The nitrogen cycle is one of our human life-support systems, supporting human life and life on our planet. Our disruption of the nitrogen cycle is a public health issue of profound importance.

Date: 17th, 18th & 19th of February, Cloughjordan, Tipperary. The aim of this weekend conference is to introduce the CSA concept to communities and growers on the island of Ireland. The event will bring together food producers and emerging Irish CSA’s while creating networking and learning opportunities with experienced initiatives from across Europe.

by Brian Kallor. We in the modern West have grown up surrounded by mountains of food – grown, picked, processed, preserved, cooked and refrigerated for us, and in such quantities that a third of it is through away uneaten, and obesity presents a major health crisis. Fossil fuels made this brief state possible, and now that we see their end on the horizon we must reacquaint ourselves with the more basic methods of getting nutrition — ideally allowing more of us, not just to survive, but to eat well.

A symposium at the 2nd annual Irish Council for Psychotherapy conference. Presented by Feasta member John Sharry, with Phil Kearney and Aebhin Cawley. Conference date: January 26-27 2012 Venue: Dublin Castle

In a follow-up to her earlier post on preparing your household for a currency crisis, Theresa Carter suggests a range of practical preparations that communities can make in order to build resilience.

In his chapter from the New Zealand edition of Fleeing Vesuvius, Laurence Boomert gives an account of a lifetime built on accepting and rejecting Vesuvius and the progressive actions taken to beat the odds. “The foreground will seem like the end of the world but I see, through the smoke and ruins of that which must fall, a wiser, more humble, more determined humanity with 10,000 years of social and technological success stories to draw on, setting a new course for the future.”

In this article Brian Davey explains the rationale for setting up a group called “Cafe Economique” in Nottingham. Following a similar group in Leeds a Nottingham group has been set up, one of whose aims is to give non-economists the confidence to participate in economic discussions. It is high time that non-economists feel able to challenge the baloney that most economists preach and are armed with the ideas that will allow them to do so. In this piece, Brian attacks the status claim that economics makes when it describes itself as a “social science”.