The pandemic has changed the lives of many – some lost their job, while some are on the brink of losing their minds. This is natural given the fact that, in some countries, people were under strict lockdown rules that prevented them from leaving the house.

Naturally, if you’re not cut for a solitary or indoor lifestyle, you’ll soon see the effects of a lockdown on your mental health. Obviously, mental health is not something to toy with.

As such, in the following lines, we’ll tell you some of the things you can do to take care of your mental health during the pandemic!

Watch Less News

Lockdown and quarantine come with one main thing – namely, increased anxiety, especially when related to pandemic-related news. This is why most specialists recommend taking a break from the news and/or watch channels that actually tell the news and not fake news.

Overall, limit the amount of stressful information you receive – the 5 am news should be just enough for a daily update.

Take Care of Your Body

Instead of falling into a slumber, it’s essential to take care of your physical health – because the mental one can’t operate properly without being guided by a healthy body.

As such, do your best to avoid junk and fast-food, keep your meals regular and healthy, sleep for at least 8 hours a night (looking for a new bed – try Avocado organic mattresses), engage in exercise, and, most importantly, don’t give in to alcohol or medication (antidepressants and so on). Look for some of the best nootropic choline supplements to regulate your internal balance. You can also monitor how well you are getting on in the night with a sleep calculator.  Though getting into nature and just digging into the soil might be the best natural medicine in the world.

Take Care of Your Mind

As mentioned above, stress and anxiety are two by-products of the pandemic and its restrictions. Luckily, thanks to this pandemic, a lot of companies/services with recreational purposes have significantly developed.

If you visit a CBD clinic, you’ll see that now you can freely enjoy CBD products (depending on where you live) and let them help you have a clearer mind that is free of stress, potential depression, and anxiety.

Talk to Other People

If you live alone, you must talk regularly to other people. Believe it or not, even small chitchat with a person you may not be that fond of can really help you eliminate bad thoughts and anxiety.

When you spend two, three, or more weeks locked up in your home without any sort of contact with another person, you slowly start to lose your mind. As such, go online, find a chat platform or forums, and engage in some healthy human-to-human conversations!

The Bottom Line

Mental health is basically what gets us going every single day. If we do not take care of it, we’ll soon experience behavioral changes and, before you know it, you’ll change your entire lifestyle.

All because you let the pandemic and its restrictions change your usual schedule too much. Keep in mind that, despite all the restrictions, there are still plenty of alternatives through which you can continue to have a close-to-normal lifestyle and a healthy body/mind!

The post How to Take Care of Your Mental Health During the Pandemic appeared first on Green Prophet.

The ink was barely dry on Washington’s newly announced Abraham Accords late last year when Brian Finkel hopped on one of the very first direct flights from Tel Aviv to Dubai.

His mission: to pave the way for a joint venture between his company, D’vash Organics, and Al Barakah Dates Factory—one of the world’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of date products.

The deal, finalized Feb. 24, is a milestone for the Chicago-born Finkel, whose company has built its reputation on producing Biblically inspired date syrup for the U.S. organic foods market.

“With our new partnership, we will sell Al Barakah’s line of date products under the D’vash  Organics brand name all over the world,” Finkel told Green Prophet last week. “The deal gives us access to Al Barakah’s unparalleled manufacturing capabilities, pricing and supply. In return, it provides Al Barakah with access to US and other Western retail and wholesale markets under the D’vash Organics name.”

He added: “They wanted access to the US market, because they don’t have much presence outside the Middle East. For them, this is a conduit into the US and Western retail markets. They really are a behind-the-scenes manufacturer, and now they’ll have a piece of the action.”

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, though D’vash Organics expects to see revenues of $2 to 3 million in fiscal 2021.

Finkel, an Orthodox Jew who lives in the West Bank settlement of Yakir, made aliyah [immigrated to Israel] in July 2013. Soon after, the Wharton School and financial consultant discovered silan, or date syrup.

“My mother-in-law uses it in desserts. It’s ubiquitous here and it’s such a versatile product,” he said. “One day, I had this ‘eureka’ moment. I called David Czinn, my friend and business partner in California, and asked him if this is a thing in America. He said, ‘no, but it should be.’ Because he’s in the food industry, he was able to leverage his connections.”

That led to a deal to source the product from organic dates grown in California’s Coachila Valley. Finkel and Czinn thought about exporting the product from Israel but said shipping costs would have been prohibitive.

But eventually, they discovered Dubai in the United Arab Emirates—which not only boasts 44 million date trees but also offers substantially cheaper shipping rates than either Israel or California.

“At that time, there were no diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE. They never asked where I was located, and I never volunteered that information, so it never became an issue,” he said. “The only time anything related to Israel ever came up was when we wanted to put a hecksher [kosher stamp] from the London Beit Din on the product. They told us we’d have to edit our label because according to local law at the time, nothing could be exported from the UAE if it referenced Israel, had Hebrew writing or said ‘kosher.’”

Yet once Finkel’s religion and country of residence became known, it wasn’t a problem at all. In fact, he said, “when we met at the factory in Dubai, we had two days of marathon negotiations, and we talked very openly and fondly about the similarities between our two cultures. They bent over backwards to make sure I had kosher food.”

Interestingly, the word “Israel” appears nowhere on the label—and that’s no accident.

“Our product is inspired by Israel,” Finkel said. “It has roots in the Bible and originates from the land of milk and honey, but this has broader appeal than just Jewish or Israeli.”

In fact, most date syrup—if it doesn’t originate in either California or Israel—comes from an Arab country, generally Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia or Algeria. 

“Date honey is lower on the glycemic index than bee honey,” he said. “For people watching their sugar, dates are a healthy source of anti-oxidants and fiber. My father, for example, can eat date products but not table sugar. Unlike bee honey, it’s safe for babies—and it’s vegan.”

Finkel said he has worked with Tunisian and Algerian date producers, through third parties of course, but that “ever since we made the decision to move away from California because it was price-prohibitive, we were basically looking for someone who could make quality product at the right price. The Dubai guys are the best. Not only are they the easiest to work with, they also do everything A to Z—all the bottling, on-site packaging and even printing.”

Finkel said D’Vash products are currently sold in 6,500 stores across the United States. But now he’s starting to sell to Canada, and is also launching a test run with Costco outlets in San Diego, Texas and the southeastern US.

“We typically have sold only syrups, but we’re now starting to get into new products,” he said. “If the Costco test runs go well, we could easily break into the high seven figures in the next year or two, because they order in such massive quantities.”

The post Organic date syrup via Israel and Dubai show fruits of peace appeared first on Green Prophet.

The factory is the first-ever organic nut-processing system in Morocco. Built by the Ministry of Agriculture and HAF, and co-managed with Idrarn Cooperative, partners who are pioneers in developing organic agriculture in Morocco.

Sales of their certified-organic products, both nationally and internationally, are the result of more than 15 years of HAF’s deep, community-driven investment. Local Moroccan farmers are accessing global markets. Increased profits help support community investment in education, and projects focused on water, women and youth.

As part of its commitment to the entire agricultural value chain, HAF also planted 1,320,000 fruit trees in community nurseries, schools, orchards throughout Morocco; provided experiential training for 3,000 people; and has helped established more than 20 cooperatives and associations.

The program success derives from consorted efforts with: Lucky’s Farmers Market, U.S. Department of State Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Science, the High Commission of Waters and Forests, United Nations Development Program’s Global Environmental Fund, the National Endowment for Democracy, and many more.

The High Atlas Foundation, established in 2000, is a Moroccan-US NGO committed to assisting local Moroccan communities in identifying and implementing development projects through participatory planning. Founded by former Peace Corps Volunteers, the High Atlas Foundation currently facilitates projects including organic farming, clean drinking water, irrigation, educational development, participatory training, and political empowerment.

Learn more at the HAF website (link here).

Images from HAF

The post Morocco celebrates its certified nuts in 11th annual Asni Festival! appeared first on Green Prophet.

He was simply tired of spending $50,000 a year on electricity for what is a hobby organic farm for the corporate lawyer. And while he could afford the upfront $76,000 to pay for an off-grid solar-powered irrigation system, he took out a green loan just to demonstrate to others that it is possible to do so.

German Arrays

Patrick Ardahalin from a local renewable energy company called Eco-Friendly helped Jamaleddine import and install his 64 panel solar array that is used to irrigate the 120,000 square meter farm located near Mansoura Village.

The panels were brought in from Germany since Lebanon currently doesn’t have a manufacturing facility for high efficiency photovoltaic panels.

Since installing solar panels is prohibitively expensive for the average person, two years ago Lebanon’s central bank set up a system that would enable ordinary people to take out “green loans” for projects that promote renewable energy generation and other sustainable initiatives.

It is through this initiative that Jamaleddine took out a zero interest loan from Fransabank, and he hopes others will be encouraged to do the same.

Solar-powered Irrigation in the Bekaa Valley

His farm is the first in the Bekaa Valley to irrigate its water-intensive organic crops, such as tomatoes, grapes, and apples, with a solar-powered system, though Ardahalin told the paper that he has recently installed a second one – that Jamaleddine is leading the way.

And whilst it will take some time for the system to pay for itself, the hobby farmer has already established an energy-sharing scheme that allows him to sell his excess energy to neighbors who experience crippling power outages.

Lebanon’s energy ministry has yet to develop a feed-in-tariff scheme to allow renewable energy producers to sell their excess energy to the national grid, so creating a grid-sharing scheme allowed Jamaleddine to recoup some of his investment while also uplifting the surrounding community.

Albeit motivated by making money for himself, he has also become an accidental do-gooder.

As for his own farm, where goats, sheep and fowl also require a consistent water supply, it is quickly becoming self-sufficient despite suspicion from locals that there’s no such thing as free energy.

“Many people are skeptical of alternative energy,” Ardahalian told The Daily Star. “They think it’s a gimmick, that you can’t get electricity for free. That’s why it’s important this system succeeds.”  

Image of solar panels and agriculture, Shutterstock

The post Lebanese “Green Loan” Funded Solar Irrigation System Breaks Ground appeared first on Green Prophet.

Coffee can have a secret life beyond your kitchen filter or your Turkish coffee pot. From compost to creative solutions. Give new life to the mountains of used grinds we toss out every week. Your favorite bean just became even better!

1. Keep your garden cat-free

The jury’s still out on this: supposedly grounds spread around my herb seedlings will keep Amman’s gazillion stray cats from making the planter a litter box. Fingers crossed it does the trick.

2. Repel ants

Ants from Shutterstock

One of my friend’s used grounds repel ants: she lays down a line at all exterior thresholds.  Friend Two prefers pouring a pot of brewed coffee on the anthill. (Not sure where the Geneva Convention stands on this.)

3. Kill fridge odor

Fridge via Shutterstock

Pop a bowl of fresh grounds in your refrigerator to zap foul odors.  This odor-absorbent trick works, but be warned, it also imparts a mild coffee-house scent.

4. Reduce cellulite

Cellulite from Shutterstock

Caffeine’s a major ingredient in cellulite creams, as it supposedly revs up fat metabolism. To make a home treatment, mix used coffee grounds with warmed coconut or olive oil.  Massage into your skin using a circular motion, then rinse. Inspired? Go the next step, and tightly wrap your paste-coated self in cling film.  Let it seep in for 20 minutes before rinsing.  Let us know if this works?

5. Exfoliate

Commercial scrubs contain a buffing agent, usually made from salts or ground nut shells. Make a coffee version by blending a spoonful of grounds into a splash of olive oil.  Achieve aromatherapy by adding essential oil.  Use to buff away dead winter-dry skin, works great on hands and feet.

6. De-stink the Chef

Après-cooking, get rid of smelly food residue by rubbing hands in used grounds.  Grab a handful, scrub a dub dub, and rinse. Keep an open container of dried used grounds sink-side; it’ll absorb kitchen odors.

7. Shine-up hair

Turn up the shine by rinsing dry, clean hair with strong, cooled coffee.  Leave it on for 30 minutes, then rinse. Not recommended for blonde or silver hair.

8. Natural dye

I’ve dyed Easter eggs, toned down too-bright curtains, and stained paper for an archival look using coffee.  The dye isn’t permanent (it comes out in the wash), but it’s perfect for one-off projects.

9. Scrub surfaces

Naturally abrasive coffee grounds are great for scrubbing greasy surfaces like kitchen counters, stovetops and appliances. Use them alone or mix in a little dish detergent.

10. Auto air freshener

Wrap an egg-sized amount of grounds in a piece of old pantyhose (steer clear of fishnets!), secure it with ribbon or string, and hang from the rear-view mirror.

11. Deepen Flavors

Add a tablespoon of fresh grounds to meat marinades, it works as a tenderizer and adds mild smokiness. Coffee’s deep flavor naturally partners with chocolate cakes and chili: substitute strong coffee for some of the recipe’s water requirement and rev up the richness.

12. Heal scratched furniture

Make a paste from instant coffee and rub into scuffed wood; reapply until the scratches disappear.

13. Grow mushrooms

Weekend gardeners in bone-dry Jordan are unlikely to master mushrooms, but used grounds are an ideal ‘shroom-growing medium. State-side friends bought a mushroom-growing kit that included soil made from recycled coffee grounds. Kit-maker Back to the Roots also sells coffee-based soil additives:  mushrooms are one of nature’s best recyclers, thriving on old newspaper, sawdust and, yeah, used grounds.

14. Fertilize plants

Coffee’s nutrients hold the right chemistry for azaleas, rhododendrons and other plants that thrive in acidic conditions.  Spread grounds near their roots or, in lieu of regular watering, simply pour a mix of 1/8 coffee dregs to 7/8 cool water into potted plants.

…and back to the start…

15. Make compost

Coffee grounds are loaded with phosphorous, potassium, magnesium and copper.  They’re a tad acidic and as they degrade they release nitrogen which makes for especially rich soils. If you’re tackling vermicomposting, add used grounds to the critters’ habitat.  Seems worms thrive on coffee – your kitchen waste will be chewed up by an extra-invigorated workforce.

I love the potential for community gardens: linking local coffee shops with large scale compost operations. Here in Jordan, where waste management is woefully disorganized, it’s an opportunity unlikely to be exploited, but Green Prophet would love to hear if roof gardeners and apartment farmers in other (coffee-living) Middle East countries pick up this ball and run with it.

Image of coffee beans and all others above from Shutterstock

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Remember the good old days when it took decades to build major monuments? Historians estimate that 30 years passed before the back-breaking pyramids of Giza came to glory, for example, and more than a century after construction began in 1882, La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is still not finished.

Although laborers might disagree, there’s something honest about the kind of construction that requires slow extraction, transportation and re-assembly of the earth’s materials – especially compared to our current obsession with erecting buildings as fast as possible. In China, a 15-story building was supposedly built in a record-breaking six days.

Fortunately, not all people are beguiled by speed. We recently visited the renowned Kibbutz Ne’ot Semadar and talked to one of its founders about their iconic, passively-cooled community arts center that took 15 long years to build. Step-by-step, a group of like-minded nature-lovers learned the skills necessary to construct a landmark, structurally-sound earth building in the heart of Israel’s Negev desert.

Our guide Dalit was one of the original six people who decided, 23 years ago, to close up shop in Jerusalem and build a sustainable, creative and conscious community in the middle of the desert. While such communities are increasingly common now, at the time this was a very bold move. And it wasn’t easy.

To begin with, the Israeli government wasn’t so keen on approving a building made of earth.

“At the time, adobe construction was not considered normal,” Dalit explained. “So we built the interior walls using earth and used concrete on the outside.”

Nobody knew how to build an earth building or grow food in the middle of nowhere, but the will to succeed was strong.

“It took two years just to learn how to build the floor,” said Dalit. While one can imagine that these were hard, hot and difficult years, our guide spoke wistfully about the spiritual benefits of this kind of cooperation.

“You learn how human beings an cooperate and you get to know your soul very deeply,” our guide told us. “At first we kept the glates closed, while we were still learning, but then we opened them to visitors. It’s very delicate here, so we had to prepare for them.”

Many of the members traveled far to learn about earth construction, including Egypt, and an engineer was brought in to ensure that the crafts center was strong.

In addition to 40 cm thick adobe walls that provide excellent insulation and trap heat in cold winters, the building has a unique pastel-colored mosaic cladding that features penguins, peacocks, and other tributes to the natural world, along with a 46 meter tall wind tower that naturally cools the entire center.

Despite the hot desert sun, the temperature inside the building was very comfortable.

Almost all of the materials used for the structure were gathered locally and slowly. Inside the gallery there are images depicting how the team built mud bricks by hand. Dalit called the process primitive, but we call it sustainable.

“We each put our energy into the building. But in the end the energy of the building is larger than the sum of our energies. It has become the energy that moves us forward.”

For more information about Ne’ot Semadar, please visit their website. Visits can be arranged in advance and the nearby cafe sells and serves locally-grown organic food that will warm your heart and soul. All images via Tafline Laylin for Green Prophet.

The post It Took 15 Years to Build This and That’s a Good Thing appeared first on Green Prophet.

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 number of rare plants.  According to plant researcher Yair Or, the fieldwork turned up several species “that had been found decades ago in the Jerusalem area and since then had not been found and were considered extinct.”

Traditional Palestinian farming is practiced throughout much of the test area.  Therefore, researchers determined it has played an invaluable role in the survival of rare plants.

Unfortunately, not all agricultural practices are so helpful.  The hills around Ein Gedi were covered with at least ten species of trees and shrubs until 60 years ago, when land development in Israel intensified.  Those species had specifically adapted to Ein Gedi’s dry microclimate.

Groundwater pumping by Kibbutz Ein Gedi and land clearing by several farms eventually wiped out the native plants.  Now the Authority is rehabilitating Ein Gedi.  Park staff planted the first set of new flora about four years ago.

Rangers created intricate plans for seeding, germinating and caring for the fledgling trees and shrubs, according to the Authority.  After successfully developing a nursery with several hundred plants, ecologists planted experimental plots.  This process helped them learn to properly water and prune the trees and shrubs.

And the  Israel Nature and Parks Authority has worked diligently to preserve rare plants elsewhere in Israel.  In the Beit Netufa Valley – considered a flora hotspot – there are more than 60 species of unique plants, several of which are in danger of extinction.

A rare type of yellow-petal iris called Grant- Duff’s Iris is among them.  It densely populates the valley but is not adequately bearing fruit.  Hypothesizing that artificial agricultural growth is inhibiting insects from pollinating the irises, the  Israel Nature and Parks Authority initiated a breeding program for the flowers.

So why has agriculture in the Hebron Hills actually helped rare plants, in contrast to the deleterious effects of agriculture in Beit Netufa and Ein Gedi?

Traditional Palestinian agriculture utilizes low impact farming methods, such as harvesting by hand, avoidance or limited use of pesticides and fertilizers, and shallow plowing.  Several of the rare species that flourish in the area are annuals that grow amidst the cultivated crops.  They share a similar life cycle.

Additionally, these traditional practices promote rainwater percolation and soil aeration.  Several rare plants, particularly those with bulbs or corms, favor such conditions.  And the microclimate of the southern Hebron Hills is also partially responsible for the rare plant boon.

The findings in the Hebron area add credence to the beliefs of organic agriculture proponents.  Low-impact agriculture has been proven to conserve water, reduce pollution, and minimize exposure to crop disease.  Now those proponents can add another reason to their list – preservation of rare plants.

Professor Zev Naveh, an ecologist at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, notes that “the farmers of the Mediterranean area did not neglect and deplete the soils, but rather knew in different periods how to preserve them and to exploit their biological variety correctly.”

Ironically, it was originally human activity, including agriculture, that created the diversity of flora and fauna currently found in the Mediterranean Basin.

How wonderful to know that our agricultural practices need not be at odds with nature.  Turns out it isn’t necessary to wrestle the very lifeblood from the land to earn our daily bread.  Perhaps we have something to learn from the keepers of traditional farming in the south Hebron Hills, and from the generations of agriculturalists before them.

The post Traditional Palestinian Farming Spurs Rare Plant Boom appeared first on Green Prophet.

A brilliant new online farming system in Egypt allows city dwellers to become reacquainted with their agrarian roots without leaving their urban comfort zone. 

Egyptian urbanites who have a desire to grow their own food but lack the farming skills now have access to a brilliant new remote farming system that has both an online and real world component. Inspired by FarmVille on Facebook, online gaming, and other remote farming projects around the world, eZra3 (which means grow) allows users to select their own crops and monitor their actual growth via a web interface. And they get to eat the healthy yields! Ashraf Al Shafaki designed this modern, low risk virtual farming program in order to address a variety of environmental and social ills in Egypt, including food insecurity, soil contamination, and global warming.

Crowdfarming

According to the eZra3 website, there are just over 9 million acres of arable land in Egypt, 20 million internet users, 7 million Facebook users, and 1 million FarmVille users. If just a small percentage of this population contributes to the eZra3 crowdfarming project, food insecurity could easily be a thing of the past.

eZra3 is committed to organic farming principles, which means that there will be no chemical fertilizers or pesticides, no GMOs, and no tillage. On the other hand, eZra3 farms will use companion planting, biological pest control, succession planting, and ensure a healthy diversity of plants and animals.

Gaming and beyond

Depending on each participant’s farming experience, there are four different solutions. Participants can get their green thumbs wet by playing the training game  that “simulates the growing of crops in a real farm using real crop prices, fertilizer prices, from-seed-to-harvest durations and crop yields.”

Once they have a good sense of what farming entails (without losing money from failed crops), users can progress to the next stage by remotely managing their own small plot with dedicated online guidance every step of the way.

“eZra3 provides you with full information on what types of crops you can grow, when to grow them, prices of fertilizers and various agricultural inputs including labor and all you have to do is make decisions based on the info provided to you and on your personal preferences,” the website notes.

After enjoying the fruit of this labor, farmers might feel confident to tackle the next phase of actually owning their own farm. Again, eZra3 will facilitate the process and minimize risk by helping with the plot’s design and providing computerized estimates of how each farm will perform depending on its particular conditions.

The urban comfort zone

This system empowers city dwellers and online gamers who have lost touch with their agrarian roots to embrace a healthier lifestyle without leaving their urban comfort zone.

And they will be able to grow more than just cucumbers and tomatoes. eZra3’s farming expertise extends to 52 crops, 28 perennial trees, and 11 animals.

In addition to creating healthier food, crowd farming has the potential to reduce unemployment, create greater national self-sufficiency, and restore the Egyptian people’s sovereignty. It has been exactly one year since Egypt ousted Hosni Mubarak. And despite continued abuse from on high, clever innovations such as these demonstrate that the people are still strong.

Update May 3, 2023: the site is offline

More on Sustainable Agriculture in Egypt:

Egyptian Organic Farm Declared Sustainability World Leader

What Urban Rooftop Gardening Could do for the Middle East

Egypt’s Urban Agriculture Movement is Growing

The post Crowd Farming in Egypt appeared first on Green Prophet.

After years of planning, a Bedouin eco-farm in the Negev will finally get under way next week.

For years the Sustainability Laboratories (a New York-based organization) and the mayor of Hura in the Negev, Dr. Muhammad El-Nabari, have been planning an eco-farm for the Bedouin community.  The farm, Project Wadi Attir, would aim to create a community that combines traditional Bedouin values with modern and sustainable farming techniques and energy solutions.  Thanks to the recent commitment of approximately 10 million NIS from the Israeli government, the vision for Project Wadi Attir will soon become a reality and a groundbreaking ceremony will take place this week at the farm’s 45 hectare plot of land.

As described by the Sustainability Laboratories,

“Project Wadi Attir commits to a vision of humanity in which all people live in peace; use the planet’s resources wisely; avoid adverse impacts on other forms of life while actively enriching life’s complex fabric; develop communities which encourage the creative self-realization of individuals as well as society; and celebrate the underlying mystery, unity and sacredness of all existence.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QwH34JffFE[/youtube]

The community-based project hopes to:

• Maximize the use of renewable resources and clean sources of energy, and strive for zero waste
• Operate a self-sufficient, just and productive economy
• Emphasize the respect and well-being of animals and plants and intentionally enhance biodiversity
• Establish a collaborative, equitable and communal undertaking that empowers both individuals and the community as a whole

“We wanted to develop a model for sustainable agriculture in the desert,” said Dr. Michael Ben-Eli of the Sustainability Laboratories, “manifesting the sustainability principles we developed at the lab.  But at the same time, we wanted it to be a model for a process of economic and community development.”

The farm will produce organic meat and dairy products from sheep and goats, as well as grow and preserve indigenous vegetables.  The area will also be equipped with composting sites, biogas, recycling centers, and new approaches to renewable energy production.

: The Sustainability Laboratories
: Jerusalem Post

Read more about the Bedouin community:
Bedouin Women Bring Solar Power To Their Villages
Bedouin Home-Spun Woolen Rugs On Show in Milan
Water & the Bedouin: Sharing the Resources

The post Sustainable Bedouin Farm, Wadi Attir, To Break Ground in the Negev appeared first on Green Prophet.

So, all this worrying about the burgeoning population was for nought? We don’t need to be concerned that we are rapidly reaching a population of 7 billion and by the end of the century, we are likely to hit the 10 billion mark? Well, not exactly. Yes, Nature published a handy guide to increasing agricultural yields (hat tip to Nona Willis Aroniwitz from GOOD for breaking it down), but no, it won’t be easy. Feeding 10 billion people can be done, except it will require political will, cooperation, and even a bit of Jobsian self-discipline and self-sacrifice. Step on in for the most succinct five solutions to ending hunger we have ever seen.

Every nation on earth is concerned about feeding their people, but in the Middle East, we have especially good reasons to start thinking quickly. Already, in densely and economically challenged countries like Egypt – despite the rise in organic farms and the slow food movement – food is becoming scarce. And all the wealth in the world hasn’t brought the Gulf countries sufficient fertile land to achieve food independence.

This situation is leading to “land grabs” – where wealthier countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are buying up huge swaths of land from poorer countries in Africa and Asia.

• As it turns out, Solutions for a Cultivated Planet recommends that we focus more agricultural attention on Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe into order to increase agricultural yields. But we would like to add that if we do so, it should occur in a manner much more egalitarian than current resource extraction. In other words, it has to benefit the locals too!
• Farming in tropical lands is a waste of time. Although rich in biodiversity, the tropics aren’t great for growing nutritious food for a lot of people. Leave the forests to the task of sponging up our carbon emissions!
• This seems like a no-brainer since farmers and suppliers are locked into a never-ending cycle of doing just this, but it is suggested that the use of water, fertilizer, and chemicals needs to be improved. We are becoming especially adept at excellent irrigation methods in parts of the Middle East, although other countries remain woefully inefficient.
• We need to stop eating so much meat! This will send some carnivores into paroxyms of panic, but cultivating meat – particularly in wealthier countries – usurps an incredible amount of land and feed. Cattle are getting fat, but the people in Somalia are starving. Tell that to your kids at the dinner table.
• And finally, food waste must end. This isn’t only a problem during Ramadan or other holidays. It turns out that one third of all the food we produce in the world either rots, gets tossed out, or becomes fodder for pesky pests.

The 21 authors who contributed to this study make it sound so simple, but so far human beings have not proved especially talented at ensuring that everyone has enough to eat. Still, we have to believe we’ll get it right eventually!

:: GOOD, Nature

More on the Challenges Associated with Population Growth in the Middle East:

A Profile of Iraq’s Environmental Woes

The GINK Manifesto: Childless, Proud, and Loud

Fish Farming Isn’t so Evil After All

image via USAID on Flickr

The post Actually, We Can Feed 10 Billion People. Here’s How appeared first on Green Prophet.