Tel Aviv one of 7 cities to win a world Green City Awards 2024

Tel Aviv has won Future Green City award for the Tel Chubez Agricultural Farm and the Lira Shapira initiative in Tel Aviv. The award was made at the Future Green City World Congress held in Utrecht, Netherlands. (In other news Tel Aviv gets an A- for sustainability).

The project was selected alongside six other cities for its unique model that bridges urban sustainability with community engagement that encourages a sustainable urban lifestyle.

Lira Shapira is a green local currency that rewards residents for separating organic waste for compost to enrich the farm’s crops. For every kilogram of organic waste separated and processed, residents receive one Lira, which can be spent at local businesses—thus not only protecting the environment but also strengthening the local economy and community.

Lira, the name for the old form of currency in Israel, can be spent on buying food from the garden.

The initiative is operated by local residents from the Shapira neighborhood in collaboration with the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality’s Environmental and Sustainability Authority.

Ruth Molcho, represented Lira Shapira at the congress: “Receiving this award was especially moving, as we realized that our small initiative at the Shapira neighborhood was gaining global recognition.”

Tel Chubez is an urban agricultural farm located in the Shapira operating on principles of a circular economy. This vacant city land was transformed three years ago into a farm, providing residents with a green, productive space within the City, increasing wellness and access to fresh and healthy food while strengthening community resilience and increasing biodiversity.

Related: Fugee Fridays 

Tel Aviv–Yafo is constantly growing with massive construction and infrastructure projects. Preserving urban nature and connecting residents to it, maintaining and increasing the quality of life in this intense urban growth are significant challenges. Shapira neighborhood is located in the southern part of the City. In addition to the urban renewal phases, it has been identified as a vulnerable neighborhood in the climate change era dealing with more extreme heat waves and potential floods.

The farm, occupying four dunams, is being maintained by city employees, Lira Shapira NGO and volunteers. The cultivation method incorporates principles from permaculture and Biodynamics without any pesticides, focusing on growing local species following the seasons and a variety of over 60 fruit trees and local wildflowers that create an ecological system and habitat for birds and insects. The farm includes workshop plots where courses and training sessions are held to transfer the practices to participants’ yards to improve biodiversity and attract butterflies and honeybees.

Tel Chubez was included in the City Urban Nature Sites Index, together with 100 more sites. It is on the infrastructure layer, and future planning will have to avoid violating the area, as it has become an anchor for future urban green belts.

Tel Chubez became a green anchor for residents, plants and animals within a relatively short time. A model for collaboration internally in the municipality and externally with non-profits and businesses working together to build a new nature-based platform where environmental, social, economic and health positively impact.

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This is not a festival about rooftops. It is a festival about the possibility of reinventing the city itself. Gad Eden is about adding the ground space that is in such shortage, and to dream up a reality of abundance for all of us. This year, we are celebrating the new rooftops that joined the city center on top of the art schools, and the brave decision of the Jerusalem Municipality, which together with us implemented the program for tapping into the potential of urban rooftops.

Video of Gag Eden, 2021:

Thanks to this initiative, in the upcoming years, one million meters of rooftop wilderness will be transformed into valuable green havens.

Related: meet Palestinian women beekeepers in Jerusalem.

And above all, Gag Eden is celebrating the fact that we are no longer alone, lone madmen on the roof – but a part of a growing and optimistic movement of people from all sectors, religions, sexes, and genders that come together to create the spaces we are missing, the realms of healing that the city and we need.

Join us for three days in which we will make and get to know the city we deserve.

Get the Gan Eden Full Schedule in English here (links to PDF)bees

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Investing in a franchise can be a great way of starting a business. Usually, starting a business from scratch means confronting a lot of uncertainty and taking a leap into the unknown. But with a franchise, many of the most important elements for a successful business are already in place, and the underlying brand and concept are proven.

Of course, there are few certainties in business and buying a franchise isn’t a guarantee that you will have an easy ride. Franchises that provide almost instantaneous and sustained success are rare, and there are certainly downsides to buying a franchise instead of starting a business the conventional way.

Pro – Skip the startup stage

Most new businesses will fold within the first few years of opening; the startup phase is particularly precarious. Starting a new business requires more than just an idea and startup capital; you also need a business plan, market research, product testing, and a host of other preparations. Without these, building a successful and enduring brand is an even riskier proposition.

Buying a franchise enables you to skip over this part of the process. By the time a business has reached a point where it can be franchised, it will already have established its brand and proven that the underlying concept can support a viable business. As a franchisee, your job will be to take that concept and make it work in your local market.

Con – You have less freedom over how you run your franchise

Owning a business means you have complete control over how it operates and the freedom to make decisions however you see fit. However, as a franchisee, you will have to make decisions within the franchisor’s operating framework. When you agree to become a franchisee, you will have to sign a franchising agreement that defines the parameters of your relationship with the franchisor.

For some entrepreneurs, this loss of freedom can make running a franchise more difficult. On the other hand, more indecisive leaders might find that the franchising agreement aids their decision making by simplifying their thought processes. Many franchisors will be willing to show some flexibility if the franchisee comes to them with a proposal for adjusting their operating procedures in some way that makes sense. However, franchisees will usually have to seek the franchisor’s permission to make even relatively minor changes, even if they appear to make complete sense.

Pro – Built-in brand recognition

Franchises for sale are already successful in at least one location. Not only does this mean they are built upon a concept that is proven to work, but it also means that the brand has already achieved success and will have established a userbase. Building a brand is difficult and takes time. It is also a completely separate process to building a business. A successful business doesn’t necessarily equate to a popular or successful brand.

As more franchises for sale open in different locations, the underlying brand will reach a wider audience, and its name recognition will continue to grow. Each franchisee is responsible for marketing their franchise in their local area, while the franchisor generally takes responsibility for global and nationwide marketing. Some franchises are so well established that any new franchise is guaranteed to attract a decent amount of business after it opens.

Con – High startup costs

While investing in a franchise means your business can hit the ground running without having to worry about the usual pitfalls involved in opening a new startup, the costs of buying into a franchise can be significantly higher than those of starting a new business from scratch. In some cases, the franchise fee alone will cost a significant portion of a franchisee’s liquidity. It’s important to remember that while a franchise is built upon an already successful business, there is no guarantee that it will be profitable for the franchisee; there’s always an element of uncertainty when opening a new business.

Pro – Training programs

One of the most important benefits of franchising is that you know you are buying into a system that can easily be replicated. The goal of a franchise is to replicate the key elements of a business that made the original branch or outlet a success. That means policies and procedures will already be in place for you and set out in the franchise handbook that your franchisor will give you when you first open a franchise. With all these elements in place, training new staff and bringing them up to speed with how things work and how they should approach their roles is a simple and painless process.

Whether investing in a franchise is right for any individual or not will depend on numerous factors and the specifics of the franchise in question. However, the advantages and disadvantages of buying into a franchise are consistent for almost every case.

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Michelle Obama has made America’s gardening great and she’s now laying down roots so the gardening tradition will continue even after her family leaves the White House this January. Obama created the garden in 2009, and made sure to expand it twice so it will be hard to plow under by the next family. She’s expanding and improving it so it will endure, along with the American values of gardening to discourage obesity, and get kids outdoors.

The garden started at 1100 square feet to more than double in size at 2800 square feet. It has walkways, wooden tables and benches. A stone reads: “White House Kitchen Garden, established in 2009 by First Lady Michelle Obama with the hopes of growing a healthier nation for our children.”

A new endowment by the seed and home gardening company, W. Atlee Burpee Company, and The Burpee Foundation will keep Obama’s dream alive. While there is no White House law that must keep the garden alive, Burpee’s latest $2.5 million donation will ensure that it is tended to and thrives into the future, as Michelle has intended as a legacy to her husband’s time in Office.

Burpee Seeds, officially W. Atlee Burpee & Co., is a seed company that was founded by Washington Atlee Burpee in 1876.

According to Venelin Dimitrov, a senior manager at Burpee, regardless of who moves into the White House, Michelle’s garden can live on: “The idea is to preserve the legacy left by First Lady Michelle Obama,” he tells Green Prophet.

Dimitrov, a specialist in flowers, helped create the special seed blends that were donated for distribution at U.S. national parks.

Honey bees are on a swift decline, and Monarch butterflies are now considered endangered. By encouraging people to plant flowering plants, we can ensure that pollinator food such as fruits and many vegetables that will continue to feed us into the future.

Dimitrov says that it’s also about historical preservation to have a garden in the White House: “Most of the Founding Fathers were farmers and gardeners and it’s a neat idea to have a garden in the White House similar to President Jefferson’s garden in Monticello” where he grew more than 300 varieties of plants.

“If we had established it 100 years ago, every president could have left their mark. Now it has been started by Mrs. Obama and can be there for every Administration after the Obamas. It would be neat to see, 100 years from now, how the garden evolves,” he says.

The mission is to get people up, moving and gardening; but Dimitrov holds off giving us the list of what the White House Kitchen Garden is growing, saying we shouldn’t try to mimic what’s being grown there, since every region and state has different species and varieties that work best locally.

The point is that if our leaders set an example, the people will follow.

There is diabesity and obesity and “from a gardening point of view we would like to see people broaden their horizons by getting outdoors and growing plants.”

What’s exciting to grow? Dimitrov says that exotic fruits such as figs are becoming popular with Americans, as are jujubes and goji berries. There are lots of new fruit that are grown in tough climates around the world. These work well in the US as they are used to drought and do not require a lot of maintenance.

There are traditional vegetables that are high yield and low maintenance, such as cucumbers and melons. Urban farmers with little space should try their hands at vining plants such as peas, pole beans, and tomatoes.

Do garden Jujitsu

Dimitrov says: “It’s like garden Jujitsu. Use plans to fight the elements to your advantage. Use plants for shade if you are exposed to heat — there are excellent tomato species, such as ‘Heatwave II’.

“Morning Glory flowers provide plenty of shade, helping to cut down on energy bills. Even hyacinth bean; let them climb up, creating beauty to your porch, patio or roof, and an impact on your air conditioning use.”

Dimitrov says Burpee cultivates varieties of seeds that grow well in small spaces to give you great output with little requirements in terms of water and attention.

Want to know what to plant? “Bush bean, ‘Beananza’ in your balcony box, tomato, ‘Patio Princess’, cucumber, ‘Spacemaster’ or small okra, like ‘Baby Bubba’, may look tiny, but they can really bring a lot of food to the table,” Dimitrov adds.

Go to Burpee.com to cultivate your next meal and family project.

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Mostly we hear stories of pain and tragedy from Syrian refugee camps. But the Za’atari Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, a place where Green Prophet’s Laurie Balbo is knitting together and flying hope, there are new sprigs of hope.

The non-profit organization Save the Children is teaching some of the camp’s 800,000 refugees how to garden. The group is giving the Syrian refugees who have fled their homes during the civil war in Syria to Jordan, lessons on landscaping and gardening.

“Gardening allowed them to make something with their hands, and gave them a sense of accomplishment. We have seen an incredible change in them,” said Mohammad Abu Farah, the gardening teacher from Save the Children.

Scroll down to see all the inspiring photos taken from Save the Children. Giving people the tools to be self-sufficient is not only good for political refugees. One day in the not so distant future climate refugees may be also facing the same questions on how to be self-sufficient. Urban farming, hydroponics, aquaponics, and permaculture are great things every child needs to learn at school and apply on the home front, whether one is struggling for survival or is privileged to be able to buy food from the grocery store.

One question though for Save the Children: there are winter rains to sustain the gardens in Jordan in the upcoming months. What will happen to the water-parched refugees come spring and summer when water from Jordan is limited? Will there be plans for irrigation, greywater reuse?

All images via Save the Children

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Middle East urban farming has caught on in Egypt, where urban agriculture as a movement is now taking place. This also holds true for another highly dense population location, Gaza, where rooftop hydroponic farms are helping to sustain urban Gazans.

In the USA, the viability of urban farming to provide healthy organic vegetables to communities where such produce is not easy accessible received a big boost recently when a 40 something former financial services person, Robin Emmons, was nominated by CNN. She received its Hero of the Year award  for her role in growing and providing fresh vegetable produce to urban communities that otherwise would not have adequate availability to a healthy alternative to their present life styles.

After working for 20 years in the financial markets, Emmons decided to embark on her urban farming idea after see how people in institutions, her brother included, were fed very unhealthy diets high in carbohydrates and sugars.

Home gardening had always been a hobby for Robin, who grew up in Boston but later relocated to North Carolina where she has lived more than 20 years. She decided to change her career goals to one of  growing healthy, organic fruit and vegetables and make them available for people who did not have easy access to such produce and often lived on diets of fast and processed foods.

She began doing this by donating vegetables from her own organic garden to the institution where her brother was living.

Founded in 2008, Emmons  called her newly created farming entity “Sow Much Good”. She began concentrating on residents living in Macklenburg County,  North Carolina, where as many as 73,000 people were living in what Emmons referred to as “urban food deserts” without affordable or easily accessible fresh produce.

Since then, her foundation has grown to providing produce to a much larger area, including the city of Charlotte N.C., where an urban farm features seasonal produce such as corn, peppers, squash, cucumbers, collards, eggplant and more.

Beehives  on the site help with pollination of what Emmons refers to as “beautiful chemical free produce”; and this provides people with high grade raw honey as well..

Sow Much Good produce, in addition to being delivered to various locations is also available at area stores and roadside produce stands. The NGO also provides education and guidance to people wanting to plant their own urban gardens and grow their own fruit and vegetables.

The virtues of eating healthier diets is also being taught by members of Emmon’s foundation and is being written about in their blog. All of these efforts make it clear why CNN picked up Robin Emmons and Sow Much Good for designation as one of 10 CNN Heros of the year 2013.

Based on the success of this urban farming venture, it’s easy to see that urban food deserts in Middle Eastern locations like Cairo Egypt, Palestinian Gaza; and other densely populated areas can be made more sustainable through roof top farms and other types of urban agriculture.

More articles on urban agriculture in the Middle East:

Hydroponic Farms Sustain Urban Gazans

Egypt’s Urban Agriculture Movement is Growing

What Urban Rooftop Gardening Could Do for the Middle East

Photos of Robin Emmons and her farming project by Sow Much Good

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