I already feel proud of what I plan to accomplish during the next six days. I’ll be working alongside North American doctors and dentists to provide medical care for those living on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Ten hours later we arrive in Monte Cristi, a sleepy Dominican coastal town about an hour away from the bateyes. The locals are friendly and chatty. The kids, all dressed in tidy school uniforms, enjoy showing off their broken English. The small town has a few restaurants, a grocery store, a hotel, and an ice cream shop. While this isn’t a luxury area, the quality of life in Monte Cristi is drastically different from what we later witness in the bateyes.

Each morning our group travels to one of the several poor batey communities in the area (there are an estimated 400 such towns along the border). On the first day, I gaze through the window at the line of people waiting for us. Many of the adults have dark skin and prominent cheekbones, but it is their large eyes that I notice first. Despite their vivid beauty, they gaze out emotionlessly.

The people in line stare at us while we set up our makeshift clinics. Most of the women hold smiling babies in their laps. The children’s eyes seem different than those of the adults. They glisten with innocence and a blissful unawareness of what they don’t have: basic human rights and an identity in their own country.

While both the Dominican Republic and Haiti are independent countries, they share the same island, Hispaniola. Geography plays a primary role in their drastic economic differences. Mountain ranges force the majority of rain to fall on the Dominican Republic, leaving Haiti with an arid climate unable to support much vegetation. The Dominican Republic’s fertile land means the residents have greater access to resources while Haiti struggles to feed its rising population.

Eighty-two years ago, these economic differences, aggravated by a history of political conflict, resulted in widespread discrimination against Haitians within the Dominican Republic. It was 1930 when Rafael Leonidas Trujillo took control of the Dominican Republic and began his infamous push to “cleanse” the nation of Haitian blood. In October 1937, he led a campaign to brutally murder any Haitian found outside of the bateyes. The Dominican Republic refers to this one-month massacre as El Corte, or The Cutting.

Today the mass killings have ended, but the Dominican government continues to support Trujillo’s “cleanse” by denying citizenship to Haitian immigrants and residents of Haitian descent. According to the international organization Human Rights Watch, the Dominican government deports 10,000 to 30,000 Haitians annually. To avoid this fate, many settle in the bateyes, providing a steady supply of cheap labor for the wealthy plantations.

Each batey community is built around an open dirt field where barefooted children run around snapping whips or playing soccer. Tiny homes made from uneven wooden boards and tin roofs dot the landscape. Most of the homes have a wood stove used to cook meals of rice or beans. That is, if there is any food that day.

As I begin my first day in the bateyes, I question the dreams I had of saving the world. While watching a woman sweep outside her hut’s crooked front door, I realize my ignorance in thinking that these people belong to a world different from my own. The woman’s sweeping may only reveal a layer of caked dirt, but she keeps cleaning the small square in front of her home, taking pride in what she owns.

Orphanage Outreach, now known as Outreach360, coordinates medical care in both the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.

Each morning we travel to a different batey where I am assigned to a registration table to pass out brightly colored bracelets for the day’s medical clinic. In Maguaca, a small batey on the outskirts of Monte Cristi, a large iron gate surrounds the concrete area where we set up the clinic. The doors stay tightly closed until the clinic is ready, preventing a crowd of antsy children, desperate mothers, and weathered old men from rushing my table. Tiny brown hands grip the iron bars and huge round eyes peer through the gaps. I sit on the other side of the fence and try to avoid their gaze.

When the gates finally open, I give each person a bracelet printed with a registration number and ask them for their name, age, medical complaint, and nationality. Few say Haitian. Those who do don’t announce it with pride like those who say Dominican. Once a patient has a bracelet, he or she must wait, sometimes up to four hours.

To pass the time, I do my best to make people smile. I soon learn my digital camera is the best way to connect with people. The kids beg to have their pictures taken, but I’m surprised to find the adults also enjoy being photographed. When I point the lens at an older woman, her smile reveals several gaps where teeth should be. Before I push the button, I notice a glimpse of the same shimmer I see in the children’s eyes. She looks at the picture on the tiny digital screen for several minutes before asking me to take another. I wonder how long it has been since she really looked at her own face—there aren’t many mirrors hanging up in the bateyes. Perhaps this woman can’t even recognize herself.

Most of the time, I can’t understand the pronunciation of a prospective patient’s name so I try to spell it out to the best of my ability. When I’m wrong, most people scoff or laugh and take the sticker with a misspelled name. I wish I could take the time to give them the dignity of wearing a correctly spelled name tag, the only form of written identification the bateyes residents typically have.

Throughout the week, I notice how much the people enjoy simply interacting with the volunteers. We acknowledge them as humans through a gentle touch, be it a hand to hold while the dentist completes an examination or an offer to cradle a baby while the mother has a tooth pulled. One four-year-old boy stands by my table for a long time before he decides to sit on my lap. Every time I look down at his face, he grins; this becomes our game. I wish I could remember his name.

A mother and child wait for a dental exam.

I have a name on my passport that reminds me that I am a citizen of the United Kingdom. That piece of paper is not what makes me feel human. I felt human when I shook my principal’s hand at my high school graduation and when I gripped my best friend’s arm as we sat through our classmate’s funeral. I feel human when my dad lets me stand on his toes while we dance around the kitchen, or when my boyfriend rubs his thumb across the top of my hand while we walk. A human touch is a powerful thing.

For the first time it strikes me that the people we are helping are not “others.” I cannot give these people a piece of paper with their legal identification on it. Nor can I provide clean toothbrushes for every child or meals for every person in the bateyes. However, I can make each person feel accepted as a fellow human being by speaking to an old man in his own language, by taking pictures alongside smiling children, by comforting babies as they wait for their mothers. I can touch their lives and remind them that they are human. And they can do the same for me.

Written by Kerri Anderson, 4/2/12

Edited by Erin Peterson

Expert Couponing

“When I go shopping at Walmart, I often end up getting money back,” she says. Dressed in a dark blue plaid coat, Nanell Clark shuffles through her purse and pulls out a large black wallet stuffed with receipts. She tucks a strand of long red hair behind her ear before taking out one receipt after another, placing them on the table in front of her and pointing to the negative total on each.

Clark is an expert couponer who searches online and through the pages of the Sunday newspaper to collect coupons for items from groceries to apparel. Each week, she figures out what she needs to buy for her family, flips through her coupon binder and finds coupons that will reduce the cost of the items she buys that week. “I can’t remember the last time I paid full price for something,” she says.

Having grown up as one of seven children, Clark learned early on that in order to get the most out of her twenty dollars for back-to-school shopping, she would need to be frugal. With six other children in one household, watching for deals and clearance sales was a necessity.

“I grew up couponing because my mom couponed,” she says. “When there are that many kids in one household you kind of have to.”

Now, as a wife and mother of two living in Springfield, Clark’s frugality has become an obsession. “If it’s not on sale and I don’t have a coupon for it, I’m not going to buy it,” she says. Her obsession saves her family thousands of dollars per year. Her kids know the one most important question when shopping with their mother: “Mom do you have a coupon for this?”

When Clark discovered a couponing blog called My Frugal Adventures three years ago, her obsession really took flight. “They do most of the work for you,” she says. “They do all the match-ups and tell you where the coupon is, you just have to get the coupons from them.”

Clark once found twenty coupons for granola bars on Ebay for just one dollar and subsequently bought fifty boxes of granola bars- at least one year’s worth for her family. Her kitchen pantries and laundry room cupboards are filled with boxes of food, the garage pantries house bottles of shampoo and toothpaste, and a corner of the attic serves as a toy store. When her son had a birthday party to attend, she didn’t even have to leave the house to find a gift.

***

Underneath the fluorescent lighting of a large warehouse-sized store, customers mill around the long aisles of everything a person could need: clothing, kitchen appliances, groceries, entertainment, furniture, and children’s toys. The monotonous beeping of the scanner at the register echoes off the walls.

Clark carries a calculator in her purse as she shops at Walmart. Although couponing comes quite naturally to her, she admits there is definitely a learning curve. As she puts each item in her shopping cart, she calculates what her total should be minus the percentage her coupon gives her for each item. Once she gets to the register, if the cashier’s total doesn’t equal her own she makes the cashier go through and find the mistake.

“It doesn’t effect me as much as it effects the customers behind her,” Walmart cashier Casey Wise says of ringing up avid couponers like Clark. “It’s time consuming and frustrating for other customers.”

However, if a store doesn’t give her the extra cash when she has a negative total, she turns to the customer behind her. “If the store doesn’t give cash back, I’ll start buying other customers’ items for them,” she says. For Clark, wasting money is not an option. She buys a few of their items until her total is brought up to zero.

Although it comes quite naturally to her, Clark admits that the strategy to successful couponing can be confusing. “It can be really hard to learn on your own­– it’s best to use a friend who coupons or the websites to get help,” she says.

A Thrifty Mom, a couponing website created in 2009, provides printable coupons and links to coupon sites as well as information about what to use a specific coupon for, where to use the coupon and when to use it. Sarah Barrand, creator of A Thrifty Mom, learned that it’s best to use coupons that are coordinated with a sale in order to get the lowest price.

Ten years ago, Barrand gave birth to a son with only half a heart. With very few options for their son’s survival, Barrand and her husband were in and out of hospitals in Washington, Arizona and Utah for the next three years. “Because we were already trying to pay off our debts, we only had fifteen dollars per week for food,” she says.

Barrand quickly learned that clipping coupons coordinated with sales was the best method of saving money. Today, her son is a healthy ten years old and they are living debt-free.

“I knew how to make my dollar really stretch,” she says. When the economy took a downturn in 2008, Barrand saw her friends and family begin to worry about how they would provide for their families. With all the support her family had received during those first three years of her son’s life, Barrand wanted to do something to return the favor.

“When my son was going in and out of surgery there were a lot of people who would help us by giving us rides to the airport and things like that,” she says. Creating a website to teach them about couponing was her way of giving back. Now, A Thrifty Mom offers coupons, deals, and meal ideas for people all over the country trying to save money.

When couponers want to find specific coupons and deals online, they go to websites like Cheap Sally, which offers coupons for 11,000 different retailers worldwide. Some of its most popular retailers include JibJab, Target, Forever 21 and Auto Trader. “We try to cultivate a relationship between our site and the advertisers so that people can coupon on our site,” says Tyler Stauss, one of the creators of Cheap Sally.

Walmart Customer Service Manager Keith Aiken says that coupons are good for business. “We get reimbursed by the manufacturer for the coupons,” he explains. “Although the customer may be saving money, we are still making the total price.”

According to a Compete Online Shopper Intelligence Agency study, 91% of coupon redeemers say they will visit a retailer again after being offered a coupon and 57% of shoppers, like Clark, say they would not have made the purchase without a coupon first.

“Their conversion rate is greater than those who don’t use coupons, which is probably good for the economy,” Stauss says.

***

As she walks down the aisle of a grocery store, Clark can easily point out her fellow couponers. There is a friendly atmosphere between them and Clark has even made good friends through couponing. “They’ve got their binder and they’ve got their coupons,” she says. “After a while you start seeing the same people over and over.”

Now that Clark has become an expert at couponing and can get so many items for free, she often donates any items she can’t fit in her pantries and cupboards to those in need. “There is always a place to donate to,” she says. With her stockpiles of shampoo and granola bars, she always has something to donate to local food banks and shelters.

Over last Christmas, Clark provided Christmas to an entire family. Coupon website Frugal Living Northwest had begun its Christmas Tree Project in which readers could sign up to help some families in need in the Pacific Northwest. Readers could donate toys, school supplies, food, books, games, and other household items, pay a utility bill, or even adopt a family for Christmas.

Clark and another reader worked together to provide Christmas to a family in Springfield. Unable to pay rent for several months, a couple and their two young children had been forced to move in with their mother, who had also been struggling financially, in a small duplex. The couple and their children were living together in one tiny bedroom. “They really had nothing- when we took stuff over to their house they had nothing under the Christmas tree,” Clark says.

Because Clark’s children had outgrown diapers, she donated her stockpile of baby items to the family. She and the other reader asked their friends and coworkers to donate money to help pay their bills as well. “I always have something I can give away to someone who needs it more,” she says.

Clark’s frugality has begun to rub off on her husband and children. When Clark’s daughter picks a penny up off the ground, she asks what she can buy with it. “Most people would say you can’t buy anything with a penny,” Clark says. “You might not be able to, but I can.”

Picc-A-Dilly Flea Market

Photos of the Picc-A-Dilly Flea Market in Eugene, Oregon.

People gather at the Picc-A-Dilly Flea Market on Sunday, February 19 to buy and sell personal items like handmade soap, old records, books, and jewelry. The Market has been held at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene since 1970.

One vendor works on a drawing while customers pass by, admiring her home-made lamps.

Most of the items sold at the Market are priced significantly lower than items sold in a store- jewelry is priced at just a few dollars and books are sold for a few quarters.

Near the end of the day, a young girl sits on a bag of shoes and plays on her father's calculator while he organizes the items on his table and converses with customers.

Vintage and antique items fill the tables- old sports equipment, sewing machines, and dolls are a common theme.

A vendor excepts $4 for a box of Girl Scout cookies- many vendors allow customers to barter over the cost of their items.

The Record Revival

Joey Larko’s fingers shuffle through the blue and black crates that lie at his feet under his desk. Just above them sit two turntables and a couple of two-foot-tall speakers where a college student would typically keep books. He lands on a bright yellow twelve-inch square cardboard case with italicized helvetica print on the cover and pulls out the album contained inside: Dutch Flowers by Skream. He turns the turntable on to forty-five rotations per minute and drops the needle. A base-filled beat follows the scratchy sound of the needle running across the album’s surface.

“I pretty much always choose vinyl if given a choice,” Larko says. “The bass is so much warmer, so much heavier. There’s nothing like it.”

Larko, a twenty-one year old University of Oregon student from San Francisco, has been collecting vinyl records for the past two years. In a time where compressed music formats such as Mp3s are the public’s main form of music consumption, Larko continues to add record after record to his 300-piece collection.

“I call it black crack,” Larko says. He spends roughly fifteen dollars a week on new vinyl. “I just party less so I can afford it, which is better I suppose.”

Record enthusiasts like Larko are finding their way into music stores more often. According to a study conducted by the Nielson Company, 3.6 million vinyl albums sold in the United States in 2011, a thirty-seven percent increase from the previous year, and an increase that has been steadily moving upward since 2006. This is in stark contrast to 1993, when only 300,000 vinyl albums were sold nationwide.

 

In a music industry dominated by digital files, vinyl growth is unexpected. Eight-tracks, an early form of cassette tape, gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s but was completely phased out of the market by 1982. Cassettes peaked in popularity during the late 1980s, but have now become so obsolete that last year the term was removed from the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Compact discs dominated the market until recently, when Mp3s, which could be acquired almost effortlessly (and often for free from file-sharing programs like Limewire), took over.

Greg Sutherland, a record buyer at House of Records in Eugene, Oregon, says the growth and resilience of vinyl can be attributed to several factors. “I think collecting is a huge part of it because it’s a substantial thing,” Sutherland says. “A record is a packaged piece of art that includes visuals and sound.”

He says CD cases are made of cheap plastic and are a hassle to open. He believes adhesive ribbon on the top spine of CD cases has been a source of annoyance to many since the security measure was introduced. Mp3s are simply invisible megabytes in cyberspace and in many cases do not include album artwork.

Sutherland says he feels a sense of nostalgia for vinyl records.

“It’s kind of romantic to me,” Sutherland says. “Something so ‘sci-fi’ that is the future—music on a file and as many files as you want. Instead of that being the future right now, it looks more like this older form that has been around since the late ’40s or early ’50s is going to be the future.”

Robert Bielski has collected records since 1959. During his time as a traveling salesman, he would stop at music stores and purchase records when he heard a song that he liked on the radio. “It was a hobby that got out of control,” Bielski says, acknowledging his addiction to collecting vinyl. “I’ve already sold off a lot of my collection, but I still have about ten thousand at home. I filled up my basement and half of my house.” Bielski sold a small percentage of his collection at the Eugene Record Convention this past February.

Larko is a new-age collector, as opposed to Bielski, who collects vintage records. Whereas many people believe that record collecting is restricted to older music, most of Larko’s personal collection is comprised of bands and groups that have released music in the past decade. He has to ship many of his records in from the United Kingdom because his favorite artists in his preferred genre, a type of underground dance music called dubstep, are mostly based in the UK.

“With dubstep, vinyl is so much better because you can feel the bass,” Larko says.

The compression process used with CDs and Mp3s standardizes the levels on the music tracks: the softer sections are made louder, whereas the louder sections are made quieter. Depending on the amount of compression used, a recording could lose most of its dynamic range.

“I think that a lot of kids who were born in the late ’80s or early ’90s grew up without records in a digital world,” Sutherland says. “Because kids never experienced what it’s like to listen to a record, the very first time they hear it is pretty shocking to them. Mp3s and CDs don’t sound as good as records do.”

With records, there is no compression process. What a listener hears is pure, unadulterated music. “It sounds really organic when you’re listening to a record,” Larko says. “Sometimes it sounds like you’re in the studio with them.”

With records’ surge in popularity more and more modern bands are releasing their albums on vinyl. The Black Keys’ most recent album release, El Camino, was widely sought after. House of Records received twelve copies of the album a week after its release date—they sold out in a week and had special orders for more.

Printing fewer records allows for more exclusivity among vinyl albums. To enthusiasts like Larko, the drive to accumulate records is partially inspired by the rarity of an album. From collecting white labels—promotional vinyl discs that were handed out in limited quantity—to digging through crates to find a hidden gem, collectors will look for records few others might own.

“Exclusivity is a huge part of it for me,” Larko says. “It’s really cool to know that you’re one of a couple hundred people who have that sound in the world.”

To many vinyl enthusiasts, it’s not about collecting to resell or make a profit. Bielski believes that fewer than 25 percent of vendors who attend the Eugene Record Convention are there to make money. Most vinyl collectors are unique in that way. Albums are typically purchased with the intention of being opened, listened to and enjoyed, in contrast to something like action figures, which many collectors leave in their original packaging in order to preserve the toy’s condition.

At the Eugene Record Convention, Bielski sits back at his table and watched as people eagerly flipped through the collection that he has culminated over the course of his life.

“If I wanted to make money [from collecting], I would go back to work,” Bielski says. “It’s just a hobby. For me, it’s very hard lugging these records around. But it’s fun, so I do it.”

Written by Brandon Andersen, 3/8/12

Edited by Erin Peterson