Contents

1. What does it mean to be a member of FEASTA?
2. FEASTA roadshow - Come and meet us!
3. What the Tanaiste thinks of Growth: The Celtic Cancer
4. What the Working Groups Did Next
5. Dates for your Diary April - May
6. Living in the Cracks - brand new book from FEASTA
7. FEASTA Books - The Libraries Campaign
8. Membership

What does it mean to be a member of FEASTA?

FEASTA is a network of people who have linked together to make the world a more sustainable place. Through joining Working Groups, members can engage in activities which they would find hard to undertake by themselves. Although members of a group may live in different countries, they are linked by their interest in the subject and in exploring the changes that would be involved in acheiving a sustainable world.

Subscription to this ebulletin is FREE - for details on how to become a full member of FEASTA see Membership.

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FEASTA roadshow - drop by and say hello

In the next couple of months, the following events will be enlivened with a FEASTA presence. We will have a stand with some free literature as well as a great range of books, dvds and cds for sale. Drop by and say hi, bring organic apple juice if you can. Add a liberal dash of whisky if it's raining.

Eco-Day - Saturday April 9th
County Hall, Marine Road, Dun Laoghaire

Last year's event featured self-build wormeries, compost demos, eco-nappies, recycled puppetry, wetland mini-beasts, coastal wildlife and a seal release. This year promises to be even bigger with many more exhibitors and events. We're hoping to position ourselves alongside the wetland mini-beasts.

Small Woodlands at Work - Saturday April 16th
Moss' Road, Clonbullogue, Edenderry, Co. Offaly

A conference followed by a woodland show. Many allied trade stands and stalls, and exciting skills demonstrations including coppersmithing, tent making, charcoal making, woodcarving, blacksmithing and more. The perfect place to hug a Sitka Spruce. FEASTA will be fighting for a place in the yurt.

Convergence - Saturday/Sunday April 23rd - 24th
Essex Street West/Meeting House Square, Temple Bar East, Dublin

Hosted by the good people of Sustainable Ireland at the Cultivate centre, this is the seventh year of this annual sustainable living festival. From film screenings, workshops & conferences to art, music, food & fun, the Convergence festival has it all. The festival runs from 20th - 24th April, FEASTA will be there for the weekend only. For more details on the festival, see www.sustainable.ie/convergence/7

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FEASTA and the Tánaiste - it's crazy stuff!

It has recently come to our attention that the second FEASTA review, Growth: The Celtic Cancer was the cause of a robust exchange of views between the Tánaiste Mary Harney and Green Party TD John Gormley on 23rd November 2004, during discussion of the Health Bill. If you haven't read it yet, do so - you can order it direct from FEASTA - and decide for yourself whether it is "an excellent document" or just plain ol' "crazy stuff"...

John Gormley:

The legislation does not address the root causes of our health crisis. Like conventional medicine, it deals with the symptoms of the problem. We may be - I say "may be" because this is disputed - living longer, but we are becoming sicker. As pointed out in the latest Feasta review entitled Growth: The Celtic Cancer, which I advocate as recommended reading for the Tánaiste...

Ms Harney: It is a joke.

Mr. Gormley: It is not a joke.

Ms Harney: It recommends poverty is good for one's health.

Mr. Gormley: It is an excellent document.

Ms Harney: I read a bit of it.

Mr. Gormley: That is good because I will remind the Tánaiste about a few key statistics in it.

Ms Harney: It proposes we go into recession because that would be good for our health, namely, if we were unemployed and poor.

Mr. Gormley: The review is not joke because it is founded on the fact that...

Ms Harney: The review is mad.

Mr. Gormley: It is not mad.

Ms Harney: It is crazy stuff.

Mr. Gormley: It is an excellent piece of work. I commend the authors of it, in particular my Green Party colleague, Dr. Liz Cullen, for her fascinating and insightful contribution. What it states is the key to solving the problems we are currently experiencing in our health service. I am glad the Tánaiste has at least dipped into it.

Ms Harney: I was so amazed by what I heard about it that I had to read it to see if it could possibly be true.

Mr. Gormley: It is all true.

Ms Harney: It states that economic success is bad for our health.

Mr. Gormley: The Tánaiste wants to believe what the Taoiseach calls the right wing economists who write for The Economist who would have us believe that we are living in some sort of nirvana in that they claim we have the best quality of life in the world. That is bunkum. This publication puts paid to that myth.

Ms Harney: It suggests a recession would be good for our health.

Mr. Gormley: We do not have the best quality of life in the world. A question I have put over and over again to the Minister's predecessors, and which I will put to her, is the role played by stress in causing illness. We have to examine stress levels...

Ms Harney: The Deputy is causing me stress.

Mr. Gormley: I will try not to.

Ms Harney: He should think about my health.

Mr. Gormley: I might be bad for the T·naiste's health if I do, but I will try not to cause her so much stress.

I will give a few statistics. A survey of 1,000 people carried out in 2001 on behalf of the Mental Health Association of Ireland found that 73% reported finding life more stressful than five years previously, 19% of the respondents said they were smoking more and 17% said they were drinking more in order to cope with stress. The national health and lifestyle survey of 6,539 people in 1999 to ascertain what people believe would best improve their health found that the majority reported that less stress would improve their health regardless of their age, sex and social background. A follow-up report in 2001 also reported that stress was the most common answer from males and females in reply to that question. These are the facts.

In an on-line survey in 2001 a sample of 2,000 students were asked if they thought that the level of stress experienced by the general Irish population had increased, in response to which more than two thirds said that it had increased a great deal, 30% said it had increased a little and only 3% said it had not increased at all. All the indications show that stress is increasing.

One of the surveys I find fascinating was one on depressive disorders. In 2003, research involving a representative sample of 12,702 women in four European countries found that women in Dublin were more susceptible to depressive disorders than in similar cities in other countries. It was found that one in three suffered from depression. One of the authors, Professor Patricia Casey, commented that this study was conducted at a time of economic boom when one would expect depressive disorders to reduce.

They have not reduced. This is this problem. The Tánaiste created the Celtic tiger, so she claims. She has created this mess, this level of illness and now she claims she will fix it, but I do not believe she will.

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What the Working Groups Did Next...

One of the great benefits of FEASTA membership is the opportunity to get involved with, or start, a working group. FEASTA's working groups address a wide range of topics - democracy, housing, food & health, energy - for more details, see www.feasta.org/active.htm.

The Community Learning Toolkit produced by FEASTA's Education Group is currently being tested in a pilot course, facilitated by Davie Philip at Sustainable Ireland's Cultivate centre. It consists of an innovative mixed media toolkit of study materials on sustainability for use by organisations or groups of friends who might wish to meet together regularly to explore and discuss the topic together as a prelude to some form of action. The kit will have material for ten meetings and will cover the work of FEASTA including energy, peak oil, climate change, and money systems. The toolkit will be released in CD-rom format and will be available from June 2005 onwards.

FEASTA's Food Group, in association with the Department of Environmental Resource Management, is organising an international conference on Food Security in an Energy Scarce World, scheduled for June 23rd - 25th 2005 at the Faculty of Agri-Food and the Environment, University College Dublin. Speakers are to include John Feehan, Richard Heinberg, David Holmgren, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Jules Pretty and Colin Sage. For more details see www.feasta.org/food.htm

FEASTA's Education Group is currently reforming. Anyone interested or involved in education is most welcome to get in contact via the FEASTA office.

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Living in the Cracks - brand new book from FEASTA

A delightful new book has just landed on my desk - and what do you know, it's published by FEASTA! Living in the Cracks is an engaging book about social enterprises in Britain and the Czech Republic. Banking, land, housing & food are just a few of the needs that these social entrepreneurs are responding to, and this loving documentation of their efforts makes for inspiring reading.

The book is attractively produced on recycled paper and well worth the bargain price of €8 for members, €10 for non-members. Full review coming soon in the next issue of the newsletter.

To celebrate the publication of this worthy tome, FEASTA is offering a special discount on book purchases - 3 for the price of 2 - Yes, that's right! when you buy any 3 books direct from FEASTA, you get the cheapest one free. Waterstones ain't got nuthin' on us.

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Dates for your Diary April - May

Earth Day - 22nd April

Celebrate Earth Day internationally - see www.earthday.net for ideas on participation, to check out locations and times of events, or to register your own Earth Day event.

The GM-free Ireland Network is coordinating a mass launch of local GMO-free zones for Earth Day. The GMO-free sites will be revealed during a national media briefing at the Convergence Festival in Dublin. Add your voice to the call for cross-border and EC legislation to protect participating organic and conventional farms (together with National Parks, SACs, REPS and other areas) seeking protection from contamination by GMO animal feed, seeds, trees, crops, livestock and fish. For more information on how to participate see www.gmfreeireland.org

Action on Waste - 14th - 17th April

Cork Environmental Forum's innovative direct action campaign just sounds like a lot of fun to me. Now in its fifth year, the event is a consumer outreach campaign, with information stands set up in supermarkets across Cork city and county. Volunteers are needed to coordinate & support stands. Contact: Hodgson@cef.ie.

TV turnoff week - April 25th - May 1st

Time to fight back. The Culture Jammers Network has teamed up with the good folks at TV-B-Gone, makers of a pint-size remote control that shuts off any television, anywhere. Reclaim public space! For more see adbusters.org

FEASTA's Annual General Meeting will take place in Dublin in early May. All members are welcome to attend - you will be notified by post at least three weeks beforehand.

Local Food Communities - at 8pm, Wednesday May 25th
Workshop hosted by Dublin Food Co-op and FEASTA, Ticket €8

Successive food scares and farming crises have left consumers feeling increasingly alienated from the way their food is grown and processed. Local foods, such as speciality farmhouse cheeses, distinctive apple varieties and locally produced vegetables can help reconnect consumers with farmers and give the public real choices about the food they eat, the way it is produced and its impact on the environment. See www.feasta.org or www.dublinfoodcoop.com

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FEASTA Books - The Libraries Campaign

As some of you are no doubt aware, FEASTA has published several excellent books, available as discounted price to members. Now here's how you can help us get the message out there, through the 'people power' Libraries Campaign.

Visit, telephone or write to your local library requesting a copy of one or all of the following three books:

FEASTA Review No. 1, published May 2001, ISBN 0954051009
Available from Green Books (UK) or direct from FEASTA

FEASTA Review No. 2, Growth: The Celtic Cancer (Mary Harney's bedtime reading) published November 2004, ISBN 1843510626
Available from Green Books (UK), Gill & Macmillan (Ireland) or direct from FEASTA

Before the Wells Run Dry - Ireland's Transition to Renewable Energy, published September 2003, ISBN 1843510375
Available from Green Books (UK), Gill & Macmillan (Ireland) or direct from FEASTA

Only with YOUR help we can ensure that these books are widely available and part of the public record. Go on, do it now!

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Membership

Membership of FEASTA gives you the opportunity to support the foundation's work and entitles you to a discount on the Feasta review due out next month, two newsletters, quarterly e-mail bulletins, and concessions on our events and publications.

€20 for a years membership
€10 concession for students and unwaged
€30 for a voluntary group or organisation
€65 for a funded group or organisation

If you are not a member please consider becoming one.Credit card payments accepted, and of course, donations are very welcome.