With central government examining the surge of emergency foodbanks and charities warning of an increase in poverty-related hunger, it’s clear food insecurity is on the rise. The horsemeat scandal may have raised a lot of questions about our supermarkets but more daunting questions are now being asked about how we protect the poorest from rising food prices. How can we make healthy food more accessible in the wake of the cuts? And can cities really feed themselves? Manchester International Festival and the Biospheric Foundation in Salford are working together to answer these very questions….

Read on below:

Here’s a sneak peek of my latest article for Aquila Magazine’s Earth Issue. It’s all about indigenous populations making the most of their ancient traditions to cope with an increasingly unpredictable climate. As well as highlighting the continued importance of ancient water tunnels (called aflaj) in Oman, I spoke to an expert on community adaption in Bangladesh about the floating gardens (called baira) which are providing a lifeline to flooded communities. There’s also a snippet on the amazing work of Hassan Fathy in Egypt…

Want to read more? Well all you have to do is download (how eco is that?!) a copy of the latest Aquila Magazine here. It’s only a couple of dollars for a mag jam-packed with goodness. Go on, you know you want to!

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• @FabulousSISTERS – Hymens, Hijabs and Helmets: Muslimahs Who Cycle (arwafreelance.com)

Here are some sneaky promos for the articles I’ve been writing for the lovely Aquila Style Magazine. I had the chance to interview media powerhouse Muna AbuSulayman about being a Saudi women, employment, the world of TV and lots more. To read the full article and also lots more juicy stuff, go to their November edition which you can download  for just a couple of dollars.

I was also lucky enough to write about my trip to Andalusia back in March and the editors let me use my photos which I think turned out really well (I’m so modest, I know). Seriously have a read and tell me you don’t want to visit – I dare you.

I speak to Shahrzad Mohtadi about the devastated drought that crippled Syria’s food centre and shook Assad’s political stability

The link between climate change and political instability may still be ambiguous, but recent research is uncovering a connection between sustainable water and food policies and the survival of governments. Shahrzad Mohtadi found that whilst a prelonged drought in Syria may not have caused the political uprising, the Assad regime’s failure to deal with it effectively certainly did. “Assad promoted water intensive crops such as cotton, while not providing efficient methods of watering such crops. There were many such policies that created a scenario where the drought’s effects were even more devastating than they otherwise would have been,” say Mohtadi.

“So one can’t say climate change will create a domino effect of instability and migration whatsoever – but Syria’s case is a warning that developing nations… should create sustainable agricultural policies.” I spoke with Shahrzad Mohtadi to find out more about the devastating drought in Syria and what other Middle Eastern nations need to do to protect their dwindling water resources – and their political stability.

You have studied quite a range of subjects ranging from micro-finance in post-Soviet Tajikistan to the political transition in Myanmar. What is it that attracted you to study climate change in the Middle East?

The Middle East is a region that grips many for its political drama. As the region already suffers from a chronic water shortage and political divisions remain fierce, climate change is yet another factor that could provoke instability. Climate model uniformly predict that the eastern Mediterranean (in political terms – the Middle East) will very likely have less rain in the future. If nations in the Middle East don’t begin implementing sustainable policies for farming and water intake that take into account future drying, the problems in the region will grow even larger.

Can you tell us about your current research on the effects of climate change on human migration in the Middle East?
A few weeks before the March 2011 uprisings in Syria began, I applied for a fellowship regarding climate change and security. I began reading about a drought that occurred in Syria from 2005-2010, and came to understand that such a drought – in how long it lasted and how much of the country was impacted – had devastated many of the country’s farmers. Over 1.5 million farming families migrated from the rural areas of the country to urban outskirts. Once the protests in Dara’a began, and the revolution snowballed from there, I was able to show how the unusual nature of the drought, which led to a mass exodus to large cities, was an important contributing factor to the Syrian uprising.

Migration and climate change can be quite a sensitive topic to explore due to security implications and also ethical implications. Do you think the widespread concerns about climate change causing mass migration from south to the north and also political and economic instability are fair?
I don’t believe any such general statements can be made. Syria’s example of migration is unique because the Assad regime’s policies were going against any rational. For example, Assad promoted water intensive crops such as cotton, while not providing efficient methods of watering such crops. There were many such policies that created a scenario where the drought’s effects were even more devastating than they otherwise would have been. So one can’t say climate change will create a domino effect of instability and migration whatsoever – but Syria’s case is a warning that developing nations who have little control over carbon emissions should create sustainable agricultural policies.

Looking at your research into Syria, it seems that the impact of climate change-induced migration is local and regional rather than global? Is that an accurate statement?
One cannot say this migration was climate-change induced, as no single extreme climate event can ever be categorized as climate change. What we know is that such unusually long and persistent drought will be more likely in the future, which can cause migrations if governments remain ignorant to sustainable water and agricultural policies.

What have been the most surprising things to emerge from your research?
As I continued my research, I was shocked at the extent to which this drought affected rural communities in Syria. In the northeast of the country, known as the breadbasket of Syria, school drop-out rates for the drought years were up to 80%. Many schools were closed and villages deserted. Up to 90% of the livestock in the area perished. And this was a region only a few years back known as the country’s food producing center. The lack of response by the Assad regime was also shocking. For a dictatorship that wishes to maintain stability and legitimacy, the response was inadequate and later came to light during the uprising.

: Image via FreedomHouse/flickr.

:: This article was originally published at GreenProphet.com 

Alzainah Albabtain, a 22 year old student, is growing her own food in the scorching heat of Kuwait and wants others to give it go too

A green fingered student from Kuwait is taking the blogosphere by storm with her ‘It All Grows’ blog. Filled to the rafters with gorgeous photos of lovely fruit and veg, recipes, and gardening tips, Alzainah wants to prove that “good fruits and vegetables don’t have to travel across the world to make it to your plate.” I caught up with her to find out how she got hooked on gardening and her insider tips for growers in the Middle East.

What inspired you to get your garden started?

I’ve always been fascinated by nature and wildlife, but never by gardening and how food is produced because, just like most people in Kuwait, the idea of growing food was quite foreign. I used to think that it took large expensive greenhouses a hundred kilometres away in Wafra with countless staff and complicated fertilizers to produce vegetables in Kuwait, until one of my relatives mentioned her 10 year old grandson’s cherry tomatoes, I was baffled! He grew cherry tomatoes in a container – I followed with questions like “outdoors? In our weather?” “Is it possible?”

I was completely shocked, and thought to myself, if a 10 year old can do it, I can at least try. The next day I went and bought seeds of whatever I found. I planted them in my back yard, under some palm trees, and with skepticism, I checked on them every other day. Once the seeds sprouted I started taking beautiful Micro photos, to show to my family. In a short time with a lot of research, I managed to turn my entire indoor pool into a greenhouse of cherry tomatoes. After this gratifying experience, I was hooked, I found myself extremely passionate about gardening in Kuwait.

What have been the biggest barriers you have faced in getting your garden to bloom?

First, it was figuring out what grows when. All the research I was doing left me hungry to learn more, but I was having trouble relating general gardening principles to our desert conditions. Plant care is so different, and the seasons are the complete opposite.
It took me a while to figure out the seasons here, its like this; a short warm season, a long cool season, then short warm again, and then summer during which gardeners take a break.

Another issue was organic pest control. There is so little offered in Kuwait when it comes to organic products, so it took me a while to find what I use now, which is organic insecticidal soap. I would go to plant nurseries and for any problem there was always a chemical solution, whether for fertilizing or pest control and I refused to use any of their recommendations on my plants. To me, it just didn’t make sense to spray something which you need to wear a gas mask to handle, on the plants I wanted to eat.

You’ve been gardening for over a year now. What tips would you give people want to grow their own food in the scorching heat of the Middle East?

It’s the blog I’ve started last year, I’ve actually been gardening for much longer.
The tips would be, to start with something easy, to do your basic research on what plant you’re growing, and to make your own compost, because its the best fertilizer there is.
You cant go wrong by starting with basil and arugula, grow them in simple potting mix in a sunny spot, any time from October to January or from February to May as they don’t like it too cold. Both plants are fast growing, easy, and delicious.

You’re right that you can’t grow in the scorching heat but you also can’t grow in the frost which other climates have to deal with. In our case we have three really hot months, (even if things did grow, I wouldn’t want to stand over or take care of them in the heat) but people look past the 9 months of good weather! And you also cant grow anything in the sand, who says you have to? Good soil is so easy to find and make, so we really have no excuse to why we think it’s so crazy to grow fresh food.

Why do you think it’s important to encourage your readers to use organic products?

It’s organic practices that make your greens superior to those at the supermarket. The joy of picking something and eating it right away without worrying about insecticides or preservative sprays is unbelievable. A big part of organic gardening is using compost, and making your own is the best thing to do, homemade compost recycles garden and kitchen scraps into beautiful dark fertilizer, which keeps plants happy all season long.

Water shortages are a real issue in the region – what tips do you have to grow with limited water?

Growing in raised beds like I do, gives you complete control over your soil, and compost rich soil with peat moss, helps retain water, and minimizes water loss.
Drip irrigation is a way to control water use and deliver water directly to the plant. Another good way to prevent loss of moisture is using mulch to cover the soil surface.

Favourite crop and your favourite recipe?

My favorite crop to grow in Kuwait is Bright Lights Rainbow Swiss Chard, because its absolutely gorgeous, with bright magenta and yellow ribs and large dark shiny leaves, its highly nutritious and does amazingly well from October to June. Thats a very long time if you ask me.
I like to sauté it as a side dish with some almonds and garlic oil.

What would you tell someone thinking of starting a garden but is little worried about lack of costs/time/expertise?

I would recommend starting small, with a potted plant, and see how it goes from there. Start with something easy, like herbs and leafy greens.
Most importantly, the internet is your best friend when it comes to gardening, I’ve learned everything I know from online research and youtube tutorials.
In fact, I created my blog to help others, to share my successes and challenges and prove how beautiful our gardens can grow.

:All images and photos courtesy of Alzainah Albabtain at It All Grows.

:Originally published at GreenProphet.com 

Arwa Aburawa looks at the food we throw away every Ramadhan, and easy ways to stop us from scrapping leftovers into the bin

Let me paint you a picture. It’s Ramadhan time. Somehow, and you’re not sure quite how, the holy month has managed to sneak up on you and catch you completely unprepared. You have meals to cook, people to invite, a spring clean to sort, and you also want to leave plenty of time for going to the mosque for Taraweeh prayers and reading Qur’an. The last thing you need is extra work on your plate. As such, embracing a green and food-waste-reducing iftar is probably unappealing. However, green Muslims, such as Sarrah Abulughod, insist that Ramadhan is the perfect time to look at food waste and ways to do something about it.

“In many Muslim communities, Ramadhan has become a time of great waste, not only of food, but of our natural resources as well,” explains Sarrah. “It is very easy to picture the after-iftar rush to prayer where you pass piles and piles of styrofoam overflowing from the trash bins. This scene is so opposite to what we as Muslims should be reflecting on during this holy month. As a response, a small group of people decided to take a stand, and introduce the concept of Green or Zero-Trash Iftars.”

In Washington DC, one small group of ‘Green Muslims’ has been hosting Eco-Iftars for the last couple of years, and they are keen to get more Muslims thinking carefully about the food wasted during Ramadhan. Indeed, the group’s formation was catalysed by a zero-trash potluck iftar that was held during the Ramadhan of 2007. Sarrah Abulughod, who volunteers with the organisation Green Muslims, explains that the main aim of the Green Iftars is to raise awareness of how much trash we produce and food we waste in a single meal. With this in mind, you can then reflect on how much garbage we produce as a community of Muslims during Ramadhan alone.

Indeed, whilst the statistics on food waste in Ramadhan are hard to come by, the ones available are worrying to say the least. In the United Arab Emirates, it is estimated that food waste peaks in Ramadhan with 500 tonnes of food thrown away every day. In Bahrain, 30 per cent of all food purchased for Ramadan will be thrown away. In fact, it is believed that most households buy 30 to 40 per cent more household products than they need at this time. And yet, there is little effort to stop this waste, despite most Muslims being aware that throwing food away is a sin. It states in the Holy Qur’an:

“Eat and drink but waste not by excess, for God loves not the wasters.” (al-A’raf:31)”

The Zero-Trash Iftars promoted by Green Muslims are actually relatively easy to implement at home– it’s the larger and more public iftars that are problematic. Even so, Sarrah states that Green Iftars can work on lots of different levels. For example, guests are asked to bring a dish to pass around in a potluck style, but participants can take it to the next level by bringing local or vegetarian food. Everybody is asked to bring their own dishes and cutlery, so that plastic and paper plates and cups are not used and then dumped in landfills. “Depending on your audience, it is often fun to take the idea just one step further to help people understand the idea on a deeper level,” says Sarrah.

“During the meal, we often discuss our impact on this planet and reflect on the many ayat in the Qur’an that speak of Believers as the vicegerents of this Earth.” The end of the iftar is another key part of the process. Unlike most iftars when the trash is the last thought, at a Green Iftar the group measures how much trash they actually produced as they clean up together, and separate the trash from the compostable and recyclable items. “It is often very eye-opening and going through this exercise together as a community is helpful in starting people on better individual habits,” adds Sarrah. Fundraising at the Green Iftars has also enabled the Green Muslims group to purchase their very own set of travelling dishes, cups, and cutlery that can be borrowed out to various groups. The group remarked that the Green Iftar set, which caters for 500 people, will hopefully educate communities about the ease of going green and reducing waste during the month of Ramadhan.

3 Simple and Practical Tips to Cut Food Waste

1. Reduce

Reduce the amount of food you buy in the first place. If you think about it, it is deeply illogical that most Muslim households feel the need to stock up on food during Ramadan– the month of fasting. So, shop as you normally do, and don’t feel the need to buy more for Ramadhan. If in doubt– leave it out (of the shopping basket, that is).

2. Reuse

Food leftovers can be a tricky thing to deal with, as some people refuse to eat even one day-old food. One way to deal with this is to limit the food you cook (be on special guard when cooking

during Ramadhan) and the second is to think about what foods are more likely to be eaten as leftovers. Personally, I find that lasagnes, pastas, soups, and certain curries taste just as lovely the next day. So cook accordingly, and serve up some creative remixes of leftovers at Suhoor when everyone is too sleepy to notice.

3. Recycle

Composting food leftovers can be a tricky process and something you may not be willing to invest in. However, one small trick is to compost small amounts of food in tightly sealed plastic bags, and then use the compost to boost growth of what you have planted in your garden.

Wishing all our readers a Green Ramadhan and ‘Eid Mubarak!

Arwa Aburawa is a freelance journalist based in the UK who writes on the Middle East, the environment, and various social issues. Arwa is also the Eco-Islam Affairs Editor at Green Prophet, the leading news site on environmental issues in the Middle East.

: Top image via Hamed Saber/flickr.

:: This article was originally published in SISTERS Magazine/July 2012.

From Ma’amoul to Couscous, why not try a new vegetarian dish from the Middle East and North Africa region this Ramadan?

There are some dishes that evoke such strong memories of a festive occasion, that eating them any other time of the year feels wrong. For me, Qatayf (mini nut pancakes) and Mamoul (date cookies) are two things I only ever eat during Ramadan and so just seeing them gets me in the Ramadan spirit. Another great thing about these two succulent sweet pastries is that they are vegetarian and with enough sugar and calories to give you a post-fast energy boost. Indeed there is an amazing array of special Ramadan dishes from around the Muslim world that are suitable for vegetarians. In an effort toencourage more Muslims (and non-Muslims!) to reduce their meat intake during this holy month, I have collated a list of delectable dishes and pastries that would make the perfect Vegetarian iftar.

After a long day of fasting, the last thing I want to eat is heavy, greasy food. It’s too demanding for your stomach and means you end up feeling very uncomfortable and lethargic. Vegetarian food is the answer. As long as you go easy on the pastries and sweets, vegetarian dishes tend to be fresher, healthier and lighter on the stomach. 

I think soups are an absolute must during Ramadan. After a long day of fasting, nothing helps ease your thirst and hunger like a bowl of hot soup. I was lucky enough to try some tasty Moroccan Harira Soup when I was in Tangiers and I highly recommend it. It’s a lovely mix of lentils, chickpeas and vermicelli which is a particular Ramadan favourite.  You could also try our Moroccan wheat soup recipe here which promises a hearty and warming bowl of goodness.

Salads are another must have and you can’t wrong with Tabbouleh and Fattoush. Check out this recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad for a modern twist on the traditional Tabbouleh by our resident cook Miriam Kresh.

You could also give Fattoush a try – made from leftover pitta bread, tomato, cucumber, mint and lots of other things you should have lying about in your kitchen, it makes a lovely starter. Here’s a great recipe for the traditional Lebanese dish and you could also throw in some avocado to give it a bit more weight.

For main dishes, give couscous a whirl this Ramadan with our very own lemon-scented vegetarian couscous. We even have a special vegan-friendly couscous recipe that you can try out.

Freekah, an ancient grain makes a lovely, hearty soup but could also be cooked as a main and stuffed in a Kobocha squash as you can see below.

Another great vegetarian dish which is a firm favourite even amongst the non-veggies is Imjadarra/Mujaddara. A very traditional Middle Eastern dish, Imjadarra it is made using either rice or bulgar wheat with green lentils, onions and some basic herbs and spices.

Finally to finish off any meal, something sweet. Arabic sweets in my personal opinion are quite tricky to pull off (but I find all pastries and cakes a conundrum to make…) but this recipe for Baklava looks simply enough.

You could also try to make the traditional Ramadan date cookie called Ma’amoul which would really impress your friends. Or even better, you could make the ultimate half-moon shaped Qatayef for a real taste of Ramadan.

: This article was inspired by a post on My Conscious Eating.

::Originally published at GreenProphet.com