XIII BioCultura Eco Fair in Barcelona
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona on 05. 4.06
Today BioCultura, the annual alternative fair for the responsible consumer, opens its doors until monday May 8th at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. It’s organised by the association Vida Sana and said to be the most important eco fair in Spain if not Europe. The 600 exhibitors offer over 78.000 visitors products and services towards a more responsible consumption respecting the environment and our health. From organic agriculture to food products via clothes and shoes to tourism and craftsmanship to cosmetics and alternative therapies to furniture and architecture; it’s all here. Apart from the fair more than 200 activities take place over the 5 days such as conferences on bird flue, false eco labelling, community building, radioactivity in the food chain, FSC wood labelling, building a straw house, etc.
This year’s specials are the parallel events Mamaterra and the Organic Gastronomy Festival.
Mamaterra is the ecological childhood festival with a space for babies, children and parents to learn to love nature and to live closer to Mamma Terra. The Organic Gastronomy Festival aims to bring organic food from the Mediterranean mainstream with olive oil and vine taster sessions and talks on organic food for everyone from schools to gourmets.
If you go you will find Maderas Nobles, the Foundation Terra, Triodos Bank and the Leopoldo City Vegetable Garden amongst many. If you can’t come, check out the Vida Sana web site where you find endless tips, workshops and the latest on how to live a healthier life (web site in Spanish). ::BioCultura
And coming soon.....to a small country not so far away:
12th Sustainable Living Festival
'Powering Down Our Communities'
Tuesday 17th to Sunday 22nd | April 2007
Dublin, Ireland
The Twelfth Convergence Sustainable Living Festival focuses on the issues of Climate Change and Peak Oil as catalysts of sustainable development. What can we and our communities do to respond to these challenges? Over the years Convergence has provided an important platform for the sharing of best practice, networking and the furthering of sustainable development in Ireland. The atmosphere and intensity of the festival has always been a melting pot for ideas and very apt for the theme of sustainable living.
"As a first time visitor to the Convergence festival and the Cultivate Centre can I congratulate the organisers for providing such an excellent opportunity to really focus in and facilitate such a public debate on how we as a society must come to grips with our totally unsustainable modern lifestyle. Conferences like this have a vital role in informing and educating the wider public. The Cultivate Centre provides an excellent facility around which this debate and change of lifestyle can be championed. This project needs to be replicated. May I wish you every success for the future."
- John Gilliland, Sustainable Development Commissioner for N. Ireland
http://www.sustainable.ie/convergence/index.htm