Dates for your diary
Creating a Christian environment?
Eco-Congregation Ireland, the Christian environmental action group, is calling on all Christian churches to dedicate time between September 1st and October 4th to pray for the protection of the world and promote sustainable lifestyles. The Time for Creation initiative follows a resolution at the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in 2007, which was attended by Europe's Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant churches. Web-based resources, including sermons, study group activities, children's activities and ideas for action have been prepared by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. See www.ctbi.org.uk/creationtimefor details.
Eco-Congregation Ireland is currently supported by five Christian denominations: the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). For details, see www.ecocongregationireland.org.
Slow movement gets busy
Is organic food the ultimate slow food? This is the question that will be posed in a workshop organised by the Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association (IOFGA) at the Terra Madre (Mother Earth) conference at Waterford Institute of Technology on the weekend of September 5th to 7th.
The conference, run by Slow Food Ireland, will bring together food producers, chefs, restaurant owners and those involved in food promotion. The central event, to be held next Friday, will look at ways to develop a sustainable future for the Irish food industry. Carlo Petrini, founder of the international Slow Food movement, will attend the Terra Madre opening session, and other events include cookery demonstrations, a slow food feast, picnics, a farmers' market and guided bus tours of artisan food producers in the area. See www.terramadreireland.comor telephone 051-860035 for full details.
Towards an organic strategy
The Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association (IOFGA) has called on the Government to train people to grow their own food and cut down their food miles. As part of a national strategy to address food security and climate change, IOFGA also wants to see a standardised scheme for calculating energy efficiency in agriculture.
"The current dependence on food production using nitrogen - the manufacture of which accounts for an incredibly high consumption of both energy and water - is not sustainable," says Kate Carmody, chairwoman of IOFGA. "Agriculture, like every other economic sector, must cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent, and these changes must be achieved without a loss in food productivity. We see the organic approach as an important part of the solution."
The Government aims to have 5 per cent of land certified as organic by 2012. Currently, up to 70 per cent of organic products are imported.
Illuminating night
Light pollution in Ireland is the theme of a public lecture organised by Astronomy Ireland on Monday, September 8th, at 8pm in the Physics Building of Trinity College Dublin (admission €7). The lecture will be given by Albert White, a founder of the Irish Light Pollution Awareness Campaign. White will speak about the waste of energy caused by badly designed lighting and how it prevents people from enjoying the night sky. A DVD of the lecture will be also be available from Astronomy Ireland. See www.astronomy.ie.