The October 7 attacks and the war that followed has brought many parts of a fractured Israeli society to light. Among them is our lack of food security and the role the government plays in it. We asked culinary historian and local foodways expert Uri Mayer-Chissick to dive into this topic. This is the third installation; read his first piece “Food Is a Necessity — Before, During and After the War” and his second, “Agriculture Is Just Like Water and Electricity.”
As the scale of damage to agriculture became clear in the weeks after the start of the war, many, moved by patriotic feelings and empathy, decided to buy local. But where is local produce hiding, and how can the common citizen access it?
Access to local fresh produce is controlled by supermarket chains. Israelis now buy more than half of their fruit and vegetables in stores, in comparison with less than 30 percent in 1997.
In the beginning of the war, some retail chains exploited the shortage of supply by raising prices. They continued to only accept local produce that is “beautiful,” according to their needs. But soon enough, seeing where the wind was blowing, they changed course and committed to various activities to support local farmers and produce.
Yet this commitment was not always sincere. A video of workers stealthily transfering Turkish tomatoes to local boxes was distributed on social media, as was a video of rotting Turkish tomatoes donated to charity organizations.
The state, meanwhile, did nothing. The Ministry of Agriculture has various tools and resources for such times of crisis, such as forcing retail chains to purchase local produce, or temporarily controlling the prices of fruit and vegetables. But instead, they decided to stop requiring stores to use food labels to indicate which foods are healthy and which are not — allegedly due to worker shortage. In fact, the Ministry of Economy and Industry has been wanting to cancel food labeling for some time, but customers resisted. This proves customer behavior can make a change; in Switzerland, for example, customers demanded fair trade bananas, and now 90 percent of bananas sold in the country are fair trade and organic.
But as retail chains lagged behind, Israeli citizens found a workaround. A local farmers market popped up in each corner or community center, just like they had during the Covid-19 pandemic. When I visited the community settlement Lapid in the third week of the war, I spotted an out-of-the-ordinary gathering. It turned out to be hundreds of people standing in a very long line to purchase local produce. When people believe in something, they will spare the time. We do not have data about the number of markets founded this way, but we could all see them with our own eyes.
Yet this solution was temporary. These initiatives operated without permits, with the state looking the other way due to the circumstances. This is no longer the case. It’s time the state developed a long-term infrastructure for local farmer markets that are active year-round, and ease the bureaucratic requirements for them.
What needs to be done?
Promote direct sale: The state should regulate and promote sites that sell local produce directly to consumers and create an infrastructure to facilitate this. For example, allocating space for a farmer market in each neighborhood.
Buying smart: The public should remember the importance of buying local, and continue to purchase produce from markets and farmers.
We can make a difference: Smart consumer decisions can be used to pressure retailers to offer local produce and promote it. We can already see the influence of the law passed earlier this year that requires retailers to specify the origin of fresh produce. This information changes customer behavior, and we will see its influence in the future.
The Ministry of Agriculture’s response:
The fruit and vegetables market is an open, competitive market. The Ministry of Agriculture has no authority to set prices, but does its best to support farmers and expand agricultural manufacturing in Israel by reducing manufacturing costs (lowering water prices, offering worker permits, and adding quotas for migrant workers).