Exploring Hava Ve Adam, an Off-Grid Multidisciplinary Eco-Center

Hava & Adam Farm is a multidisciplinary center for environmental and social education located next to the city of Modi‘in, Israel. The farm is the first and oldest educational center in Israel that focuses on sustainability and has been operating since the beginning of 2003. Every year the farm has over 10,000 children and adult visitor that enjoy and participate in the various courses and activities.

The pool

The founders of the farm – educators, environmentalists, architects, scientists, and social activists – established the farm as a platform that allows for personal growth and observation of the deep connection between man and his natural environment.

Through educational activities and a variety of experiences offered to those attending the farm, they allow each visitor to be exposed to and experience practical ecology – to learn, to grow and to develop – and to be a small seed of change in his immediate surrounding.

The farm offers a variety of activities for everyone, such as:

• Educational programming for kindergartens and schools
• Professional courses in the field of practical ecology
• A variety of classes for children and adults
• Activities for groups from around the world and from Israel
• Professional development for educators
• Tours for the general public
• Festivals and events for many participants
• Professional consulting for the third, private and government sectors*.

Mud workshop

Mud workshop

As a center which models sustainability, the farm strives for ecological self-sufficiency through the use of solar energy, self-treatment of waste, rainwater collection and gray-water systems, a variety of ecological building technologies, recycling and organic agriculture.

The main Solar installation, giving most of the energy for the off-grid community.

Another workshop, teaching how to conceive essential oils and soaps

Most of the farm‘s resources are directed to educational and social projects conducted on the farm, schools and kindergartens in Modi‘in and throughout the country. In addition, the farm provides consulting service to a growing number of private people, organizations, nonprofits and municipalities in the field of environmental education and practical sustainability.

The community is also equipped with advanced compost toilets and proposes to rent private lands for cultivating fruits and vegetables. A Jean Pain compost is also under construction.

Compost toilets

Jean Pain compost

The farm is home to a changing community made up of year of service and national service volunteers and young people from around the world who live and implement the farm‘s principles of sustainability. This way of life serves as a model to learn these principles and transmit them to the general public.

the community

Hava is the original Hebrew name for “Eve”-the Bible’s first woman and the original mother. Hava also means “farm” and is closely related to the word havaya, meaning “experience.”

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This story is part of the ongoing Eco Tour project, a series of trans-disciplinary photoreportages about eco-villages with a focus on permaculture, off-grid communities and decentralization.

© Rubens Ben