Inside a fridge in Israel
Peeking inside people’s fridges is a new series being put on by the BBC, as part of their research into sustainable eating around the world. It is not a new idea, and what people are eating has been well-documented by photojournalists (The Walrus magazine) and also on the internet. You can even take a snapshot of your own fridge and send it in. We’d need to do some serious cleaning of ours before we sent anyone anywhere a pic of what’s going on in there.
And while we get a secret thrill of checking out what others may be stocking up on, there is also something creepy about it – like sharing your underwear drawer.
All that aside, a Jerusalem resident Khalil Abu Arqub was interviewed by BBC to show his fridge. What does Khalil eat and where does he buy it? The list includes tomatoes, peppers, lemon, cucumber, bananas, apples, hummous, labneh, tuna, spam, sugary water, potatoes, pepper sauce (for chicken) and ketchup. In the freezer are 2kg of chicken and 2kg of chicken liver.
He buys most of his goods from the West Bank; the bananas come from Jericho; the hummus, labaneh, potato and pepper sauce and sugary water are homemade.
Says Khalil, “I’m very conscious about the quality of food that I buy for my wife and our five children. I know that some Palestinian farmers use water tainted by sewage to irrigate their crops, and I don’t want my family to eat this produce.”
Produce supplied to Israelis also comes from the West Bank and we’ve always been suspicious on how pesticides are regulated there. A good reason to switch to organic, and to start a small veggie garden on your porch?
Or are you observing shmita the Jewish Sabbatical year for the land and buying only from abroad? For some starting points, see Ornitte’s lovely post on cheap organic options.
And hey BBC, we’d like to see what’s in the fridge of someone from Tel Aviv, or the other side of Jerusalem. Show us for once, that you’re not so predictably anti-Israel.
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]
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