Dr. Nimrod Israely’s Post

"Can we fly without wings, have a face-to-face conversation without being next to each other, or travel faster than a horse ride? Some things were unimaginable during most of human history, but they became apparent and the norm after a mind shift combined with innovations. Can farmers live with dignity and happiness without personal income or a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual paycheck?" The short answer is - YES! But how is it possible? Is there an example? As always, the answers to those questions and others are in this weekend column. Link to this week's column - https://lnkd.in/dBwqY8Qd? #poverty #sdg1 #kibbutz #smallholders

Bless you.

"You should take care of your soil, be a regenerative farmer, and you will start making money, tons of money." Unfortunately, reality is different. Many farmers don't care about the soil and make "tons of money," while others treat it nicely and don't make it to the end of the day. Don't mix "Doing the right thing" with "Doing good business". The way forward is for farmers to do good business by doing the right thing. Agriculture is a business; when we forget it, we are left with impoverished farmers who cannot feed themselves. Agree?

Our goal is not to improve the livelihood of 1 farmer, or even a thousand, though it is important too. our goal is to develop a model which can be replicated and improve the livelihood of millions of smallholders. https://lnkd.in/dEJYBUM9?

🌱🤝📊 Environment Social Governance: #ESG is here to stay, as Jeffrey Levine says in his book "UPGRADING ESG," regardless of whether we like it or see it as a burden and excess weight. 💲However, it doesn't have to be "a burden"; as Jeffrey Levine shows in his book, it is possible and even mandatory to see how to do better business in a world run according to slightly different and sustainable principles. 👏 Kudos to Jeffrey Levine for the excellent book, a must-read for every business person, CFO, and entrepreneur who wants to understand ESG better and how to use it to improve their business. 📖 The book is written in a friendly, easy, and enjoyable way to read and understand. If you give it a chance, it can be a milestone for you and anyone who deals with and cares about the environment and our future on the planet as a society. 🌍 🙏 I appreciate Jeffrey as a professional CFO with a big, generous soul who, at an advanced age, connected to his inner self, making a change that requires courage and determination. 🗓️ It is never too late to make a change for the better, and what is valid for Jeffrey is also true for each of us and the world: Environment, Society, and Governance - it is never too late to make yourself better or improve the world for us all. 🌱🌎🤝

🌟 Even if you have the greatest agro-technology or service. 🌟 Even if your intentions are true and pure to help smallholders. 🚫 Never start your pitch with - "We have wonderful technology..." 🎯 Instead, put your technology or service in the proper context and explain how it is related to the things that matter the most to smallholders' success, which are community organization and tailor-made business models. Good luck.

🌱 "The future is organic farming!" 🌱 Back in the nineties, organic agriculture in Israel took off 🚀. I watched it grow, with more farmers getting into it each year. It was making waves even though it was still just a tiny part, about five percent of all farmers. Around five percent of the orchards on my Kibbutz switched to organic, making me both a conventional and organic farmer. We saw ourselves as pioneers, fighting for the environment and people's health. We believed that someday, all, or at least many more, farming would be organic, and farmers would earn more. As we know, none of this has happened; most farmers are not organic farmers, and organic farming has not dramatically increased farmers' income, if at all. However, being an organic farmer felt right. I liked being closer to nature and using fewer chemicals (even if we still had to use some). However, I noticed differences in how the trees grew compared to conventional plots: slower growth, different pests, and lower yields. Despite that, organic fruit fetched higher prices per kilo. Still, overall, organic farming earned LESS than conventional farming. Today, there's a similar buzz around regenerative agriculture. Some even believe it could end world poverty. As someone who supports regenerative agriculture, I believe it is essential to set reasonable expectations regarding business aspects and stay open-minded about professional elements. Looking back, organic farming was a challenging way to make money, but we did it because it was right. That's how we should approach regenerative agriculture—do it because it's right for the long term, for our health and the environment, and because conventional methods are harmful and surely not the long-term solution for feeding humanity. But we need to be realistic. Switching to regenerative agriculture won't suddenly make farmers rich, nor will it solve all the world's problems. My Kibbutz was successful even when we used pesticides, thinking (at the time) it was the best way to practice agriculture. We must approach change humbly, explaining why it's essential and recognizing that solving more significant issues like poverty and global warming will take more than just changing how we farm. So, let's do what's right for the soil, the soul, and our future. Let's move towards regenerative agriculture while keeping our minds open to even better practices that might come our way and bring regenerative agriculture as part of a Package that includes novel business and organizational models. In summary, regenerative agriculture is one step out of many, a step towards better agriculture in a better world. #OrganicFarming #RegenerativeAgriculture #SustainableFarming #EnvironmentalStewardship 🌱🌍💼

Once every 6,000 years, the world is blessed with a rare gem: a community model propelling entire populations forward. The village model facilitated agricultural growth in a secure environment, generating surpluses to sustain flourishing urban centers. Twelve thousand years later, village farmers still provide agricultural produce, as they always did, but now they endure chronic poverty. Meanwhile, their urban counterparts thrive, benefiting from the industrial and many subsequent revolutions and evolutions, leading to unprecedented prosperity. Today, roughly five percent of the world's farmers embody a dual role: farmers by title and savvy businesspeople. They derive their livelihood from cultivating agricultural products using industrial principles such as assembly lines and economies of scale, which enable them to adopt and apply innovative technologies easily. These entrepreneurial farmers have achieved notable success, securing their middle and upper-class positions within developing nations. Meanwhile, the remaining 95% of farmers, predominantly in developing nations, reside in villages and are categorized as smallholders or subsistence farmers. They continue to adhere to the village model, which proved successful for 12,000 years but now yields poverty, scarcity, suffering, and occasional hunger. Most of the world’s farmers live in poverty, yet we blame them. Isn’t it time to stop blaming the farmers and, together, rethink the village model and its suitability for the 21st century? We're accustomed to embracing new technologies when they offer improvements, yet we cling to a 12,000-year-old community model perpetuating widespread farmer poverty. Meanwhile, innovative alternatives enable farmers to flourish and live with dignity. Will we have the courage to change? To the complete column - https://lnkd.in/dEsvu67p?

Bar Mitzvah in the Kibbutz. Shabbat Shalom

If there is one thing related to smallholders that we know beyond any doubt, it is that how we have tried to help and rescue them from poverty is ineffective. Therefore, it is surprising (and not surprising) that when I come up with an idea that does not include the use of technology as a primary means of creating prosperity, for example, implementing the Kibbutz concept, the immediate reaction I get is often, "It won't work!" Then, I get an educated explanation of how technology and services are the solution to the challenge. My friend entrepreneur, be prepared that people will always tell you, "It won't work". If you don't hear it, you may not be doing something as different and unique as you think. It is in those moments of the 'It won't work' that your entrepreneurial resilience shines through, inspiring others and proving the naysayers wrong. These are the repeated moments when you must ask yourself if you're doing the right thing. In those moments, you alone, your inner voice, can guide you. It is either "It won't work" OR "The hell it will work, and I will show you!" Have you ever experienced something like this?