Frying pan company Neoflam smacks TV show with libel law suit There was consumer chaos a few months ago in Israel when a local investigative report TV show Kolbotek, not unlike 60 Minutes in the US, tested ceramic frying pans and pots for potentially dangerous levels of toxic chemicals like cadmium and lead. The report […]
As we learn from Starbucks and their new sustainable approach of using a red beetle to color their pink drinks (that’s instead of oil tar), when you follow dietary laws for any religion, sometimes the least healthy option is the one you have to take. In the midst of the Jewish holiday of Passover, Jews in […]
This guest post by Daniella Dimitrova Russo the co-founder and executive director of Plastic Pollution Coalition gives us reasons to still worry about buying BPA-free products. What is the connection between obesity, reproductive and other endocrine-related conditions, heart disease, and cancer? Recent studies point conclusively towards one ubiquitous chemical that is used in everything from […]
The most advanced country in the world for “legalizing it” for medical reasons, the main reason Israelis can smoke pot to feel better is this man Rafael Mechoulam. While Americans petition state senators to legalize medical marijuana, and the Dutch simply go to an Amsterdam café to self-medicate, thousands of Israelis are enrolled in a […]
Low impact farming starts new cycle of plant life in the Palestinian Authority. Age-old agricultural techniques in the West Bank help conserve rare plants that might otherwise have perished, according to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. A new survey shows that farmers following traditional practices in the south Hebron Hills have sustained a large […]
This guy may look kind of sexy with his pipe, but the BBC unveils just how toxic smoking shisha really is. It’s always been a source of curiosity to me that even my health-conscious friends in the Middle East rarely pass up an opportunity to suck on a shisha pipe – as though that seductive […]
Kids in the Middle East love those super-sweet soda and drink beverages. Loaded with sugar, parents should limit intake for new reasons. With all the food and beverage issues making headlines, like pink slime hamburgers and meat glue worries, there is new bad news on syrupy soft drinks that people order with those “slime burgers” and French […]
Enslaved Jews in Egypt built storehouses in Pithom and Ramses, according to tradition. But did they cement the bricks with dates and honey? “Seder” means “order.” The first Passover night’s meal follows a specific order, and the first thing we see on the seder table is a plate of symbolic foods. In the center of […]
Looking for a quick, delicious and healthy side dish? Grab some sweet potatoes. There’s lots of cooking going on at this time of year. Passover, Easter, vacation time – guests coming over, family at home, and festive meals to prepare. A busy cook needs easy, reliable recipes to fill out her or his menus. Sweet […]
Passover matzah ball soup. There are ways to make this holiday greener. Image via DavidMarcel. Jews in Israel and around the world are preparing for the week-long Passover holiday beginning Monday evening, March 29, 2010. Passover, more than any other Jewish holiday, is all about the food. We get rid of the chametz (leavened food), […]
A man identified as “A.M” made off with $1 million worth of saffron before Dubai authorities launched an undercover investigation to nab him! Who would have thought that stealing saffron would be such a lucrative venture? An expert, apparently. Formerly a spice trader in Iran, a man living in Dubai stole more than $1 million […]
A Red Notice was sent through Interpol accusing this man of selling rotten potatoes to Algeria. image via Vancouver Sun First of all, a Canadian man named Henk Tepper was accused by Algerian officials of selling rotten potatoes. Rather than take it up with him in a civil court, they issued a “Red Notice” through […]
The One Time Use Store is great; but what happens to all the throwaway dishes after Passover? The Jewish festival of Passover or Pesach is one in which most people in Israel and Jewish people around the world spend much time in preparation, especially house cleaning and disposing of unwanted items, and over eating highly caloric […]
Major pink slime company files for bankruptcy protection in the US. Dubbed ‘Pink Slime’ by activists and ‘finely textured beef’ by the manufacturers, beef filler made by ammonium has turned out to be a smoking gun in the food industry, demonstrating just how powerful activist intervention is in changing paradigms. One of the biggest ground […]
Starbuggs? Starbucks is now turning to natural food colorings, using bugs? The bad news for vegans and those who keep kosher. It might not be able to turn a profit in Paris, but Starbucks coffee has a sizeable presence in the Middle East, operating in nine countries, employing thousands and serving up coffee and treats since […]
An expanding farm in the Palestinian Territory provides jobs to more than 100 locals. More than 600,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank are without jobs. That’s just over 16% of the population, and in the Gaza Strip the situation is worse with fully 40% of the population unemployed. In the past we’ve explored the value […]
What would Charlotte the spider think of this man-made SpiderNet? An Israeli made artificial spider web made to protect crops from insect pests will be one of the showcased products at Israel’s Agritech 2012 exhibit. Made from a special weave of micro-fibers, this new netting called SpiderNet is woven to catch insects in the field, […]
Thousands of animals have died and more are infected with a deadly strain of foot-and-mouth disease that has plowed through Egypt. Despite government assurances that they were in control of Egypt’s foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), an outbreak has swept through the country, killing more than 10,000 animals to date. The UN Food and Agriculture Association (FAO) […]
A boy chases a ball into one of Tunisia’s 400 unofficial dumps. After the hustle and bustle of Tunisia’s capital medina dies down, the kids come out to play – in the trash! A large open area just a few blocks from the main tourist attraction, a space between two buildings has been converted into […]
Ever wonder what to do with eggplants? Read on for some Middle Eastern eggplant ideas. At the start of the month, markets didn’t have much new. Everything in February’s post still applied. Newcomers like strawberries were still expensive and not sweet yet. Now, seasonal produce is on the upward swing towards summer’s abundance and those […]
Laurie spring cleans with her daughter and is shocked at the toxic chemicals she finds in her cupboards. Teens are especially at risk. When your ancestral roots include a tangle of Irish housewives, you instinctively interpret “Vernal Equinox” as “spring cleaning”. I live in a furnished apartment. I’ve shed most of my superfluous stuff after a […]
The poor man’s Riviera, that’s how we see it: Eilat is a vacation hotspot for tourists looking to catch some cheap winter sun, and for local Israelis who want a quick jaunt out of the north without having to change time zones and a wad of cash into foreign currency. Not necessarily a poor town, […]
This man singlehandedly produces up to 5,500 bottles of delicious red wine each year, despite living in a frequently drought-stricken region Dave Levitan from Onearth, one of our favorite environmental blogs, traveled to Israel to meet with a hardy winemaker in the Negev desert and came away gushing. No, not from all the red wine […]
Fresh produce stands like this one are popular all over Turkey. But these colorful displays contain a toxic blend of pesticides, according to a new Greenpeace report (in German). Of 76 different fruits and vegetables recently evaluated, Turkish peppers contained the most excessive and dangerous amounts of pesticide chemicals, according to Food Without Pesticides, a new 26-page guide […]
Lean, finely textured beef (LFTB) is really Pink Slime First it was McDonald’s and other fast food chains that caught the flack for using the ammonium nitrate laced filler product known colloquially as pink slime. The giant hamburger chain afterwards agreed to quit using pink slime in their hamburger patties. We were able to find […]