Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 8.2 The growth in
consumption of organic
produce in Israel
Organic food consumers
in Israel - 1993
Organic food consumers
in Israel - 2005
60,000 b
Sources: a (Zali 1993 , p. 3 [in Hebrew]); b (Mazori 2005
[in Hebrew])
1,000 a
Until the early 2000s, organic food consumption was demarcated by class and
identified mainly with the upper classes, which had the ability to pay the relatively
high priced organic food. 5 During this time most of organic food marketing in Israel
was done through exclusive stores that specialize in health, medical and lifestyle
products (“ Beit Teva - “nature stores”). Since the early 2000s a variety of marketing
methods were developed and enabled more extensive access to organic food. This
differentiation is rooted in the bourgeois revolution started in Israel, of which the
empowerment of the material culture and adoption of global consumption patterns
in daily life of Israelis is central (Ram 2005 , pp. 37-46).
The four cases presented below represent a possible typology for the forms of
organic production-consumption-distribution which became instituted in light of the
rising of a “mosaic” of global and local identities and postmodern styles in Israel.
8.4.1
“Harduf”: The Conventionalization of Anthroposophy
A well-known cultural-social category, ascribed in the public discourse to eating
organic food, includes the participants of the 'new age' culture. They include in
their private and public lives alternative activities to the main stream, and hold on to
the perception of mutual ecology, which sees the world as an integral holistic entity
(Ruah-Midbar 2006 ). The image of organic food as “ecological” and “alternative”
is appropriate for this approach and therefore very common in so-called new age
settlements. One of these settlements is Kibbutz Harduf .
Kibbutz Harduf was founded by a group of young people, second generation
Zionist settlers in Israel, who while visiting Europe in the 1980s, were captivated
by the anthroposophical doctrine and sought to establish a cooperative community
following this doctrine.
Within the framework of the anthroposophy doctrine, the kibbutz founders
established a branch of organic agricultural production, for the welfare of the
kibbutz members, as a source of livelihood. Over the years this organic agricul-
tural undertaking gained success on a national scale. Today Harduf is the most
recognized retail brand of commercial organic food in Israel. This occurred largely
because in 2002 Israel's largest food corporation, Tnuva, acquired the kibbutz
5 Organic food products in Israel are 20-25 % more expensive than parallel products that are not
organic (according to a survey conducted by Panels Institute for The Marker, published on 8 July
 
 
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