To Make a Desert Bloom: the Israeli Agricultural Adventure and the Quest for Sustainability Author(S): Alon Tal Source: Agricultural History, Vol

To Make a Desert Bloom: The Israeli Agricultural Adventure and the Quest for Sustainability Author(s): Alon Tal Source: Agricultural History, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Spring, 2007), pp. 228-257 Published by: Agricultural History Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4617826 . Accessed: 14/02/2014 12:56

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions To Make a Desert Bloom: The Israeli AgriculturalAdventure and the Quest forSustainability

ALON TAL

Thisarticle offers an overviewof thevicissitudes faced byIsraeli agriculture duringthe past century.The Zionistpioneers who came from Europe to Palestinesought to "reclaim"the statusof Jewishfarmers in theirhome- land. Thisethic translated into an extraordinarysocietal support for Israel's agrarianeconomy and steadygrowth in agriculturalproduction. Seven key factorsare identifiedas beingcritical to thisrecord of success,including a commitmentto food security,water development, and technologicalinnovation. Yet, duringthe past twentyyears numerouschanges in local and internationaldynamics have posed substantialchallenges to Israel's agriculturalsector. In addition,while Israeli agriculturehas largelyhalted erosion and restoreddesertified lands of the Negev Desert,it also produced myriadenvironmental side effectsincluding water contamination and ex- cessivepesticide usage. The articleconsiders responses to thesechallenges thatoffer promising prospects for a sustainableagricultural future in Israel.

ISRAEL'S EMERGENCE AS AN AGRICULTURALcountry was a matter of choice. Perhaps more than any other nation,it chose to pursue a ro- mantic,ideological agrarianvision. This dream of a rural,fertile homeland drove economic policies, launched a sociological makeover,and produced astonishingchanges in an ancient landscape and a people's

ALON TAL is an associate professorof EnvironmentalPolicy in the MitraniDepartment of Desert Ecology, Blaustein Institutesfor Desert Research, Ben Gurion University, Israel. This articlewas originallypresented as part of the 2005 Yale UniversityAgrarian Studies Colloquium. The author thanksthe thoughtfulparticipants for theircomments, whichhave meaningfullyimproved the text.Also, the authorgratefully acknowledges the excellentsuggestions of Moshe Schwartzand NehemiahHasid of Ben Gurion University.

? theAgricultural History Society, 2007

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2007 To Makea DesertBloom self-image.This agriculturaltransformation has been manifestedin breathtakingtechnological innovation, surprising triumphs in combating desertification,as well as devastating environmentalconsequences. Groundwaterbecame contaminated;mounting dependence on herbi- cides and pesticidestranslated into a significantpublic health insultto residentsof the ruralsector; and waterresources were depleted. It was not long beforepeople raised questionsabout the veryeconomic viabil- ityof Israeli agriculture. To answerthem and understandthe presentchoices thatIsrael faces as it exploreswhat a sustainablefuture for agriculture means, it is critical to understandthe country'sidiosyncratic heritage and the historicevo- lution of its remarkableagricultural achievement. It would seem that Israeli agricultureis in a processthat will take it fullcircle. One hundred years ago, somethingakin to an "ecological impulse" galvanized an intellectualcadre of youngEuropean immigrantsto redefinethemselves as farmersin their"promised land." Withinfifty years, a public policy thatprioritized food securityand exportsproduced an industrialmodel of agriculturethat came to dominatethe local perspective. Ultimately,this transition in the Israeli farmingsector left the agrarian sectorat odds withthe fundamentalhydrological reality, ecosystem servicesof the land, and healthconcerns of modernfarming. During the course of the twentiethcentury, a steady progressionof institutional, physical,economic, and sociologicalfactors converged to ultimatelyem- brace an environmentalperspective. Rather than any ecological ideology,it was fundamentalpragmatism that eventually came to informthe sustainabilityof agriculturalpolicy and practicesin Israel. Not only the physical environment,but the political/economicdrivers that initially launched the outstandinggrowth in Israeli agriculturalproduction have changed. Because it is such a small, young country,whose developmenthas been so explosive,Israeli agriculturalhistory offers an extremescenario fordryland nations that seek a sustainableroute for their farming sector. To reviewa centuryof eco-agriculturalhistory in Israel mightbe akin to watchinga fast-forwardingdocumentary. The storyoffers insights into the perils of insensitivelyaggressive rural developmentalong with the possibilityof ecological harmonyand compatibilitybetween food pro- ductionand the environmentin conditionsof water scarcity.

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The Jewishpeople, of course,were originallyfarmers. As embodied in the Bible's querulous ancestorsCain and Abel, pastoralismand agricultureprovided the economicfoundations for an Israelitesociety that could also supportartisans, priests, kings, and scholars.These agricul- turalorigins are woveninto the very rituals of theJewish calendar-with religiousholidays to thisday celebratingfirst fruits, final harvests, and the birthdaysof trees. The numbingand prodigiousminutiae of the Talmudic regulationsand insightsregarding agriculture in the Land of Israel,written over two thousandyears ago, can competefor sheer detail with any of the encyclopedicmanuals printedby the US Soil Conser- vation Service or ExtensionService. But this rural statuschanged as the Jewishpeople were forcedinto exile withthe destructionof the Temple in 70 CE. As Jewishcommu- nities adapted to minoritystatus in theirvarious diasporas, different professional inclinationsemerged: peddlers, traders,money-lenders, physicians,and of courserabbis. Sometimes these changes of occupation were the result of intentionalrestriction by externalauthorities. For example,by the Middle Ages, governmentsthroughout Europe prohib- ited Jewsfrom owning land. By the nineteenthcentury both the world and the communityitself had long since ceased to perceive Jews and farmersas synonymous-indeedthe Jewishassociation with food productionwas as distantas any ethnicor national group in the world.1 All this changed at the end of the nineteenthcentury, when Jews began to thinkabout a national renaissancein Palestine througha Zi- onistmovement. The simpleimpulse was to reclaimthe Jewishnational birthrightas an indigenouspeople in theirpromised land. Farmingwas a criticalpart of this vision. The socialist and dominantstrain in the Zionistpolitical movement used the metaphorof an "upside-downpyra- mid." It perceivedlabor patternsand professionalaffiliation as indica- torsfor the warped state of Jewishaffairs. Presumably, stable pyramids need a wide base of proletariattapering to a pointof a professionalclass. In nineteenth-centuryEurope, however,the occupational breakdown was such that a small minorityof workerswas supportingfar broader, less productivesections of the pyramid.This createdan invertedJewish sociologicalpyramid, dominated by disproportionatenumbers of white- collars,traders, and scholars.The Zionist transformationaimed to flip thisdynamic on its head and returnJewish society to a normalhealthy

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2007 To Makea DesertBloom pyramid,with a majorityof farmers at itsbase. This socialistimpulse was strengthenedby the enormouspower of Tolstoy's ruralistaffection for "Mother Russia" and the greatauthor's idealization of peasant culture. These ideas resonatedamong Jewsof his time,who soughtto apply his vision of agrarianharmony in theirancestral homeland. Aaron David Gordon was not just an influentialZionist philosopher whose writingarticulated this impulse, he also personifiedit. After workingas a bookkeeperin Russia, he moved to Palestinein 1902 at age forty-sevenand redefinedhimself as a farmerat the firstZionist kibbutz, Degania, on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. He perceivedagricultural labor as not only restoringan abandoned land, but also a damaged Jewishspirit. In his 1918 essay, Our Tasks Ahead, he wrote:

We Jewshave developed an attitudeof lookingdown on physical labor.... But laboris theonly force which binds man to thesoil ... it is thebasic energyfor the creation of national culture. This is whatwe do not have, but we are not aware of missingit.... In my dreamI come to the land. And it is barrenand desolate and givenover to strangers;destruction darkens its face and foreignersrule in corrup- tion.And the land of myforefathers is distantand foreignto me and I too am distantand foreignto it. And the onlylink that ties my soul to her,the onlyreminder that I am herson and she is mymother, is thatmy soul is as desolateas hers.2

The back-to-the-earthethos adopted by the Zionists can be easily understoodand is hardlyremarkable in the generalcontext of the era's Romanticphilosophy that sought a pureralternative to the increasingly industrial,alienating, European, urban lifestyles.What is less compre- hensibleand more impressivein retrospectwas the phenomenalsuccess of this comparativelysmall cohortof Jewishagricultural pioneers who actually implementedthis philosophical formula.With practicallyno training,they moved halfwayaround the world,became farmers,and lived up to theirown axiom of "conquer[ing]the wilderness." It was hardlya hospitableland forthe would-beplanters. Palestine at the turnof the twentiethcentury bore the scars of successivewaves of conquests and occupations that had more regard for the militarytri- umphthan for the associated challengesof soil stewardship.Millennia of

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AgriculturalHistory Spring overgrazing,primitive subsistence farming practices, and deforestation had denuded a countrywhose modest precipitationleaves it almost entirelyin a semi-arid/aridclassification. Aerial photographsfrom the period confirmthe resultingerosion, land degradation,and generalne- glect.Even withoutthis degradation, the average organiccomponent of soils in Israel is only 1.5 percent-literallyhalf the 3 percentfound in Europe.3 Mark Twain's famous travellog fromthe nineteenthcentury in In- nocentsAbroad offersprobably as good a snapshot as any, with his descriptionof the Judeanhills a farcry from the lush landscape evoked by the Bible:

Close to it was a stream,and on its banks a greathead of curious lookingSyrian goats and sheepwere gratefully eating gravel. I do not statethis as a petrifiedfact-I onlysuppose they were eatinggravel, because theredid not appear to be anythingelse forthem to eat.... Therewas hardlya treeor a shrubany where. Even theolive and the cactus,those fast friends of a worthlesssoil, had almostdeserted the country.No landscapeexists that is moretiresome to theeye thanthat whichbounds the approachesto Jerusalem.4

Yet, the Jewishagricultural effort of the earlytwentieth century con- founded many non-Zionist,Jewish skeptics and proved the potential fecundityof the land of Israel. The Zionist movementwas adept at fundraisingand much of these fundswere earmarkedfor agriculture. Though the real estate that Arab landlords were willingto sell was largelymalaria-infested swamps and wastelands,new agriculturalsettlements soon began to dot the map of Palestine. Britishland decrees limitingJewish ownership slowed progressdramatically, but this 1940 table fromthe PalestineStatistical Abstract indicates the steadyincrease in Jewishagricultural activity (see Table 1). Most of the agricultural activityin the Jewishsector was situatedon privatelands in Palestine before 1948, but withindependence, the collectivekibbutz and moshav agriculturesettlements became the dominantinstitutional framework forfarming in Israel. While the Jewishfarms supported livestockand a varietyof vegetables and fruits,the crop of choice forthe settlerswas citrus.Between

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Table 1. Growth of JewishAgricultural Settlements

Year #of Jewish Settlements Inhabitants Land Area 1899 22 5,000 300,000 1914 44 12,000 400,000 1930 107 45,000 1,050,000 1936 203 98,300 1,480,000 1939 252 137,000 1,650,000

SOURCE:Palestine Statistical Abstract.

1918 and 1938 Jews invested seventy-fivemillion dollars in orange groves, and productiongrew seven-fold.Orange groves generated80 percentof Palestine's exportrevenues and were the single greatestin- come generator,even thoughthey only filled4 percent of Palestine's eightmillion hectares of agriculturallands.5 The success was ostensiblydue to anotherconscious choice by the Zionist farmers:they eschewed the existingagricultural methods and technologiesof the local Palestinianpeasant population-the fellahin. Theirs was to be modern,western agriculture. This dismissiveattitude towardsthe indigenousArab populationcan be seen even in Gordon's characterizationof the land under Arab controlas "barren and desolate." And Gordon was among the conciliatoryZionist leaders toward the PalestinianArabs. The Zionist adage "A land withouta people for a people withoutland" did not so much suggestthat the Arab population was invisiblebut that theirnational claims and culturewere less worthy.Years later,Israel's foundingfirst Prime Minister,David Ben Gurion,a geniusat languageswho knew at least twelve,refused to learn Arabic on the premise that Israel could only succeed as a European nation and that learningfrom the locals would be a strategicmistake.6 The truthis thatby the startof the twentiethcentury, the traditional Arab agriculturein Palestine was extremelymeager for a varietyof reasons. Operatingin an essentiallyfeudal context,with absentee land- ownersin Syria and Turkishtax collectorsskimming away any possible profits,incentives (and yields) forfellahin farmers were extremelylow, even by Middle Eastern standards.Agricultural tracts grew smaller and smalleras familiessubdivided shrinking land reserves.Production was meager.A 1937 study,for example, showed a local PalestinianArab cow

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AgriculturalHistory Spring providing412 to 824 kilogramsof milk a year(lactation) as opposedto a cow fromBeirut, Lebanon, who couldgenerate 2,000 to 3,000kg or fromDamascus, Syria, who could reach 3,500 kg. (For purposes of com- parison,in 2003 Israeli cows on kibbutzimwere providing an averageof 8,529kg a year,the highest rate in theworld.)7 Whilethe British Mandate government attempted modest assistance to theArab agricultural system, through subsidized olive trees and tech- nical assistance,these efforts were more symbolic than anything else. Withno capitalto supportany upgradingof infrastructure,a largely illiteratefarming population without extension support and withthe relentlesscompetition of an extremelyambitious and increasinglypros- perousJewish sector, indigenous Palestinian Arab farmingbegan to fade.By theend ofthe British colonial period, some 64 percentof local Arabstheoretically lived off the land, but an increasinglylarge percentage foundwork within the Jewish economy or weresimply destitute.8 Thus,for many reasons, Zionism spawned high input, technologically based agriculture.For instance,a keyto thesuccessful land reclamation by Jewishfarmers was syntheticfertilizers. Fertilizer imports jumped from1,077 tons in 1922 to a peak of 14,698in 1937.Years laterthe nitratesreappeared in high concentrations ingroundwater inrural wells, butthere was no waythe zealous Jewish farmers in pre-WorldWar II Palestinecould have envisioned this sort of hydrologicalhazard.9 Technicalsupport for the Jewishagrarian settlement initiative was quickto follow.Agricultural research and extension stations were set up by theWorld Zionist Organization during the 1920s,largely based on the philosophyof Yizhak Volcani,the Lithuanianagronomist who movedto Palestinein 1908and establishedthe country's central agri- culturalcenter, which now bears his name. Volcani's view held that the traditionalagricultural methods in Palestinewere unsustainableeco- nomically,and he advocatedmixed farming with intense irrigation, Eu- ropeanplows (later tractors), and diverseproduce.1' Althoughthe prevailing paradigm of Jewish agriculture was a heavily mechanizedmonoculture, it was largelypesticide free and soil conser- vationwas an integralpart of the program. Thus, it managed to maintain considerableenvironmental integrity. Walter Clay Lowdermilk, a world renownedsoil scientist,was sentby the USDA just beforeWorld War II to conducta surveyof the stateof soils in the ancientLevant. His report

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2007 To Makea DesertBloom fromEgypt, Tunisia, Algeria,and Morocco was bleak indeed. "Almost everywherewe saw repugnantevidences of deadly soil erosion super- seding the resultsof skilled land use duringprevious centuries."His assessmentof the ecological impactsof the indigenousFelah agriculture was similarlygrim.

Here beforeour eyes the remarkablered-earth soil of Palestinewas being rippedfrom the slopes and sweptdown into the coastal plain and carriedout to sea, whereit turnedthe blue of theMediterranean to a dirtybrown as faras theeye couldsee. We couldwell understand how duringmany centuries this type of erosionhas wasted the ne- glectedlands. It is estimatedthat over three feet of soil has been swept fromthe uplands of Palestinesince the breakdown of terraceagricul- ture.

In contrast,he saw the soil conservationefforts of the Zionist farmers, who at the time controlledonly 6 percentof the lands, as sensa- tional:

We were astonishedto findabout threehundred colonies defying greathardships and applyingthe principlesof co-operationand soil conservationto the old Land of Israel.... Here in one cornerof the vastNear East, thoroughgoingwork is in progressto rebuildthe fertilityof land insteadof condemning it by neglect to furtherdestruction and decay.... The countryis emergingfrom a backwardlow-yield agriculturaleconomy, dependent chiefly on grainsand olives,and is evolvingtowards a modern,scientifically directed and richlydiversi- fiedeconomy with fruits, vegetables, poultry and dairyproducts play- ing an ever greaterrole. The wooden plow is yieldingto the tractor, theflail to thethreshing machine. Rural Palestine is becomingless and less like Trans-Jordan,Syria and Iraq, and morelike Denmark,Hol- land and partsof the UnitedStates.'

Once Israel was establishedin 1948 and the Zionist settlementagen- cies were freedof the constraintsof Britishland and waterproscriptions, the new JewishState set out to expand agriculturalproduction. In five years duringthe 1950s,cultivated lands increasedby 150 percent-with the percentageincrease of irrigatedplots even higher.Soon after,the

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2000

1800

1600

1400 1200

1000

800

200

0 1950 190 1970 1980 o1990 2000

*- CROPS-m-LESTOCK

Figure1. QuantityIndex of Agricultural Production, Crops, and Livestock.Source: Ayal Kimhi,"The Rise and Fallof Israeli Agriculture: Technology, Markets and Policy,"paper presentedat SungKyun Kwan University, 2004.

Israeli governmentamended its National Planningand BuildingLaw so that the defaultzoning for open spaces was for "agriculturalusage." Changingthe classificationof farmlandsrequired approval of a committee dominatedby agriculturalinterests. During thisperiod, agricultural settlementactually doubled, with the numberof Jewishfarming com- munitiesincreasing from three hundred to six hundred.Areas thathad been writtenoff for millennia as desertreemerged as arable lands,as the ideologicalfervor that characterized the pioneerspirit was givena state- supportedframework that both deifiedand subsidizedagriculture. Dur- ing the 1960s, over 30 percent of exportscame fromthe agricultural sector.Figure 1 shows the continuousexpansion of agriculturalproduction in Israel since the foundingof the state.12 The steadygrowth in yieldshas continuedto the present,even as the breakingof new agriculturalland has leveled off.Today, Israeli farmers produce over 3.3 billiondollars worth of produce,20 percentof whichis

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Table 2. Land Use in Israel

Thousandsof Percentage Land Hectares of TotalLands Total area of Israel 2,245,000 100 BuiltAreas 200,000 8.9 Non-AgriculturalOpen Spaces 1,146,000 51 NaturalReserves and Forests 347,000 15.5 Pasture 141,000 6.3 ArableLands 411,000 18.3

SOURCE: Ministryof Agriculture,2001. exported.Table 2 indicatesthat roughlya quarter of land in Israel is being utilizedfor agriculturalproduction, and thisrate is fairlysteady. This proportionis extremelyhigh considering that most of the country is arid or semi-aridin its precipitationlevels.13 As to the compositionof Israeli agriculture,Table 3 providesa general breakdownof presentproduction according to land use. As would be expected given the climaticconditions, the majorityof agricultural lands are irrigated.Roughly a quarterof agriculturallands are dedicated to orchards,with citrus still comprisinga major component of local fruits,even as the groves have migratedsouth to the northernNegev. Flowers and ornamentalplants, intensively raised in greenhouses,provide revenuesfar greater than their 1.6 percentof land space. In general, some 1,456 hectaresof land are utilizedas green or "hot" houses. In contrastwith the success of Jewsand Jewishagriculture in Israel, the 150,000 Arabs who remained in Israel afterthe War of Indepen- dence fairedpoorly. Most PalestinianArabs fledthe countryduring the fightingfor a varietyof reasons. The new Jewishgovernment was not interestedin rebuildingthe fellahincommunities that had frequently been hostile.In manycases, Arab farmerswere not allowed to returnto theirhomes. Under the 1950 Absentee PropertyAct they were paid compensationthat fell far shortof the land's actual value. About 40 percentof private Arab land resources were confiscated duringthis period, and today Arabs-who are 20 percentof the population-own only3.4 percentof the land. This shiftin landownershipwas certainlynot an objective of the youngJewish State duringits military conflictwith five Arab armies and the local PalestinianArab militias,

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Table 3. Uses of AgriculturalLand in Israel

Typeof Cropland Thousandsof Hectares % of TotalLands

All Cropland 382.2 100 Irrigated 192.3 58.6 Rainwatered 136.9 41.4 Orchards 84.8 25.8 Citrus 25.3 7.7 Vegetables 55.1 16.8 Flowers and Plants 5.2 1.6 Field Crops 183 55.8 Cotton 29 8.8 Wheat 86 26.2

SOURCE: Ministryof Agriculture, 2001. but it was an undeniableoutcome. With the loss of mostof its lands,the alreadybeleaguered fellah economy went into free fall. Already, it could not reallycompete withthe highlymechanized Jewish agricultural sector. By the 1990s only 8 percentof Arab-Israelismade a livingin agriculture.Historians Baruch Kimmerlingand Joel Migdal summarizethe process:

Even wherethey held ontotheir plots, the Arabs foundit difficultto stayin farming.The stateseverely limited their water and electricity quotas,particularly when compared to themore productive neighbor- ing Jewish communal and cooperative farms (kibbutzim and moshavim).And theArabs found themselves excluded from the country'spowerful marketing, credit, and purchasingcooperatives. Arab- ownedcitrus groves all butdisappeared; in the1950s, the fellaheen fell back on subsistenceproduction, with supplemental marketing of olive oil. It is thusnot surprisingthat many Israeli Arabs abandonedagri- culturealtogether ... in Zureik'sterms, they underwent a processof depeasantification.The land became the domain of those withthe machineryto exploit.By the 1960s and 1970s,Arab agriculturein Israel would undergosignificant mechanization and cash cropping, Israeliresearch organizations speaking of a shiftfrom fellah to farmer.14

Despite the problemsof thisethnic group, agricultural production at the national level grew exponentially.When broken down to its con-

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2007 To Makea DesertBloom stituentparts, the phenomenalsuccess of Israeli agricultureduring the past fifty-sevenyears can be attributedto seven factors:commitment to food security;extraordinary water development;innovative technologi- cal development;steady increase in availablework force; a unityof purpose in Israel's agriculturalsettlement movements; unconditional political/ economicsupport; and the growingavailability of exportmarkets. Yet, in the more recentpast, many of the veryfactors that created such agriculturalprosperity have changed-from agriculture'sperspec- tive-not for the better.Indeed, there is a wide perceptionamong Is- raelis thatagriculture in Israel has lost itsluster, comparative advantage, and most importantly,its future.While agricultureprovided 30 percent of the national GNP during the 1950s, today's 3.2 billion dollars in annual productionis only 1.6 percentof GDP. The trendsin each of the seven key factorsraise serious questions about the sustainabilityof Is- rael's presentagricultural economy.15 Israel's initialyears were characterizedby chronicshortages of food. As the nascentState of Israel was absorbinghundreds of thousandsof refugeesfrom Arab lands,it faced a boycottfrom its Muslimneighbors. Domestic food productionwas inadequate, and proteinsin particular were in shortsupply. Strict rationing of basic food suppliesby thecentral governmentspawned a black marketfor a varietyof staples.This period of collectivehardship, known locally as the Tsenah, leftan imprinton the national psyche.16 The residual effectof this trauma was a national commitmentto agriculturalself-reliance that has survivedfor fifty years. As agricultural researcherElaine Solowey recalls:

On KibbutzMatsuva during the fifties, the choice for a proteincourse duringa meal was betweenten olives and one egg. This memory drivesthe feelingthat Israel needs its own milk,eggs, etc. Rationing was verystrict and manykibbutzim, like Scarlet O'Hara, declaredthey werenever going to be hungryagain and startedup an amazingvariety of projectsfrom raising guinea fowl to growingmushrooms.

Today, however,Israeli supermarketsoffer a cornucopia of domestic and importedproducts that is as plentifulas any in the world. This

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AgriculturalHistory Spring bountyhas led manyIsraelis to growmore confident about thecountry's long-termability to importfood, notwithstandingits tenuous interna- tional staturein much of the world.17 The need forirrigation has been as historicallyimportant in Israel as the desire for food self-sufficiency.In anythingbeyond a subsistence economy,agriculture in semi-aridand arid climatescannot rely on rain- fall as its water source. The impressiveachievements in agricultural productionreached priorto Israel's independencewere made possible due to a coordinatedwater developmentprogram in the Jewishsector. This was coordinatedby Mekorot, a public company that essentially became the national water utilitywhen the state was created. Israel's foundingpolitical socialistleaders, almost all of whom came fromthe agriculturalsector, perceived water as the engine that would fuel the incipientnation's ruraleconomic development.The initialestimate for establishinga nationalwater carrier at the startof the 1950s was fifteen milliondollars a yearfor the firsteight years of the project.Considering that Israel's entireforeign currency earnings during this period did not exceed twentymillion dollars, the decision to push ahead withthe in- frastructureproject constitutedan astonishingcommitment to Israel's agriculturalcommunities. (During Israel's firstdecade, some 80 percent of investmentin waterinfrastructure went into nationalwater carriers.) Fifteenyears after the War of Independenceended, the countryhad put in place a massive systemfor redistributing the naturallyasymmetrical hydrologicalallocation.18 Despite the protestationof its Arab neighbors,Israel's National Wa- ter Carrierto thisday takes waterfrom the relativelyrainy Galilee and the Kinneret Lake (Sea of Galilee) in the North and carries it down througha gridto irrigatesemi-arid plots in the centerof the countryand the southernNegev Desert. Then, as duringmost of Israel's history, water was highlysubsidized. It was hydrologicalsocialism, and the results did not disappoint.With state incentivesto open new spigots,for Israel's firstthirty years, agricultural production could burgeon. Of course,there were significantenvironmental ramifications to this aggressivewater exploitationpolicy. The relativelysaline watersof the Kinneretexacerbated groundwater contamination when used forirrigation, salinatingthe soil. As early as the 1950s water resourceshad already begun to deterioratedue to overpumpingof the country'slargest

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2007 To Makea DesertBloom aquifer to support new agriculturalsettlements along the coast. The resultswere quicklymanifested in seawaterintrusion and increased sa- linitylevels. By the 1950s wells were closed. A decade later,when Israel foundyet anothernew source forirrigation, recycling a substantialper- centage of its sewage, an additional stream of contamination was added.19 The Israeli experience with wastewaterrecycling is unique and in- structive.Israel was the firstcountry on earthto make effluentrecycling a centralcomponent of itswater management strategy, setting standards forreuse and designinga nationalblueprint. When the state framedthe originalmaster plan in 1956, it originallyenvisioned the ultimaterecy- clingof 150 millioncubic meters-all goingto agriculture.Today almost threetimes that level is recycled-a total of over 60 percentof sewage, generallyconsidered the highestpercentage of any nation in the world. By the beginning of the twenty-firstcentury, effluents contributed roughlya fifthof Israel's watersupply, and 50 percentof the irrigation supplied foragriculture.20 Concern, however,about the quality of water reused for irrigation has emerged,given its poor pretreatment,inadequate oversight,and the leniencyof the standards.Epidemiological studies during the 1970s es- tablished that there were no discernibleoccupational health effects among Israeli farmerswho irrigatedwith effluents. But it took another decade forthe fullhydrological impact of massivewastewater recycling to be assessed, and even longerfor the countryto set sufficientlystrin- gent treatmentstandards to ensure groundwaterand streamintegrity. Thus, while Israeli agriculturalwater policy and irrigationresourceful- ness facilitatedincreased production and expanded water resources, therewas an indisputableecological downside.This legacyincludes high nitrateconcentrations in aquifers,periodic bacterial episodes in urban drinkingwater sources, a steadyincrease in the levels of salt in aquifers, and even contaminationby industrialsolvents in ruralregions, making dozens of wells unfiteven for agriculturalutilization.21 Other aspects of Israeli high-techagriculture have come with both benefitsand costs. When a popular daily newspapersurveyed Israelis, looking back afterfifty years of statehood about the country'scontri- butionto the world'stechnology, they voted dripirrigation as the country'smost importantinvention. It even came ahead of the legendary

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AgriculturalHistory Spring epi-ladyhair removalsystem and ICQ software.Developed by the kibbutz-based NetafimCorporation, drip irrigationhas created a world- wide revolutionin farmingfor water-scarceregions. Other farmersin more humidregions have come to understandthe benefitsof bringing water, in precise quantities,with optimal fertilizerconcentrations, di- rectlyto the root zones of plants,and theyhave embracedthe technology;for example, the Florida citrusindustry and theNorthern California marijuana growers.Health hazards of driftfrom wastewater irrigation are also preventedby thissystem, and bacteriaare neutralizedon route. Computersrun the entireoperation.22 In Israel dripirrigation became ubiquitous,with over halfof irrigated lands in Israel todayunder such micro-irrigation.It is theprimary reason whywater deliveryefficiency has increasedfrom 64 to 90 percentsince the 1960s-with the amountof waterper hectaredropping 50 percent- from 8,700 to 5,500 (cubic meters per year)-as yields continued to skyrocket.23 The technologywas not withoutits problems,such as pipe clogging and breakage. Recently,a new generationof subsurfacedrip irrigation systemshas emergedto address them,providing even higherlevels of nutrientsand water to plants while maintaininga drysoil surface.By buryingthe drippersseven to thirtycentimeters below the surface, weeds were reduced, as were runoffand evaporation-eliminatingal- most completelyhuman contactwith poor qualityeffluents. Moreover, the longevityof the laterals and emittersin the systemwere greatly enhanced. Here was an environmentalproblem that trulyhad a tech- nological fixthat saved money and time.24 There are other,more vexing,aspects of Israeli high-inputagricul- ture. Pesticide usage remainswidespread and, when chemicalsare re- placed withclever biological substitutes developed in Israel, application oftenrequires even greatersophistication and training.In arid regions, where the lands are sandy with low organic content,soils essentially serve as what JaredDiamond refersto as "flowerpots," withfarmers providingthe nutrientsthrough costly organic and inorganicfertilizers.25 In short,Israeli agriculturehas grownmore technologicallysophisti- cated. This has been key to the successiveincrease in yield,but it also meant that it has become more expensive to be a successfulIsraeli farmer.The upfrontinput costs money and the demands of human

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2007 To Makea DesertBloom capital and associated expertiserequired to successfullycompete has also increased.This serves to make the entireagricultural sector more vulnerable.The environmentalbalance sheet may be mixed,but on the whole, Israel's embrace of technologicalinnovation has meant more efficientwater and fertilizerutilization and, recently,a drop in pesticide consumption,but at an increasingfinancial cost. Over the half centuryof its existence,Israel's populationhas grown dramaticallydue to massive immigrationand, to a lesser extent,a rela- tivelyhigh birthrate.When the dust settledafter the War of Indepen- dence, the countryhad hardlya millioncitizens. Today thereare seven million.This clearlycreated an employmentchallenge. During the 1950s agricultureprovided jobs for hundredsof thousandsof immigrantsas well as indirectemployment in related services.Agricultural jobs paid reasonablywell and were part of the pioneeringfervor that accompa- nied the creation of a Third JewishCommonwealth. But theirappeal began to decline by the late 1970s and 1980s.26 The lesseningattractiveness of agriculturalemployment was due to a varietyof reasons. Technologyand mechanizationsupplanted many labor-intensivepractices, which decreased the numberof agriculturaljobs available. As the societybecame more affluent,agricultural wages for laborers were relativelymeager. At the same time,landowners themselves began to lose interestin agriculture.To keep up meant massive investmentof income in the latest tractorsand technologies.Agricul- turaloperations, whose justification had initiallybeen largelyideological or political,found that they could not make ends meet. The numberof familyfarms dramatically decreased, with scores of small operations defaultingon loans thatthe triple-digitinflation of the 1980s inflatedto extraordinarylevels. Many farmerssimply sought alternativeemploy- ment. Agriculture,as a livelihood,was increasinglyperceived as less prestigiousand was empiricallyless lucrativethan other professions. Governmentrecords show that between 1981 and 1995 the numberof farmsin Israel plummetedfrom 43,450 to 25,900.27 By 1999, aftermany farmers had relinquishedtheir land, 70 percent of the eightythousand people who workedin farming(3.3 percentof the labor force)were hiredlaborers. In manyareas, foreignThai farmwork- ers vastlyoutnumber the host landowners.These migrantsjoined Isra- el's workforcewhen theirpredecessors, Palestinian day laborers,were

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140

120 - 100 z \

195 1980 1970 1980 1990 2000 0

- TOTAL ---- SELFEMPLOYED

Figure2. Thousandsof Workers in Agriculture; Self-Employed and Total.Source: Ayal Kimhi,"The Rise and Fallof Israeli Agriculture: Technology, Markets and Policy,"paper presentedat SungKyun Kwan University, 2004. perceivedas a securitythreat or simplygrew unreliable due to mounting politicaltensions and violence. In short,by most estimatestoday, only some 20 percentof Israelisliving in ruralareas actuallywork as farmers. This employmentprofile did not help the troublingpathology of double- digitunemployment in Israel thatresulted from the intifadahand associated politicalturbulence after 2000.28 Figure2 showsthe steadydecline in the numberof Israeli agricultural workers.The graphactually understates the phenomenonas it relatesto the total numberof workers.Inasmuch as Israel's population has increased six-foldover the past fifty-sevenyears, the drop in thepercent- age of the workforceengaged in agricultureis farmore dramatic. Along with fewer farmersin Israel, there has also been a loss of ideological unityin the agriculturalcollectives. Israel is the home to a varietyof differentways of lifein its ruralsector, most notablykibbut-

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2007 To Makea DesertBloom zim-collective intentionalcommunities-and Moshavim-rural villages witha modest cooperativebase. From theirinception, the members of these communitieswere highlymotivated as "front-linesoldiers" in many of Israel's national challenges:immigrant absorption, creation of geopoliticalfacts on dangerousborders, and of course improvingfood security.29 But today, Israel's rural sociologyis a very differentmosaic. Many kibbutzimhave partedways with the Marxistutopian aspirations of their founders. Members receive differentiatedsalaries, and the level of shared commitmenthas given way to a preferencefor privacy and the profitmotive. They have become quaint, but capitalist,rural villages. Many moshavimhave turnedinto littlesuburbs, with fields covered in condos, and memberspreferring to join the general labor force.Even the manykibbutzim who have chosen to retaintheir collectivist ethos do not automaticallyembrace national challenges with the alacritythat they once did. The less than charitablemarket conditions and the material aspirationsof theirmembers make themmore circumspect.30 Additionaleconomic forcesare at work,changing Israeli agriculture. There is no denyingthat the generalagronomic trend is in the direction of economiesof scale. To be competitive,farms have had to growbigger. A major initiativeby the Ministryof Agricultureduring the 1990s both upgraded the environmentalregulations for dairies and encouraged mergersto improveefficiency. The governmentprovided grants worth over a billion dollars to ease the transition,but the modernizedresults essentiallysqueezed out dozens of small-scalefamily milking operations. Once a 1.2 hectare greenhousewas considered enormous,and now 4 hectaresis the standard.31 In this sense, Israel is not disconnectedfrom the world dynamicsof agriculture,which in most countriesappear to be more conducive to largerthan smalleroperations. One could argue thatthere is a greater justificationto subsidize small producers,as theyoften get more yields on the average with less waste and are oftenperceived as having the potentialto produce less environmentaldisruption than biggeropera- tions.Yet not just capital investment,but regulatoryred tape and price supportsoften favor the agribusinessman over the familyfarmer. Figure 3 confirmsthe magnitudeof this transitionin Israel with small family farmsin the moshav villages givingway to largeragribusinesses.32

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upto 30 30to 60 60to I0 50o 250 250and over size category M 1971 1981 0 1995

Figure3. Size Distribution(indunams) of Active Farms among Israeli Moshavim. Source: AyalKimhi, "The Rise and Fallof IsraeliAgriculture: Technology, Markets and Policy," paperpresented at SungKyun Kwan University, 2004.

Profits,rather than ideology and lifestyle,are at the heartof agribus- iness decisions.It is likelythat the increasedeconomies of scale will be good forthe food and fiberindustry. The increase in the size of Israeli farmsprobably bodes well for the environmentas well; as empirical studieshave demonstratedlarge farmshave been shownto have greater resources and ability to adopt environmentallyfriendly practices. Whetherthis trend is healthyfor the social fabricof ruralIsraeli society, is anothermatter entirely.33 Political change has furtherhampered Israeli agriculture.There has always been an agriculturallobby in Israel whose influencewas far greaterthan its actual numbersof the population.Its strengthhas never restedon its diminishingelectoral power, but ratheron the deeply em- bedded pro-ruralimpulse that resides in decision-makersregardless of theirpolitical affiliation. Israelis identifywith the verdantlandscape of the countrysideand see somethingwholesome in itspreservation. More- over, in a nation still under attack by some Arab nations who have successfullyinitiated boycotts against Israel in the past, food securityis not just a slogan but a real concern.34

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From the firstday of independence,this political support was translated into money. The governmentsubsidized water. It offeredprice supportsfor many basic crops and for soil conservationactivities and provideddisaster relief. It made available a highlyprofessional army of extensionagents and it generouslyfunded research. For example, on average, the Ministryof Agriculturein Israel currentlyinvests some seventymillion dollars a year in agriculturalresearch; by way of com- parison,the Ministryof Environment'sannual researchbudget averages less than two milliondollars.35 The past fewdecades, however,have seen a softeningof thissupport. Water pricesfor farmers have graduallyincreased and, ifpresent trends continue,there will soon be no differencebetween the domestic and agriculturalwater cost. The status of the once-vaultedkibbutzim has sufferedfrom many decades of rule by right-wingparties who harbor fewnostalgic sentiments towards the epicenterof theirpolitical nemesis. Indeed, since the Likud Partywas elected intopower in 1977,the sector has been denied the preferentialeconomic treatmentit enjoyed during the country'sfirst thirty years. Additionally,it has had to deal with a disinformationcampaign, frequently supported by politicianswho were happyto caricaturizethe entirefarm sector as freeloadingparasites. The JewishAgency, a Zionist developmentagency funded by Jewishdonors fromaround the world,bankrolled hundreds of settlementsfor almost a century,only to phase out its institutionalsupport for agricultureand new agriculturalsettlements during the 1990s.36 Where previous policies made it practicallyimpossible to sell agricultural lands, new flexible policies have allowed many farmersto changethe zoningof theirlands-or simplyillegally rent them to sundry commercialventures-producing powerful incentives to cease farming. As a result,Israel's agriculturistsare sometimesbranded as land specu- lators,with enough examples of abuse to provide justificationfor Su- preme Court interventionto stymiethe dynamic.In short,Israel's agriculturalcommunity finds itself on its own as never before.37 Israel's export of agriculturalproducts has also declined in recent years,further endangering the agrariancommunity. By 1960, although its populationhad doubled twicein twelveyears of statehood,Israel was already self-sufficientin food production.And the yields continuedto grow. Export marketsprovided a continuouslysteep demand curve,

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35-

30- 25 20- Is-55 0L

tupo30 30to-0 60to150 1,5to 250 2:5,d0 -n oer size iategory M 1971 U1981 01995

Profits,rather than ideology and lifestyle,are at the heartof agribus- iness decisions.It is likelythat the increasedeconomies of scale will be good forthe food and fiberindustry. The increase in the size of Israeli farmsprobably bodes well for the environmentas well; as empirical studieshave demonstratedlarge farmshave been shownto have greater resources and ability to adopt environmentallyfriendly practices. Whetherthis trend is healthyfor the social fabricof ruralIsraeli society, is anothermatter entirely.33 Political change has furtherhampered Israeli agriculture.There has always been an agriculturallobby in Israel whose influencewas far greaterthan its actual numbersof the population.Its strengthhas never rested on its diminishingelectoral power, but ratheron the deeply em- bedded pro-ruralimpulse thatresides in decision-makersregardless of theirpolitical affiliation. Israelis identifywith the verdantlandscape of the countrysideand see somethingwholesome in itspreservation. More- over, in a nation still under attack by some Arab nations who have successfullyinitiated boycotts against Israel in the past, food securityis not just a slogan but a real concern.34

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160

t i 120 -

1950 97 899 1960 196-197 0) 980- '1990W0

Figure4. PriceIndex of Agricultural Products-Israel and theWorld. Source: Ayal Kimhi, "TheRise and Fallof IsraeliAgriculture: Technology, Markets and Policy,"paper presentedat SungKyun Kwan University, 2004. nomic and environmentaldemands. Historicaldevelopments and pro- gressionappear to point clearlyto a futuredirection for Israeli agriculture. For manyyears Israel's environmentalmovement considered farmers and agriculturalpolicy as constituting"ecological enemies." Farmers' profligate use of water and the Israel Water Commissioners pro- agricultureallocation prioritiesleft many nature reserves high and dry. Pesticides leftdrinking water and a range of freshproduce unhealthy. Fertilizersspawned eutrophicationin surfacewaters, and the resulting nitrateconcentrations led to the closing of dozens of drinkingwater wells. Streamsstunk with the excrementof dischargedlivestock wastes. The plasticsassociated with high-input winter cultivation created a solid- waste disaster.When theywere mixed into the bonfiresthat frequently disposed of crop residues,it created a seriousair pollutionhazard. Most of these environmentalcomplaints were well founded.40 Yet, as Israel's environmentalistsstarted to prioritizetheir environ- mental challenges,the country'sdwindling open spaces topped every-

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AgriculturalHistory Spring one's list.The irreversiblenature of sprawl,the retreatin the astonish- inglyrich local biodiversity,and the loss of a landscape thathad forso long inspiredpilgrims and prophets-all these led to a sense of crisis. Objective analysisled to the conclusionthat past successfulgovernment protectionof Israel's landscape had been founded in agrarianpolicy. But, as the protectionof farmlandweakened, so environmentaldegra- dation and decimationof open spaces followed.Suddenly, farmers did not look so bad afterall. Even froman aestheticpoint of view,there was a new sense of appreciation.To be sure,nature reserves have an enormous power and appeal. Yet, some 25 percentof Israel's land is already set aside forbiodiversity preservation and hiking.It was the farmlands that were threatenedwith extinction. Israelis realized how much they had come to appreciatethis verdant heart of theirlocal landscape.42 When Hebrew Universityeconomists Aliza Fleischer and Yaakov Tsur took a look at how the agriculturallandscape affectedthe travel decisions of Israeli tourists,they found that there was an enormous "willingnessto pay" fortravel to and througha cultivatedcountryside. The results of theirresearch suggest that the economic return(crop sales) on agriculturalland is only16 percentof itsactual value, giventhe Israeli penchantfor ruralvistas. The rose-coloredtinted vision of bu- colic Israeli landscapes largelyignores ethnic divisions. Both Arab and Jewish agriculturallands are viewed with the same sentimentaland perhaps wistfulfondness.43 What we have here in shortis an "externality."Externalities typically connote a negativeresult from an economicactivity that is thruston an unsuspectingand unenthusiasticpublic. But externalitiescan also be positive. In this case, Israel's beleaguered farmingcommunity is pro- ducinga landscape, valued at millionsof dollars,for public enjoyment. Yet it receives no returnon the product,because it is essentiallya byproductof agriculturethat just happens to benefitthe public. In this context,subsidies make sense economically.Moreover, as many Euro- pean nations have stressed,agricultural lands serve as real estate reserves,preserving options for future generations. In conjunctionwith a growingnational appreciationof the agrarian landscape, Israel's agriculturalcommunity had taken a greener path. Spurred to a large extent by European pesticide residue standards, chemical usage began to drop duringthe 1990s. The Ministryof Agri-

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2007 To Makea DesertBloom cultureactively promoted Integrated Pest Management,using a variety of pheromones,natural predators,and biological materialsto control unwanted bugs and weeds. The waste treatmentsystems installed in many Israeli feedlotsand dairies more than equaled the sewage plants installed to treat human residuals. Some kibbutzimeven managed to recycletheir plastics and make mulch out of theirorganic loadings.44 Despite this, Israeli agriculturestill has its ecological critics.In a paper published by the local chapterof World Watch Israel, Ami Et- tingersubjects Israeli agricultureto a strictecological critique.As the introductionsummarizes:

In Ettinger'seyes, Israeli agriculture, similar to thatof the world's,is not sustainable,and contributessignificantly to the growingenviron- mentalcrisis on our planet.Ettinger's point of departureis theurgent and unavoidableneed to changedirection in orderto stop the dete- riorationin ecologicalsystems on whichhumans are dependentfor existence.Ettinger strongly criticizes modern agriculture as ignoring thisdependency on naturalsystems and thusdamaging them. In so doingit damagesitself. In hisview, the origin of theproblem is in the modernuni-directional agricultural perspective instead of a cyclical one. Rather than using a cycle of plantings,modern agriculture is based on monocultures.Rather than conserving the fertility of the soil fromyear to year,there is a perpetualneed to fertilize.Rather than usingeco-agricultural systems, that encourage solving pest problems throughnatural enemies, modern agriculture uses chemicalsexces- sivelyuntil they wipe out entireecological systemsalong withthe naturalenemies of the pests.45

These high ecological standardsshould be set in the contextof an increasinglytough world market.Israel has been experimentingwith organic agriculturesince 1943 and since 1982 is home to a moderately active Union of Organic Growers.But organicproduce has not caught on. Despite several effortsto be competitive,Israeli organicproducts are stillconsiderably more expensive or, alternatively,less productive. For example,the highlysuccessful date orchardat Kibbutz Samar con- verted to become organic duringthe 1990s and findsits yields to be roughlytwo-thirds of its neighboringsettlements, which actually use extremelymodest chemicals.46

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Israel's populationhas grown,and it is unlikelythat the countrywill ever returnto fullfood self-sufficiency.The organicideal has an impor- tantplace in any agriculturalcommunity and should be a constantpres- ence as a source of inspirationand an object of aspiration.With current practices consistentlymoving in an ecologicallysensitive direction, it seems unfair,however, to brand conventionalagriculture as downright unsustainable.Enforcing existing pesticide residue standardsand the Israel Water Law's prohibitionon causing any formof pollutioncould providesufficient incentive to continuethe trendof reducedreliance on chemicals.And more effectivepublic education about the health ben- efits of chemical-freeproduce mightboost consumer demand suffi- cientlyto make organicalternatives competitive. Along withthe problemof pollutionremains the issue of water.Some water expertsargue that the way to solve the region's water scarcity problemis by phasingout agriculture.They favor"virtual water"-the importingof water-intensivecrops over continuedcultivation. Yet, even proponentsof virtualwater agree thatIsrael willalways need to produce its own eggs and milk.The present85 percentlocal food productionis an impressiveachievement, especially when consideringthe enormous quantitiesproduced for export.This accomplishmenthas even greater meaning given the land and climaticconditions in which much food productiontakes place. While Israel should seek to avoid the exportof water-intensivecrops, it makes perfectsense to continueproduction of locally consumed productsthat can stillsuccessfully compete withthe subsidizedinternational produce.47 Water limitationsare also the focus of Israeli innovationsin developing salt- and drought-resistantstrains of fruitsand vegetables. Cre- ative and patientcombinations of germplasmhave producednew crops withthe potentialto eliminatefamine in drylands.Here Israeli agricultureis makinga commendablecontribution internationally. Perhaps, in an ideal world,the greaterland reservesavailable in neighboringArab countriescould provide much of the food and fiberconsumed locally. But, at present,this appears even more of a dream than a prosperous organicagricultural sector.48 With the veryfuture of the agriculturalsector waveringin the bal- ance, it is timethat Israeli societymakes an active agrarianchoice once again. It needs to reaffirmits historicobligation and tryto meet the

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This content downloaded from 171.67.216.23 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:56:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2007 To Makea DesertBloom biblical standardof turningthe land into one of "Milk and Honey," by make an enduringcommitment to its ruralsector. Present subsidies of Israeli water are trivialcompared to the past and far below those of other westernnations. However, for a varietyof produce and flowers, water,perhaps, will no longer constitutea constrainingfactor, as government-fundedresearch uncovers new waysof producingusable water. New breakthroughsin membranetechnologies have reducedthe price at Israel's new generationof desalinationplants to fifty-fivecents per cubic meter.Many crops are economicallyviable at this rate-and desalination prices are likelyto drop even furtherover time. A recentgovern- ment decision, upgradingwastewater treatment standards is another criticalstep. While it will cost the countryover two hundred million dollarsover the nextten years,it also means thatfarmers will be able to use municipaleffluents without compromising the fertilityof the soil or the integrityof the underlyinggroundwater in the future.49 All the same, public policyneeds to be rationaland strategic.Scarce resourcesshould not be subsidized,creating incentives for wastefulness, when alternativetargets for support exist for which there is a clear surplus.In the presentcontext, surely water, a scarce resource,should not be subsidized when the same supportcould be funneledthrough other, more abundant, factors of production-such as unemployed workers.There is a compellingnational interest to ensure that agriculture continues to provide landscape and ideological returnsto local citizens.The risk of abandoningagriculture includes spawningdeserti- ficationin the southernsemi-arid regions. It is importantfor national self-esteemfor Israelis to know that,to a large extent,they do feed themselves.It is also sends a significantmessage to many developing countries,who forsome fiftyyears have looked at Israel to confirmthe prospectsof a highlyproductive agricultural economy in conditionsof intensewater scarcity. Because a globalized economywill continue to put pressureon Israeli farmers,they will have to continueto be as cleveras ever in developing crops and cultivationmethods that can make theirdrylands bloom with as littlewaste of naturalresources, residuals, and cash outlays as possible. If the past hundredyears is any indication,the core of agricultural communitiesand individualfarmers who have survivedthe vicissitudes of Israel's checkeredagricultural history are up to the task.

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NOTES

1. Richard Gottheil and Theodore Reinach, "The Diaspora," JewishEncyclopedia, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com(accessed Dec. 4, 2006). 2. Aaron David Gordon,People and Labor (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem:Zionist Library, 1942), 234. 3. Ami Ettinger,Sustainable Agriculture in Israel-Greening theDesert or Greeningthe Environment?(in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Babel Publishers,2003), 10-11. 4. Mark Twain, The InnocentsAbroad (1869; repr.,New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 481, 555. 5. Baruch Kimmerlingand Joel Migdal, Palestinians:The Making of a People (New York: Free Press,1993), 27, 329; Adolph Reifenberg,The Soils of Palestine:Studies in Soil Formationand Land Utilizationin the Mediterranean,2nd ed. (London: T. Murby,1947), 162-63. 6. ProfessorZe'ev Tzachor,Director, Sappir College, in discussionwith author, Dec. 5, 2006. 7. Aaron Boneh, Land of Israel and its Economics (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Dvir Pub- lishers,1938), 81; "Israeli Dairy Survey2003," (in Hebrew) Israeli CattleBreeders Asso- ciation, http://www.icba.org.il/mazagot-month/seker-refet-hachalav-30-11.pps(accessed Dec. 3, 2006). The conversionunit to weightfor a literof milkis typicallyset at 1.032 kg. In the presentinstance, the originalstudy presented the data as four hundredto eight hundredliters. 8. Reifenberg,The Soils of Palestine,157. 9. Ibid., 164. 10. Efraimand Menahem Talmi, ZionistLexicon (Tel Aviv: Ma'ariv, 1982), 21; Moshe Schwartz,Senior Lecturer,Ben Gurion Universityof the Negev, in discussionwith the author,Aug. 4, 2005. 11. WilliamClay Lowdermilk,Palestine: Land of Promise(New York: Harper & Bros., 1944), 3, 5, 6, 102. 12. The Planningand BuildingLaw, 1965, (In Hebrew) SeferHaChokim, 1965, 307; Eran Feitelson, "Protectionof Open Spaces in Israel at a TurningPoint," Horizons in Geography42-43 (1995): 9-13. See, generally,Eran Feitelson,"Social Norms,Rationales and Policies: ReframingFarmland Protection in Israel," Journalof Rural Studies15 (Oct. 1999): 431-46. See, in particular,the 1968 amendmentsto the law and the creationof the AgriculturalLands PreservationCommittee; Ayal Kimhi, "The Rise and Fall of Israeli Agriculture:Technology, Markets and Policy," paper presented at Sung Kyun Kwan University,2004, in possessionof author;John Fedler, Focus on Israel: Israel's Agriculture in the21s" Century (Jerusalem: Ministry of Foreign Affairs,2002), reprintedon the Min- istry of Foreign Affairswebsite, http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/facts%20about%20israel/ economy/focus%20on%20israel-%20israel-s%20agriculture%20in%20the%2021st(accessed Dec. 3, 2006). 13. Fedler, Focus on Israel. 14. Alon Tal, Pollution in a Promised Land: An EnvironmentalHistory of Israel (Berkeley: Universityof CaliforniaPress, 2002), 330; Magad el Haj, "The Arab Village in Israel, General Lines," in Solutionsfor Disposal: Treatmentand Reuse of Wastesin Rural Areas of Israel: SymposiumProceedings, ed. Khatam K'naneh (Rama: Galilee Society, 1988), 8; Kimmerlingand Migdal, Palestinians:The Making of a People, 161.

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15. Feitelson,"Social Norms,Rationales and Policies," 437; Fedler, Focus on Israel. 16. Tom Segev, 1949: The FirstIsraelis (New York: Free Press, 1986), 297-323. 17. Elaine Solowey, AgriculturalResearcher, in discussionwith the author,July 25, 2005. 18. Itzhak Galnoor, "Water Policy Making in Israel," in WaterQuality Management Under Conditionsof Scarcity:Israel as a Case Study,ed. Hillel Shuval (New York: Aca- demic Press, 1980), 293; Howard M. Sachar,A HistoryofIsrael (New York: Knopf,1976), 519; Simcha Blass, Waterin Strifeand Action (Givataim: Masada, 1973), 237-48. 19. Hillel Shuval, "The Development of Health Guidelines forWastewater Reclama- tion," WaterScience and Technology24:7 (1991): 149-55. 20. Hillel Shuval, "Quality ManagementAspects of WastewaterReuse in Israel," in WaterQuality Management Under Conditionsof Scarcity,214; Alberto M. Wachs, "The Outlook forWastewater Utilization in Israel," in Developmentsin WaterQuality Research, ed. Hillel Shuval (Ann Arbor:Ann ArborScience Publishers,1971), 109-11; Tal, Pollution in a Promised Land, 220; Ministryof the Environment,"Wastewater Treatmentand Reuse," Israel EnvironmentBulletin 23 (Autumn2000): 8; National Academy of Science, Use of Reclaimed Waterand Sludge in Food Crop Production(Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1996). 21. M. Juanicoand E. Friedler,"Wastewater Reuse forRiver Recovery in Semi-Arid Israel," WaterScience and Technology40:4-5 (1999): 43-50; Badri Fattal and Hillel Shuval, "HistoricalProspective Epidemiological Study of WastewaterUtilization in Kibbutzimin Israel, 1974-1977,"in Developmentsin Arid Zone Ecology and EnvironmentalQuality, ed. Hillel Shuval (Philadelphia:Balaban, 1999), 333-43; Yoram Avnimelech,"Irrigation with Sewage Effluents:The Israeli Experience," EnvironmentalScience and Technology 27(July1993): 1279; Israel Ministryof EnvironmentalProtection, "Ministerial Committee UnanimouslyVotes to Adopt the Recommendationsof the Inbar Commission,"(in He- brew) http://www.sviva.gov.il/Environment(accessed Apr. 15, 2005); Phoenix Lawhon, "The Politicsof WastewaterStandards in Israel" (master'sthesis, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, 2006). 22. Alon Tal et al., Sustainable WaterManagement in the Drylands: Recent Israeli Experience(Jerusalem: Israel Ministryof ForeignAffairs, 2005), 4-6. 23. Shoshana Gabbay, The Environmentin Israel (Jerusalem:Ministry of Environment, 2002), 90; Tal et al., SustainableWater Management in the Drylands,2. 24. Alon Tal et al., "SubsurfaceDrip Irrigationin Gravel Filled Cavities,"Vadose Zone Journal3 (Nov. 2004): 1407-13. 25. Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (New York: Viking Press, 2005), 381. 26. Employmentfigures regarding Israeli agriculturecan be foundin Eran Feitelson, "Social Norms,Rationales and Policies," 437. 27. Moshe Schwartz,Unlimited Guarantees: History, Political Economy and the Crisis of CooperativeAgriculture in Israel (in Hebrew) (Beer Sheva: Ben Gurion Universityof the Negev Press,1995); Yoav Kislev,"Experience with Collective Action and Cooperation in Agriculturein Israel," in AgriculturalCooperatives in Transition,ed. Csaba Csaki and Yoav Kislev (Boulder: WestviewPress, 1993), 269-90. 28. Arieh Sheshkinand Arie Regev, Israel Agriculture,Facts and Figures(Jerusalem:

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Israel Ministryof Agriculture,2001), 3; Chaim Oron, past ministerof environment,in discussionwith the author,July 24, 2005. 29. See, generally,Michael Shalev,Labour and thePolitical Economy in Israel (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1992) as well as Efraim Orni and Elisha Efrat,"Rural Settle- ment,"in Geographyof Israel (Jerusalem:Israel UniversitiesPress, 1971), 296-302. 30. JoshuaMuravchik, Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism(San Francisco: Encounter,2002), 321-45. 31. Shalom Simhon,past ministerof agriculture,presentation, Vered Ha'Galil, Feb. 10, 2005; Oron, discussion,2005. 32. See, forexample, the views of agriculturalvisionary and poet, Wendell Berry,The Unsettlingof America (Berkeley: Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1996); Solowey, discussion, 2005. 33. Alon Tal, (Rosenthal), "State AgriculturalPollution Regulation,A Quantitative Assessment,"Water Environment and Technology2:8 (1990): 50-58. 34. Tal, Pollutionin a PromisedLand, 200. 35. Israel Ministryof Agricultureand Rural Development,www.moag.gov.il (accessed Dec. 4, 2006). 36. David Ginsburg,past deputydirector of the JewishAgency for rural and urban development,in discussionwith author, Dec. 3, 2006. 37. In an action broughtby a coalitionof social and environmentalgroups, in August 2002 Israel's Supreme Courtruled to cancel a decisionby the Israel Lands Administration (decision numbers727 and 737), which would have allowed for the changingof land designationsfrom agricultural to non-agriculturaluses. For a descriptionin Englishof the case and related efforts,see the website of the Eastern Rainbow organization,http:// www.ha-keshet.org.il/english/land_struggles.htm(accessed Dec. 3, 2006). 38. Kimhi,"The Rise and Fall of Israeli Agriculture." 39. Schwartz,Unlimited Guarantees, 33. During thisperiod Swiss subsidiesto farmers were as high as 80 percentof the productprice! 40. Abraham Mercado, "The Coastal Aquifer in Israel: Some Quality Aspects of GroundwaterManagement," Water Quality ManagementUnder Conditionsof Scarcity, Israel as a Case Study,99. 41. Israel State Comptroller,Report on Managementof the WaterSystem in Israel (Jerusalem:Israel GovernmentPress, 1990); Alon Tal, "EnforceableStandards to Abate AgriculturalPollution: The Potential of RegulatoryPolicies in the Israeli Context," Tel Aviv UniversityStudies in Law 14 (1998): 223-49; Mercado, "The Coastal Aquifer in Israel," 99. 42. Ephraim Shlain and Eran Feitelson, The Formation,Institutionalization and De- cline of Farmland ProtectionPolicies in Israel (Jerusalem:Floersheimer Institute, 1996), 10-11. 43. Aliza Fleischer and Alia Yaakov Tsur, "Measuring the Recreational Value of AgriculturalLandscape," European Review of AgriculturalEconomics 27 (Sept. 2000): 394. 44. For an exhaustivedescription of the plethoraof environmentalinitiatives in Israel's agriculturalsector, see, Shlomo Kapuah, The AgriculturalEnvironment-Preservation and

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SustainableDevelopment (Jerusalem: Israel Ministryof Environment,Agro-Ecology De- partment,2000). 45. Eilon Schwartz,"Introduction," in SustainableAgriculture in Israel, 6. 46. AgriculturalEncyclopedia (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem:Keter, 1986), s.v. "Field Crops." 47. RudolfOrthofer et al., "Options For a More SustainableWater Management In the Lower JordanValley," paper givenat the Water For Life Conference,Anatalya, Turkey, Oct. 2004. "Israel's Need for Desert AgriculturalInnovation," The Negev Foundation, http://www.negev.org/About/need.htm(accessed Dec. 4, 2006). 48. USAID/MERC, "Desert Agriculture:The Introductionof New Crops to Arid and Saline Zones," Arava Institutefor EnvironmentalStudies, http://www.desertagriculture .org/sustain.html(accessed Dec. 4, 2006). 49. The Israeli cabinet decided in 2002 to build a series of new desalination plants beginningwith a hundredmillion cubic metera year facilityin Ashkelon. (Government decision # 1682). See, Gustavo Kroneneberg,"The Largest SWRO Plant in the World: Ashkelon 100 million min/y BOT project," Desalination 166 (Aug. 15, 2004): 457-63; "UpgradingEffluents for Unlimited Irrigation and forStream Discharge," Decision of the MinisterialCommittee for EnvironmentalQuality and Hazardous Substances,(Apr. 17, 2005).

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