Humans have been plucking the fruit off olive trees for over 10,000 years, so it’s no surprise we’ve found creative ways to use olives and their oils.  They’re native to the Mediterranean-basin, and probably first domesticated in Crete, but who first hatched the recipe for extracting olives’ oils remains an mystery.

We know the stuff is tasty, and its nutritional benefits go far beyond  keeping cholesterol levels in check.  But if you’re aiming to simplify your lifestyle, tapping in the versatility of this kitchen staple is a reasonable way to begin. From hand cleaners to skin moisturizers (without parabens, additives or perfumes) to gum remover… check out ten tasks for this Levantine wonder that you won’t see on the Food Network.

• Hand Cleaner – make a paste of olive oil and sugar (or salt) and scrub your paint-splattered hands (strips almost any sticky goo).  The mess slides right off, and your skin will glow.
• Hair Conditioner – warm a bit of oil (set it in a cup inside a bowlful of boiled water) and apply a few tablespoons onto dampened hair.  Massage into the ends (avoid scalp), pop on a shower cap and let it sit for 20 minutes. Wash hair as usual, thoroughly removing the residue. You’ll be sleek as a seal.
• Skin Moisturizer – pour a few drops in the palm of your hand, dip in a few fingers and pat the oil on your skin.  Gently massage in. Used in small amounts, it’s quickly absorbed. Best to scent with a few drops of your favorite essential oil, or risk smelling like a Caesar salad.
• Leather Conditioner – same technique as above (minus the nice-smelling additives).  Live in arid Jordan for a few years and you learn there’s not much difference between moisturizing your leather and your skin.
• Stainless Steel Polish – give the item a general wash, then drop a bit of oil onto a soft, clean cloth.  Using a circular motion, buff stainless, copper and brass surfaces to a brilliant shine.
• Label Remover – saturate the sticker with oil, and let it sit awhile. Using a flat edged knife or spatula, peel the label right off.
• Chewing Gum Remover – I’ve cleaned gum out of my kids’ hair and our dog’s tail with this technique: soak the affected hair in a generous amount of oil.  Leave it on for as long as the patient’s patience will allow (20 minutes is ideal) , then gently pull hair loose from the sticky wad.
• Lamp Fuel – replace the noxious stuff in your Tiki lamp with pure olive oil.  We did this in a pinch during a summer barbecue and were stunned to see it really works. Many Jews use olive oil for their weekly candle lighting ceremony.
• Furniture Polish – mix well 2 ounces of lemon juice with a teaspoon of olive oil for a combo wood cleaner – and – polisher.  Apply the same technique as for shining metals: soft cloth and circular buffing.
• Shoe Polish – following on the heels of the first nine tips, this one’s sort of intuitive. If olive oil can clean skin, shine appliances, and moisturize skin, of course it can keep your shoes tidy.  (Not recommended for cleaning Uggs.)

The post 10 Weird and Wonderful Uses for Olive Oil appeared first on Green Prophet.

The price for olive oil has dropped to its lowest level in a decade and farmers in the Middle East are bearing the brunt as Spain and Italy dump their government-subsidized stocks at below cost. “The international market prices are going below sustainable levels,” Nasser Abu Farha, the director of Canaan Fair Trade that works with some 1,500 Palestinian farmers, told The Media Line.

The price of olive oil fell to about $2,920 per ton this month, about half of the peak price of $5,850 in 2006, according to IMF data. While the plunging olive oil prices are hitting the ailing economies of Spain, Italy and Greece, the world’s largest producers of olive oil, they are ricocheting across the Levant, too.

“There is a great deal of consolidation of the olive oil market in Spain and Italy so that the bulk of the olive oil industry is controlled by very few hands,” Abu Farha said. “These giant companies pool most of the Mediterranean olive oil and this gives them a lot of leverage on the price.”

Adi Naali, olive oil division manager of Israel’s Plant Council, said that the dumping was threatening to destroy the local olive industry.

“There is a catastrophic flood of cheap oil from Europe which is threatening the future of the olive famers in Israel,” Naali told The Media Line. “A farmer can sustain a loss for a year or so, but over time they can’t and we fear they will start uprooting their groves.”

About 95% of the world’s olive trees are in the Mediterranean region. Olive oil is so well liked and is such an integral part of the cuisine that according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Mediterranean basin countries also account for 77% of the world’s consumption.

But elsewhere around the world, olive oil consumption has dramatically risen over the past decade – largely due to the popularity of the “Mediterranean diet.” World olive oil consumption reached 2.98 million tons last year, a 3.7 % increase from 2009.

Olive oil producers have also started focusing their exports on non-traditional markets, particularly China, India and Japan. China increased its import of olive oil by 62% in 2011, but most of the imports came from European countries.

“There was the expectation that every Chinaman would start drinking a spoon of olive oil a day, and the Indians too. That’s a lot of oil, and it is happening, but at a lower pace than expected,” Na’ali said.

The Europeans are now overstocked with olive oil and are trying to clear out their stocks by lowering prices.

“It’s harming us greatly,” Ayala Noymeir, who owns a mill producing organic olive oil in northern Israel, told The Media Line. “The major food chains [in Israel] are importing cheap oil from abroad and are selling it at rock bottom prices. They’re forcing us to get rid of our stocks at below cost.”

Noymeir said that the Europeans were able to dump their products cheaply because they were buffered by a subsidy from the European Union. Israeli customs aimed at protecting local farmers were not high enough to prevent the market from being flooded by the cheap oils from abroad.

“The problem is that when a housewife comes to the supermarket and compares prices, they are inclined to take the lower one, even if it’s lesser quality,” said Micha Noymeir, head of the family business of Rish Lekish, an organic olive mill in Tzippori.

But Abu Farha of Canaan Fair Trade said he believes there was room for prosperity in the olive oil specialty markets. They work with 1,500 Palestinian farmers from over 40 villages in the northern West Bank to produce olive oil, herbs and tahini. They supply major international retailers including Whole Foods in the U.S. and Sainsbury in Britain.

“The farmers who are escaping the impact of this are farmers who producing connoisseur-type specialty oils, like the farmers that we are working with, or farmers who are organized into fair trade and organic production.”

“We give the farmer a sustainable minimum regardless of the fluctuating of market prices. We give them a safety net of a minimum sustainable price, but we sell to like-minded companies in the West in Europe and North America who are willing to pay a premium on the olive oil prices when market prices are going low,” he said.

He said that olive oil production is a $200 million business in the Palestinian Authority and that it supports some 200,000 families. He said a lot of farmers who are outside their network were suffering since they have been sitting on their supplies waiting for the price to go up and a new harvest season was fast approaching.

“I see the price is going to stay low for the next couple of years, but one thing we are happy about is that we are able to sustain the $6 per-liter for our farmers at the time that it is below $3 in the market place,” Abu Farha said.

In Israel, efforts are underway to increase consumption in order to boost sales. According to the Plants Council, annual Israeli olive oil consumption is about two kilos per capita, substantially less than the 24 kilos the average Greek consumes annually.

“There was a sense that competition would be good and bring cheaper prices for the consumer but what is happening is that they are forcing the local olive farmer out of business and after that happens the importers will raise the prices,” Na’ali said.

“The Europeans are dumping their stocks and the whole market is flooded which is putting people like the Noymeirs and other farmers on the kibbutzim and in the Arab villages out of business.”

The Plant Council recently issued a quality-control sticker for Israeli olive oil which they hope will bring public confidence to the locally-made, high-quality extra virgin oils and boost sales.

This story is reprinted from the Mideast News Source, The Media Line.

Image of man with olive trees from Ryan Rodrick Beiler / Shutterstock.com

The post Cheap Olive Oil Threatens to Destroy Middle East Growers and Suppliers appeared first on Green Prophet.

This is according to the 2012 Arab Youth Survey. Launched in 2008, the annual survey is conducted by research professionals from Penn Scheon Berland (PSB) who travel to villages and cities in order to interview 2,500 young Arab men and women in person. Here is a list of the top 10 concerns that emerged during these discussions.

1. Fair Pay and Home Ownership: The survey found that young men and women are worried about having the resources to own their own home and to receive a fair wage. This is a valid concern. While we were in Tunisia, one of two new countries added to the survey’s scope, we met educated journalists who were living in hovels because their wages are so poor.
2. High Cost of Living: It comes as no surprise that Arab youth are finding it difficult to establish a decent quality of life when the cost of living is steadily increasing. Who can forget that the Arab Spring uprisings were largely spurred by the high cost of food or that energy and water prices are growing prohibitively high.
3. Lack of Democracy and Civil Unrest are Biggest Obstacles: Egypt is a sterling example of how corruption and civil unrest have interrupted the smooth operation of daily life, and young people told researchers that these two things are the greatest perceived obstacles to achieving their goals.
4. The Arab Spring is a Positive Development: This is interesting. Even though the nooks and crannies of the Arab Spring uprisings have not been worked out, most youth perceive it to be a positive development. (On a side note, check out this fascinating new novel Kapow! that traces the uprisings in visually-groundbreaking format.)
5. Increased Trust in Government but Corruption Abounds: While Arab youth are tentatively more willing to put trust in their government, they also very concerned about continued corruption. Let’s hope that the government organizations, civil society organizations and the private sector who avail themselves of these insights are paying attention.
6. The Arab Spring Won’t Spread: This will be a sigh of relief for governments in the Arab world! Most people believe that the uprisings have come to an end and that they are very unlikely to spread. But if they do well up again, Morocco, Jordan and Algeria are the countries most likely to be affected next.
7. Modern Society Challenges Traditional Values: While most young people appreciate the value of their longstanding traditions, the survey found that many also believe that they need to evolve with changing times. This need not be a cause for alarm, but some nations (like Saudi) are likely to crack down on any perceived threats to the old order.
8. Aspire to be like the UAE: The United Arab Emirates has a longstanding policy of social inclusion and are leading the charge to enact massive environmental changes, so it comes as no surprise that this is the nation to which young men and women throughout the Gulf, Levant and North Africa look for inspiration. The survey found that most people – if they could – would live in one of the seven Emirates ahead of any other Arab country.
9. France is the Most Admired Foreign Country: This is intriguing. Of all foreign countries, France, which recently elected a socialist President, is the one that most young people in the Arab world admire. Rising powers China and India, which couldn’t be more different than France in terms of its environmental, political and social identity, fall close behind.
10. TV-watching is Diminishing and News Consumption is on the Rise: This is an enormous relief. Television-watching zombies are being replaced by news-hungry civilians who increasingly look to the internet for their daily bits of information.

Visit ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey 2012 to learn more about the methodology employed to achieve these findings and to consider their implications more fully. The youth are the future. We should take their concerns seriously.

::Arab Youth Survey

More on Young Arabs:
Arab School Scoops a Coveted Israeli Green Globe Award
eZra3 Remote Farming is Like Farmville but Real
The Bedouins Convert Ill-Begotten Tunisian Mansion into a Skate Park

Image credit: Young Arab Man, Shutterstock

The post What Arab Youth Want (A List of 10 Things) appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Barn Owls pictured above have recently parented seven little owlets in a nesting box situated on Kibbutz Ma’oz Hai’im just a skip from the border with Jordan, but here’s the rub: the male on the right is Israeli and the female on the left is Jordanian!

Natural pest control

In 2002, with support from the Ministry of Regional Cooperation, the first regional seminar took place at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, a leading center of organic agriculture, to discuss the merits of breeding Barn Owls and Kestrels as part of a natural pest control program.

Since then the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, SPNI and Tel Aviv University have supported the national program in conjunction with Israel Ornithological Center and the ICSBM (Int’l Center for the Study of Bird Migration), which has enjoyed tremendous success according to Dr. Yossi Leshem, Director of ICSBM.

In 2010, the European Union came on board via the Peres Center for Peace in order to extend the program’s geographical reach. Today there are roughly 2,700 nesting boxes scattered throughout Israel, which has mitigated the use of harmful pesticides.

Trans-boundary conservation

The Palestinian Authority has established approximately 200 nesting boxes while the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture has worked with UNRWA to place an additional 100 or so nesting boxes, according to internal literature forwarded to Green Prophet by Dr. Leshem.

Jordan has also participated in this groundbreaking trans-boundary conservation program by placing a similar number of nesting boxes throughout the kingdom, facilitating the above love affair.

Dr. Leshem admitted in an interview with Moment magazine that it was difficult at first to get the Palestinian farmers on board since they believe that owls are a bad omen. Jordanians share this superstition, as evidenced by Arwa’s recent story in which two men kill an owl and boast about their “achievement.”

Photos: Moty Charter, SPNI

More on Wildlife Issues in the Levant:

Mangled Wild Animals Stuffed and Displayed at Gaza Zoo
Jordan: Two Men Boast About Killing an Owl
Jordan’s Gray Wolves are Hunted, Poisoned Run Over

The post Owl Love Knows no Borders appeared first on Green Prophet.

The European Union has pledged to build a €10 million desalination plant that will service Khan Yunis and Rafah in Gaza. This is a “medium-term” project designed to alleviate what is Gaza’s evolving water shortages. Although the Environmental Minister Gilad Erdan praised the initiative, he denies allegations leveled by the Palestinian Water Authority’s head Shaddad Attili that Israel’s blockade is responsible for Gaza’s water troubles.

In accordance with a memorandum of understanding signed between the EU’s acting representative to the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian Water Authority, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, and UNICEF, the new plant should be complete within 3 years, and service up to 75,000 residents. This is just one of several initiatives planned by the EU.

Although desalination is by no means a panacea for water scarcity, it is one step that has to be taken in the chronically dry levant. Check out photos of  murals that depict the seriousness of life without water, and learn about Gaza’s incoming eco-schools. And for more details about the plant, please visit the Jerusalem Post from where this post is adapted.

image via Morguefile

The post Gaza’s New €10 Million Desalination Plant Will Fend Off Chronic Water Shortages appeared first on Green Prophet.

Los Angeles based Origin Oil has recently announced its intention to up-list its stock exchange shares as a result of the development of a new large scale oil extraction from algae process that could result in the process of up to 1100 liters (300 gallons) per minute of algae culture continuously. This biomass culture can be used to process bio fuel for cars and other vehicles. Converting algae into bio fuel has been written about on previous occasions for Green Prophet: Israel and China are planning to work together on a joint bio fuel project.  An Israeli Isaac Berzin brought the idea back to life while working for NASA. Another article reported that  algae based bio-fuels may even one day send astronauts into space.

An alge biofuel farm up close

The California company wrote in a recent press release that their affiliate, Solazyne, recently raised more than $200 million in a recent IPO offering to fund its own activities;  resulting in other companies, including Origin Oil, being more optimistic about the commercialization of creating bio fuel energy from algae.

The new oil extraction from algae process is now in operation in Queensland Australia.

Developing biofuel from algae is now being worked on in many parts of the world; even in Iran where researchers connected with Shiraz University were able to create bio fuel from algae being grown in a salt lake in the country. Though when we sent them an email asking about their operations, there was no reply.

Providing the growing of large amounts of algae to make bio fuel does not interfere with other life forms, or cause additional environmental problems, there shouldn’t be any reason why algae shouldn’t be used to produce suitable bio fuels that one day might be used for commercial airliners, as well as for sending astronauts into space.

As was stated by Origin Oil’s Senior Vice President of  Technology: “We occupy a unique position in the fast-growing algae industry and our move to a national exchange will help facilitate our delivery of systems and proprietary technology to key customers.”

Although finding large quantities of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean off Israel’s coastline (and possible along the entire Levant basin) makes some people question any country’s investment into using algae to create biomass for use as fuel, researchers into algae for use as fuel could simply add another fuel option that could be as good or even better than natural gas.

Read more on turning algae into biofuel:
Algae Biofuels to Send Astronauts Into Space?
With So Much Natural Gas, is Biofuel a Viable Mideast Fuel Option?
Algae Into Biofuel a Greener Story in $10 Million Joint Israel and Chinese Project
Iran Creates Biofuel From Algae

The post Origin Oils Algae Should Inspire More Mid East Biofuels appeared first on Green Prophet.

Religious leaders in Lebanon asked their followers to pray for rain around the same time Rabbis in Jerusalem were doing the same. Only Orthodox Jews were asked to take their immolation to the next level by fasting.

Throughout the Middle East, but especially in the Levant, the heat has barely eased its summer routine, causing all kinds of havoc. Vegetables prices have doubled and even tripled according to NPR, the dairy industry is melting under crisis, and fauna and flora are shifting their habits with the changing climes.As climate talks in Cancun come to a close, with little if any significant changes to write home about given the largest polluters’ unwillingness to compromise their carbon lifestyle, other countries are suffering the consequence of inaction.

NPR’s Steve Inskeep hosted Lourdes Garcia-Navarro’s report that November has come and gone with no rain. Lebanon enjoyed a brief respite but all signs point for an increasingly arid winter throughout the region.

One farmer in Jerusalem told Garcia-Navarro that apples, potatoes, cucumbers and fruit are particularly expensive because there isn’t enough water. The Israeli government rations its water, so if more is used, farmers are charged extra. These costs are inevitably passed on to the consumer.

Tomatoes are $4 a kilo, double the normal price – a phenomenon that was predicted months ago – while the price of potatoes has tripled.

Eitan Edri explained to one of the most respected liberal radio stations in the United States that the country is facing one of its worst butter crises because of the higher temperatures. Cows produce only half of what they would in cooler temperatures.

And the co-founder of the Jerusalem Bird Observatory said that the heat also takes a toll on fauna and flora. Desert birds are differing, he told NPR, many northward, such that they are seeing birds in the Mediterranean region that would not normally appear. Recently they saw the desert swallow, whose presence in Jerusalem is said to be a sure indicator of worrying climate change.

For those who are living in winter, we urge you to wear extra sweaters, keep the heat low, and seal off any heat-escaping cracks in your home; if summer still hasn’t left, try to avoid using air-conditioning. Reducing energy consumption and increasing efficiency are two small but significant ways that we can all help to slow down the effects of climate change.

But we have to act now, because climate change has arrived.

:: National Public Radio

More on heat and produce in the Middle East:

Jordan Tries To “Ketchup” After Heat And Pests Wilt Tomatoes

Record High Summer Temperatures are also Scorching the Middle East

image via Zachi Evenor

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