The Jewish Review staff
In Israel, even in the midst of war and terrorism, groundbreaking research to improve lives in the Jewish state and beyond continues. 
The Kasser Joint Institute for Global Food, Water and Energy Security is just one example of that work – work which will be on display Tuesday, June 18 at 7 pm in a presentation by Kasser Institute’s Tania Pons Allon, sponsored by Jewish National Fund, Israel360 and the Climate Action Committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council.
The Kasser Institute is a joint project between JNF, the Arava regional council and the University of Arizona that is pioneering agravoltaics, the combination of solar panel installation in conjunction with crops, and aquaponics, raising fish along with crops, to create more advanced methods to use water to grow food and generate electricity as well. Along with research sites in Arizona and in the Arava region, the Kasser Institute works in these fields in rural Kenya to support communities in the area making the most of limited resources. 
Agravoltaics places solar panels over crops, Allon said, to reduce the temperature and infrared radiation levels around the plants – this leads to less water usage. The type of solar panels used in these arrangements, she explained, are some of the lowest cost panels on the market, making this type of water conservation- oriented farming much less expensive than other solutions like desalination technology. 
“It’s a very exciting project, and it involves a community on the ground that is in deep poverty,” Allon said. “We are able to show them how we are doing things in the Arava, how we grow different crops; we’re able to show them that they can use the sun as a power source.”
It may seem odd to some that JNF is working on research that is destined for Kenya and other places, as opposed to Israel itself. But it makes perfect sense to Allon on a number of levels. 
“We are promoting research in the Negev. We are getting more people to work as researchers in the lab,” she said. Furthermore, “The Jewish community throughout the centuries has always been doing good for the world.”
The event is free, but preregistration is required at events.jnf.org/e/buildtogetherportland.