Friday, I explained why writing "Take My Name Off Your Mailing List" and returning a letter does nothing to reduce the flow of direct mail appeals coming to your doorstep.

Today, I'm going to tell you what you can do to reduce the number of appeals you receive.

On January 1, 2001, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents (PIPED) Act came into being. It covers all transactions involving lists that are rented, traded or bartered with a charity or business in another province.

The latest weapon in the genetically modified (GM) food fight is a variety of japonica (white) rice that has been genetically engineered with two daffodil genes containing beta-carotene and a bacteria gene. Biotech companies say that 'golden rice' will help alleviate blindness among the 100-million children in developing countries with vitamin-A deficiency. They have vowed to wave their patent rights so that farmers in developing countries can grow it.

However, critics say that it is the biotech industry's latest attempt to feed on world hunger to solve its bad public-relations image.

"Take my name off your mailing list!"

Do you ever write this across an appeal for a donation, and then send it back in the postage-paid business reply envelope? Six months later, do you wonder why another mailing from the same charity arrives on your doorstep?

I'm the editor of Herizons, Canada's largest feminist magazine. I'm going to tell you why this happens.

Prince Charles started sowing the seeds of dissent before he blew into Saskatchewan this April. The province is the heartland of the Canadian genetically modified crop industry. The prince is a critic of GMOs. In an essay published in The Globe and Mail, Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor went so far as to encourage Canadian farmers to embrace sustainable agriculture and turn their backs on chemically dependent farming, including GM crops.

A new political trend is sweeping our nation: the sacking of women’s policy units.

Yukon dismantled its women’s directorate as part of a “government renewal” campaign on April Fool’s Day, 2002. It went from a stand-alone department that reported directly to the minister to a line item in the Executive Council Office, reporting to two assistant deputy ministers.