Afghan farmers get “burned out” as government there tows to US pressure. But for poppy farmers, it’s poppies or starvation. Wheat crops, or biofuel crops cannot compare in value. Molar (not his real name) is an Afghan farmer living in the central Hazzrajat Province of Afghanistan. His 60 hectare farm along the Helmand River has […]
A new television series, “Sovev Israel” (translated as both Around Israel and Israel Environment), was launched on March 22, 2009 in Israel. The series was produced by Israel Educational Television in cooperation with the Geography Instruction Inspectorate in the Ministry of Education and with the assistance of numerous organizations, including the Ministry of Environmental Protection, […]
Imagine being able to place an entire farm, complete with crops and livestock, in the same space as is required for one of today’s modern urban skyscrapers. A Columbia University professor, Dickson Despommier, has been involved in such a project that could turn a 30 story glass faced building into a vertical agricultural enterprise capable […]
While rockets fly overhead, Bat-Zion Benjaminson tends her garden. The religious mother of four hopes to establish an eco-village in the moshav (cooperative community) of Shokeda, which is located just six kilometers away from the border of Gaza. According to Bat-Zion, the war being fought in the area is not just with rockets. “This is […]
Want to learn about organic agriculture and how it’s done in the Middle East? Maybe you’re interested in making cheese from goat’s milk? Or perhaps letting come what may — being the assistant to an eccentric Kibbutznik’s experiment or mindless work on the production line. A number of Israeli kibbutzes are now privatized, leaving no […]
Once upon a time people lived in a different kind of harmony with nature (can you imagine yourself pictured above?). Except for the aristocracy who lived in castles and lords who collected taxes on land, most people all over the world, especially in the Middle East, prayed for rain and sun in the summer in […]
Vandana Shiva isn’t a writer to pull punches. By the twelfth page of ‘Stolen Harvest’ (2000), she announces a damning verdict on Western food production: “Industrial agriculture has not produced more food. It has destroyed diverse sources of food, and it has stolen food from other species to bring larger quantities of specific commodities to […]
How do you really know that the beef you bought is organic, kosher, halal, or raised with loving kindness? The Israeli company Bactochem has the solution. The idea started in Israel, where animal theft has become a major concern. Hundreds of beef cows worth $2,000 a head are being stolen a year, and in most […]
For those readers about to participate in tonight’s Yom Kippur fast, Green Prophet Daniella Cheslow offers up many reasons why we need to think again about food production in this weeks ‘eco-reads’ review: Paul Roberts may be the only food writer capable of swinging from prehistoric man gathering berries to a doomsday scenario ten years […]
How many shades of green can a Jaffa orange be? Israeli fruit and vegetable grower and supplier Mehadrin (owned by Hadarim, a property and building group, and a succession of other parent companies) is working with British supermarket chain Tesco in a bid to mark all its Jaffa oranges with the Carbon Trust label, a […]
It’s not every day that you can party with a group of farmers in the middle of a city. Even rarer, it’s not every day that you can party with urban Israeli farmers on the rooftop of a historic building in the center of Tel Aviv and learn about some green goodness to boot. Which […]
I was so anxious on Monday as I awaited word of delivery of my very first Israeli community supported agriculture (CSA) delivery to its drop spot in Tel Aviv. I was nervous, not because I thought the vegetables wouldn’t be good or because I was unsure if I was getting a good deal (the veggies […]
Most people know that organic produce is good and that pesticides are bad. Not only do pesticides have negative effects on human health, having been linked to neurological problems, various cancers, Parkinson’s disease, kidney damage, and reproductive disorders, to name a few, but pesticides have negative effects on the environment as well. The toxic pesticides […]