Mitzpe Alummot (literally, “Sheaf Observatory”) is a health farm in the lower Galilee that focuses on restoring the wellbeing of its visitors during their stays. But it also focuses on the health and wellbeing of the environment, one blade of wheatgrass at a time. A large component of any stay at Mitzpe Alummot is the […]
If you think that WWOOF is the sound that a dog makes… well, you’re right. But it also stands for “Willing Workers On Organic Farms,” or “World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.” So keep your ears tuned in for that term, because the WWOOF movement is spreading globally – including right here in the Middle East. […]
Luxury and “green” are usually mutually exclusive. Sure, you have to spend a lot of green to be luxurious, but generally speaking there isn’t much that’s environmentally friendly about five star hotels and luxury spas. Hotel Spa Mizpe Hayamim in the eastern Galilee region of Israel is trying to rectify that situation and create a […]
Noah Dan has not forgotten the tastes of his childhood. He remembers eating brara, the fruits and vegetables bursting with incredible flavor but too “ugly” to package for sale in the cities, on Kibbutz Givat Brenner, where he was born and raised. He also remembers eating creamy, homemade gelato in Trieste, Italy where he spent […]
When I wrote this article years ago I was excited about small ideas that could improve agriculture. But there is a big but: Tal Ya trays are made from a non-renewable resource: plastic. Plastic leaches into the soil and eventually groundwater.
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 […]
If the city folk won’t come to the farm, then the farmers will come to the city. Unfortunately, though, many times when the farm comes to the city, it comes in a yuppie, elitist form such as the slow food farmer’s market in the Tel Aviv port. Or even the farmer’s market in Jaffa. While […]
At Green Prophet, we often post on organic vegetables and dairy products being grown in Israel; this November two Jewish environmental organizations are offering a heavily subsidized chance to see the farms and produce yourself. Hazon (which runs an annual Food Conference in the USA) and the Heschel Center will lead an Israel Sustainable Food […]
(Abu Ibrahim, 53, in a field of fava beans. Photo: Daniella Cheslow) One of the most compelling parts of the West Bank is its Biblical landscape, shaped by the small villages and terraced farm plots that dot the rolling hillsides. Yesterday, I saw that landscape up close on a visit to Wadi Fuqin (Valley […]
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, […]
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 […]
Inspired by the Green Kindergarten initiative made by the Israeli government, I dug up this story I’d written earlier in the year on a unique environmental education center called The Greenhouse: Magical kingdoms and secret gardens don’t necessarily have to stay in the realm of fairy tales any more, proves an Israeli initiative – The […]
The Slow Food movement brought a farmer’s market to the Tel Aviv Port (or, namal) this past summer, helping city dwellers enrich their salads and dishes with some great local (and carbon-emission low) produce. Now, to enrich our winter soups, the Slow Food movement, the Jaffa Port, and non-profit organization Na Laga’at are all joining […]
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 […]