About a half hour ago, my e-alerts from seven different publications delivered this into my inbox. While the subject is a serious and important one, to be sure, there is something about an e-alert with wording to the effect of "Israel asks for US Boycott of Iranian Nuts" that will certainly catch your attention. Yeah, yeah, yuk it up, nuts, nuts, nuts. Okay, but it's a thing, let us not forget. In the mid 1990s, U.S. officials encouraged Israel to block the import of Iranian nuts coming through EU member states and winding up in Israel. Naturally, this is a far larger issue now that tensions have increased over Iran pursuing nuclear technology, and the UN being urged to levy new economic sanctions against Iran until the program is abandoned. Oy.
Anyway, I was writing a different post entirely when the nut-related e-alerts started coming in, so I shelved it for now and decided to bring you this, the full text of the article from the New York Times online, it being a gather-and-nosh weekend ahead:
Israel has asked for help from the United States in cracking down on illegal pistachio nut imports from Iran, an official said, after Washington warned that the trade was hurting efforts to curb Tehran’s nuclear program. Israel imports pistachios worth $26 million annually, mostly from Turkey. But Washington says nuts from Iran are mixed in with the shipments, undermining economic sanctions meant to force Tehran to stop developing its nuclear abilities. An Agriculture Ministry official said Israel was willing to help but, as in past attempts, the problem has been how to figure out the origin of the nuts.
No joke. Simhon held a meeting recently with US agriculture officials to discuss using technology to determine pistachio origin such a soil composite testing. You see, as you can also read more about in this Haaretz article, pistachios are an issue, being that California is the second highest producer of pistachios, with Iran being the first. "This has to do with the sanctions but also with the competition between American farmers and Iranian farmers, and we are trying to deal with this," Simhon was quoted as saying to the Associated Press.
Though they are small and perhaps easy to dismiss as insignificant, it's one of those things, like many other things that can fall under the realm of eco-kasher, that point of origin, growing/harvesting and processing conditions, as well as a whole slew of other things, including involved politics- all of it is up for consideration when determining acceptability, in determining where you want your dollars to go.
I like this blog very much so much superb info .
Good aftie” i am a blogger too” and i can see that you are a nice blogger too.