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Earlier this month the Illinois Agricultural Leadership class (IALP) visited several establishments in Israel devoted to high tech agriculture. What an eye opener!
Israel is a country of 9.1 million people and only 1.2% work in agriculture. The number of arable acres in Israel is a little over a million acres. Yet, agricultural production in this small country has expanded 16 times, or more than 3 times the population growth.
However, agriculture’s importance in Israel’s economy has been falling. The class visited two communities known as the kibbutzim or moshavim. In one community this means everything is communally owned and each member’s work benefits all.
As you might expect, there are some laggards and this idea has not worked out too well.
The Moshav is also a collective community but each farm family works its own land while purchasing and marketing are conducted cooperatively. The IALF class was introduced to Israeli agriculture by the Volcani...