WEBVTT

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(Applause)

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The lessons I learned 
while Locavoring

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This is Asaph, my miller.

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He wanted to be a baker and ended up
as the best miller I know.

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This is Ayelet. For her 40th birthday,
she started an organic farm

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with her friend Neta. 
They grow my vegetables.

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Sa'ar, was also my farmer, converted from

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conventional farming to permaculture.

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And this is Ichrak.

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He is my wine-maker.

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He retired and realized his dream

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to make wine in the basement of his house.

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These people make the food our family eats.

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They are all my friends and neighbours.

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But it wasn't always like that.

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I was always fascinated by the origins 
and sources of our food.

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I read books about the history of food;

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I learned the politics of food;

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I reconstructed ancient recipes and feasts;

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I even studied it in university.

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Doing all that, 
the most important thing I learned,

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was that, as we move away 
from our involvement

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in the production of our food,

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we compromise our health, our environment

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and our society.

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We eat cheap food that is grown by people 
who can't afford it,

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in ways that spoil land and water,

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then processed in ways that create

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huge amounts of waste that kills wildlife,

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and jeopardise our health.

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We can do all that because we don't see it.

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It's removed from our lives.

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But I still wanted to find the way

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to know more about 
where my food comes from.

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Like with any problem I need to solve, 
I went to my wife.

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And she did what she always does.

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She raised the stakes even higher.

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and told me I need to self-experiment.

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So we embarked on another adventure

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to change my life.

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For a whole year, 
I ate only food I knew was local.

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Only food I knew for sure

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was grown here.

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I tackled my year of locavoring head on,

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walked into a supermarket 
with some hard questions,

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and that was also when I understood

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I may have a problem.

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It turns out that according to 
the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics,

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most of our food, is imported.

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even 33 percent of our fresh fruits 
and vegetables are imported.

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Sadly, even the most famous local brands 
I knew from my childhood,

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are not local anymore.

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The most amusing example is 
the Sardines of the Sea of Galilee.

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The reputation was so good, that even when

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they stopped bringing the sardines 
from the sea of Galilee,

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they kept the name, 
and wrote the little letters on the side,

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"New, now imported".

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I moved on to discover 
that my locally branded garlic

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come from China.

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The Greek, the Galilean olive oil is Greek,

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and the farm fresh eggs come from Turkey.

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What should I do?

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The first thing I realised was that

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I have nothing to do in supermarkets.

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Supermarkets are made of merchandise, 
not food.

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Most of the time, we won't have a clue

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where it came from.

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I left the supermarket, seeking a solution

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in my community.

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A few days ago, 
as I was preparing for this lecture,

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my daughter, now 7, 
said she wanted to hear it.

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So I gave her the lecture, 
and when we got to this last part

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She stopped me, looked at me 
in a strange way in the eyes and said,

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"Dad, did you really ever go 
into supermarkets?

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Are you sure you really wrote that?"

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By now, supermarkets are unthinkable 
in our family.

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However, I needed to find people

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that sell food and know its origins.

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Soon, I found that every professional 
in small shops

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knew exactly the origin of the food.

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We conducted an experiment with butchers.

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We asked them 
where one of the calves was raised.

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The butcher in the supermarket didn't have a clue.

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Even the butcher in the butchery chain didn't know.

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The only ones that knew, 
were the real professional butchers,

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that own their local shops.

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They knew exactly the origin of the meat.

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I went back buying food 
the way my grandparents used to.

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Meat from the butcher, 
vegetables from the farmer in the market,

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and flowers from Asaph's mill.

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I got to know my community.

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I started my year with food in my mind.

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But I ended up with a community.

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I learned that in order to eat nutritious food,

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I need to know where it comes from.

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In order to know where it comes from,

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I need to get to know my community.

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Think how much money 
we invest in food in our lives.

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Many years of buying food, every week, 
an enormous amount.

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Think about the influence

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each of us could have if we change the way

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we invest that money.

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I was lecturing to Bedouin teachers 
about local food, a few weeks ago.

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When I finished, 
the Head Master of the school came to me

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and asked me if, and he said

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that there is a local Bedouin phrase 
for the importance of local economy.

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In Arabic it's (speaking Arabic)

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It means that if I move something 
from one of my heads to the other,

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It stays with me.

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In the tribe it meant that
if I give you something, I can't lose.

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Because it stays in our community.

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As we learn to see the power of locavoring,

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we also started to hear the skeptics.

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It's too hard, 
supermarket has everything in one place.

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And so on. Chain stores are much more visible.

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So now we're working on a project that will

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make the local and the small more visible.

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We are creating a platform 
that will give the community a tool

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to map the local shops and businesses.

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We're creating it with volunteers 
from the community

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for the community.

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We're calling it The Makomit.

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Makomit is local in Hebrew.

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The strength of our community 
influences the quality of our food

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and the way we acquire the food

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influences the resilience of our community.

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I want to thank my community.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)