It is finally raining in Israel and other parts of the Middle East; but the region’s acute water shortage is far from being over. An Israeli company Queengil, is trying to help alleviate the problem of providing maximum crop irrigation with available water resources, refining the technology of “drip” irrigation which has already been doing […]
Feb, 2020 update: This business is no longer viable. But we kept the story in our archives for you to enjoy. And perhaps make the next idea of this kind work. If you’ve been reading from the United States about the organic olive oils, vegetables and honey coming out of the Middle East, you’ll be […]
Plant pathologist Norman Borlaug, 95, died this Saturday, raising questions about the legacy of industrial food in the Third World. In 1970, Borlaug received a Nobel Peace Prize for averting famine through bringing fertilizers, pesticides and new plant strains to countries like India, Mexico and Pakistan. But environmentalists argue that his plant engineering only delayed […]
The Egyptian government has apparently performed an astonishing U-turn on banning controversial Genetically Modified crops from the country. According to reports in the press earlier this month (hat tip: Treehugger and Reuters), authorities declared that Egypt had officially become the Middle East’s first GM-free nation. On 12 August, Egyptian Agriculture Minister, Amin Abaza, told the […]
They chew this stuff on a daily basis, like Bolivians and other South American mountain people chew cacao leaves. It gives people in Yemen and other Arabian Peninsula countries a mild, narcotic-like effect; and unfortunately, it is ruining the economy of Yemen due to do many people getting “hooked” on it. What is this […]
The southern West Bank is known for its grapes, which Palestinians grow with little to no water on small plots. Often the vineyards are simple grape trees, without wires to support or encourage the plants to spread out. This month, I wrote a piece for the Jerusalem Report on Odeh Sabarna (left), who runs the […]
As part of its long bid for European Union membership, Turkey has announced that 74 pesticides are off limits because they are poisonous. The Hurriyet Daily News reports that the EU has a list of 135 illegal chemicals, and Turkey is working on the others. This is part of several environmental moves afoot in Turkey, […]
With today’s factory farming methods blamed by many as the cause of outbreaks like the swine flu epidemic now infecting people globally, it’s no surprise that interest in Israeli start-up CartaSense is running so high. The company has created technology that can pinpoint a sick pig or cow in real-time, and help the farmer isolate […]
During the week of June 28, 2009, news was reported that cleantech investments during the second quarter improved. Israel’s Cleantech 2009 took place and focused on water projects and renewable energy while Israeli researchers are desainating sewage for agricultural use. For these stories and the rest of this week’s 7 cleantech headlines, see below. Investing […]
A team of researchers from the University of Haifa have stumbled upon a rare desert plant living in Israel’s mountainous Negev desert, which can irrigate itself. The plant, the desert rhubarb, Rheum palaestinum, was first classified by a local Israeli botanist about 70 years ago. It has adapted to harsh desert climates by developing specially […]
A review on the cover of this book by Fred Pearce describes it as “a world tour of hydrological madness” (Sunday Times), and that, in a nutshell, is exactly what it is. For those who want to understand what happens to the world’s water supply and where it comes from, whether you live in or […]
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 […]
Afghan farmers get “burned out” as government 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 been […]
(Tal Ya Water technologies, featured at the Agritech expo in Tel Aviv next week, could provide the world’s best – possibly first – effective dew drop collector for watering crops.) Growing tomatoes and raising dairy cows in 113 degrees Fahrenheit is no easy feat, but over the last 30 years or so, Israeli agriculture technologies […]
It is illogical and immoral to dry up the urban parks, gardens and green areas, while exporting flowers grown with subsidized drinking water to Europe.