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July 12, 2013
Challenges of food security
Scant resources require cooperation between Mideast neighbors.
VICKY TOBIANAH
Having a globalized food system allows us to import food we cannot grow at home – and eat food that is not in season all year long. However, the global food chain also brings many challenges. Food security becomes an increasingly significant issue as countries struggle over how best to share agricultural and food advantages with neighbors. For countries at war, food security is of significant concern to civilians who potentially depend on agricultural products from hostile trade partners and neighbors. As our food systems become increasingly interconnected and we rely on other countries for certain types of food or technologies, it becomes more clear that food can – and is – used as a pawn in war. This is an issue that is clearly in evidence in Israel.
A country of only 20,770 square kilometres, Israel is considerably smaller than Vancouver Island. Bordered by Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank to the east, Gaza on the southwest border and Egypt in the south, Israel is a country surrounded by unfriendly neighbors. It’s no stranger to war either: currently, Israel suffers from daily rocket attacks from Gaza, the Hamas-ruled territory in Israel’s south; occasional attacks from the terrorist organization Hezbollah in the north (and the 2006 conflict); and continuing instability in Egypt. Israel’s basic security is constantly at stake.
Being in a constant state of war and war readiness affects all manner of Israel’s existence, not the least of which is how to share natural resources, including land, water and food. As politicians focus on keeping the calm between neighboring parties, it’s vital they don’t overlook war’s impact on the finite resources in the Middle East.
The Middle East “will be seriously affected by climate change, and a growing population,” said Stuart Schoenfeld, a professor at York University in Toronto, who is particularly interested in environmental cooperation. “If you want to think of the quality of Israeli society in the long term, Israel cannot take care of its own needs without having contact with those surrounding it, since Israel and its neighbors share a common ecological region.”
The idea of environmental cooperation – sharing limited food and water – was more purposefully discussed by Israel and its neighbors for the first time in the late 1990s, he noted.
“A network of Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians began to work towards a common understanding of issues of water, energy, waste, transportation, consumption, biodiversity and sustainable development, to fashion a way of turning that common understanding into one of the elements for peace and human security in the region,” Schoenfeld told the Independent. It’s an issue that is often overlooked when peace negotiations are brought to the table, but, he suggested, how ecological and environmental changes affect the limited resources in the Middle East – and the countries’ food security in particular – should be at the forefront of Israeli political agenda.
What’s at stake
Water: Nothing is more finite than water in the desert that is the Middle East, especially considering the region’s central waterways are shared by multiple countries that are in conflict. Because the water shortage worsens each year, water is a significant issue for Israel and two other main parties: Palestinians and Jordanians. As a zero sum game, what hurts one party will benefit the other, and attempts to monitor and evaluate water usage and over-usage can quickly escalate into conflict, as each party wants to secure their share of this limited resource. Currently, researchers recommend that Israel and its neighbors develop a “water for peace” plan, which will outline how much water each country needs for basic food and human security, how much water must be imported from water-rich countries (such as Egypt, Turkey and Lebanon), and how much shared water Israel and Jordan will need to desalinate to achieve greater security.
Farming: Israel has a shortage of citizens who want to be farmers and develop its agriculture, but that doesn’t mean it necessarily needs to import foreign workers to do the job, when there are other workers in the area who are available and willing to work. For example, in 2002, Gaza’s farmers shipped more than 70 tons of produce to Israel. This arrangement ended after Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip and, today, Gaza’s farmers mainly export to Europe. In response, some Israeli politicians are pushing to reopen agricultural ties with Gazan farmers. In January 2013, more than 30 farmers from Gaza came to Israel to participate in an agricultural expo, which focused on educating food producers about new agricultural techniques, investigating problems that farmers in the region share, finding new markets and developing long-term solutions to share agricultural resources.
Hope for a cooperative future
Considering the limited resources, the stakes are high, but there’s hope that these issues are being taken very seriously by people who have put together various joint initiatives and organizations. Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) is an environmental peacemaking group that brings together Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians to work on strengthening agricultural organization. One of the foremost projects on their agenda is preserving the Jordan River, the highly polluted river, which sees 98 percent of its fresh water diverted every year, and suffers from uncontained sewage waste that flows into the river at various points. In the last 50 years, the Jordan River’s annual flow has decreased from 1.3 billion cubic metres per year to less than 30 million cubic metres. The loss of this major resource, on which Israelis, Jordanians and Syrians rely, would be monumental. The river is currently at risk of drying up, a problem that FoEME is currently struggling to help solve.
“This organization has mobilized mayors on all sides of the border – Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli – to think of the Jorda[n River] as a place where they can work cooperatively for a better future,” noted Schoenfeld. “They want it to be a meeting place for different cultures of the region rather than a separation. Because Israel has military control, they have greater control over these natural resources, so when this organization talks about changes in the environment, they’re also talking about the way natural resources are administered.”
The solution will take time, but is moving forward: the Israel Water Authority, for the first time, has recently begun allowing water to flow from the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) into the Lower Jordan River.
Other partnerships are ongoing. The Arava International Centre for Agricultural Training in Israel is a leader in researching new techniques to grow food in the desert. They recently partnered with a West Bank organization to bring Palestinian agricultural students to the centre to learn desert farming. Another Israeli institute, the Peres Centre for Peace, has a separate unit devoted to agriculture, land and water cooperation.
Even if peace negotiations are delayed, Schoenfeld said that he’s hopeful that environmental cooperation can still progress on the ground, where the efforts of nonprofit organizations and municipalities become even more important. He mentioned the work of the Arava Institute, which has a student body made up of Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians.
“Their core mission is to create a generation of environmental professionals who understand their professional challenges in regional terms, not just in global terms,” he said. “This is a long-term vision: that there can be a sustainable society in this part of the world. As the population of Israel and its neighboring countries grow, the issue of limited resources grows too – and will demand greater attention.” Through the efforts of these organizations, he added, “we can create a centre for cooperation in the place of tension.”
Vicky Tobianah is a freelance writer and editor based in Toronto and a recent McGill University graduate. Connect with her on Twitter, @vicktob, or by e-mail to [email protected].
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