As part of its long bid for European Union membership, Turkey has announced that 74 pesticides are off limits because they are poisonous. The Hurriyet Daily News reports that the EU has a list of 135 illegal chemicals, and Turkey is working on the others. This is part of several environmental moves afoot in Turkey, […]
A study released last week shows that more than one in five Israeli schoolchildren is overweight. According to Haaretz, the towns Nahariya (37%), Bat Yam (34%), Or Yehuda (32.6%), Tira (31.1%) and Kalansawa (31%) lead the list. In the Hebrew edition of the same article, a health specialist chalks up the trend to the unsurprising […]
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu gave up an idea to close a 1.8 billion shekel ($450 million) budget gap by taxing fresh fruits and vegetables at 16.5 percent. The tax proposal was shot down by a combination of interests representing the poor, the farming sector and good nutrition. According to Ynet, 62% of […]
Green Prophet has already reported on Kibbutz Tzuba switching to wine production because of the decreased water needs of grapes. Now Israeli wine is going even greener, with solar power. This past Monday, Sunday Energy Ltd. (Isra’el’s leading solar energy service provider) announced that it had completed installing a 50 kW Peak solar system on […]
Loyal GP readers know that there are many ways to cut a burger out of your life, from being a part-time vegetarian to vegging out on Meatless Mondays at Israel’s gourmet restaurants. The Onion reports one more: the American fast food chain Taco Bell is going green by replacing all its ingredients with those grown […]
(Lebanese fishermen in southern Tyre clean their catch. Photo from AFP.) Southern Lebanese fishermen say their catch has slumped from 88 pounds a day in the 60s and 70s to a measly three or four-pound daily take because of aggressive dynamite fishing, overfishing and pollution. According to a report published by AFP, the Lebanese marine […]
Nestled into the Jerusalem Hills, Kibbutz Tzuba has decided to scrap its apple orchards and grow more grapes to save on water during the current crisis. According to the Jerusalem Post, Tzuba once grew kiwis that guzzled an outrageous 1,000 cubic meters of water per dunam (dunam=1/4 acre). Then the farm switched to apples, which […]
Israeli company AfiMilk has developed a new meter that can monitor milk production in real time and online, giving dairy farmers critical information about possible contamination to milk supplies. Normally farmers would take a sample of milk from “each cow, once a month, and send that sample to the lab,” says Noa Yonish, the marcom […]
Scientists have long known that human breast milk is high in dioxins, environmental contaminants that enter our diets when we ingest agricultural pesticides and pollution from plastics. Researchers at the University of Rochester School of Medicine exposed pregnant mice to a dioxin known as TCDD. TCDD is one of a family of isomers known chemically […]
As we saw in recent posts on vegawarianism and collective vegetarianism, meatless lifestyles now come in all different shapes and sizes. To add to these vegetarian possibilites, Jana and Ilan Gur, owners of the Al Hashulchan (“On the Table”) food magazine, recently introduced the Sheni Tzimchoni (Vegetarian Monday) initiative. Dozens of Israel’s best restaurants have […]
(A view of flood water in an olive grove in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, last October. The filthy water killed about 30 olive trees. Photo from Ma’an News). The regional water crisis has hit the West Bank and Gaza hard, and the Palestinian Water Authority is rushing to repair crumbling infrastructure to maximize the little […]
You heard about being a vegawarian here, which in case you forgot, means “you are ‘aware’ that eating animals contributes more towards global warming than eating plants. So, maybe, sometimes, you will choose the vegetarian option instead of the meat option.” The New York Times’ Freakonomics blog has just published another scheme for cutting down […]
Dr. Fuad Fares has a huge secret. It’s big enough to make sure his laboratory is locked tight when he’s not there. The Israeli scientist has been looking into the potency of ancient herbal treatments, and has discovered what he believes is a new family of antioxidants. He’s tested the secret compound based on an […]
If you are planning to be in Beer Sheva next week, make it Thursday and drop by the Earth’s Promise community garden for a festival of Ethiopian culture. Earth’s Promise founder Isaac Hametz started the garden about a year ago as a way to help newly arrived immigrants adapt to life in Beer Sheva. The […]
The desalination of water will be expanding in Israel in order to cope with the current water shortage, according to Globes. Last week, the Ministry of Finance signed an agreement for financing the expansion of the Hadera desalination plant by 27 million cubic meters per year. Not only will the plant be producing 127 million […]
The facts are these: Water scarcity is a real and looming threat; while several countries are already below the dreaded 1700 m3 per capita water availability mark, many others are quickly approaching it; most international NGOs have predicted that the worst affected will be those already marginalised, the sick, and the poor, the children and […]
Earlier in the year, GreenProphet visited the organic farms of Wadi Fuqin, a Palestinian village located south of Jerusalem on the border of the West Bank. If you haven’t had a chance to go to the farm, you can see the vegetables in a farmer’s market this Friday in Jerusalem. Most of the small plots […]
The massive swine flu cull in Egypt has impacted the city’s garbage collectors, the Zabaleen. Normally they fed organic waste to the pigs. Now what? Not long ago Green Prophet reported the Egyptian government’s plan to cull the country’s 300,000 pigs as panic of the swine influenza spread across the world. Now the effects of […]
Breastfeeding is good for the environment and good for babies. To encourage and support breastfeeding in Israel, the breastfeeding support organization La Leche League (LLL) and Tel Hashomer/Sheba Medical Center Nursing School are co-sponsoring a conference Monday, June 1, 2009 at Tel Hashomer. The conference is open to health care professionals, nursing mothers, and the […]
Israel is in the midst of a sharav, a scorchingly hot and dry weather front typical for this time of year. We don’t want to waste resources or increase pollution by turning on air-conditioning. So how can we ensure that baby is cool and hydrated?
Stylish and modern, the Kuwait-born Queen Rania of Jordan is helping Jordanian farmers go organic, reports the Jordan Times. Known for her humanitarian work on women’s rights, she is now launching a national program for organic farmers. The plan is to convert up to 5% of Jordanian farms by 2014. She is also working to […]
With its Mediterranean climate Syria is a natural home to the olive tree (read about the history of the olive tree here). It is ranked 5th in the world in production of olive oil, behind Spain, Italy, Greece and Tunisia, with a share of 4.6% of world production. This makes the olive sector one of […]
Global warming and climate change, which we know is threatening the majestic cedars of Lebanon, is now having a serious effect on water resources in Turkey. The situation is getting so bad that is really hard to believe that Turkey is the same country that only a short time ago offered to sell water to […]
Ever since American talk show host Oprah Winfrey announced that her website www.oprah.com would be giving away coupons for free chicken dinners, KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants around America have been literally inundated with people coming with coupons in hand for a free chicken dinner, including two side dishes and a farm biscuit. The […]
When it comes to organic and environmentally conscious dining, Tel Aviv definitely has a reputation for getting with the program. The white city (which is currently celebrating its 100th year) already has a vegan burger joint, organic hummus, organic falafel, organic coffee shops, and an environmentally friendly food festival. We realize that dining out has […]