Dr. Yitzhak Klein

“Food security” is a term frequently used by the agricultural lobby, by which it means a country’s ability to provide for its own food needs, including the input necessary for growing that food. However, only industrialized countries that possess vast tracts of agricultural land can approach such a state of affairs – Canada and the USA, for instance, but not Argentina, China, or the European continent. Can small, densely populated Israel achieve “food security?”

Israel consumes approximately 5 million tons of grain per year, which serves as basic food for humans and livestock. Even when we consume such foodstuffs as omelets, schnitzels, or lamb shawarma, we are essentially eating this grain, almost 100% of which is imported from abroad.

Take wheat as an example. The most efficient farms in the USA grow 750 kilograms of wheat per dunam of land, consuming around 300 cubic meters of water. Growing 5 million tons of wheat per year would require 6,700 square kilometers – about a quarter of the entire state of Israel, including Judea and Samaria, and close to 2 billion cubic meters of water – the entire water supply of the country. In addition, such a project would require thousands of tractors and millions of tons of fertilizers, irrigation pipes, fuels, and oils, none of which are produced here.

For Israel, true “food security” is a mirage. We are destined to continue exporting high-tech, importing seeds, and along the way tucking away 5-10 billion dollars in annual profits into the national treasury. If so, why do we insist on growing most of our poultry and dairy products locally, when they can be obtained from abroad at a cheaper price (and with excellent kosher supervision)? The answer is simple: the agricultural lobby restricts the import of these products into the country, making a fortune off us all with no justification.