The Treacherous Road to Sustainable Agriculture: Lessons from Israeli Farmers and the Need to Upscale the Debate

Abstract

The current global agrifood system is increasingly fragile and despite a plethora of scientific research, progress in national and global policies setting commendable goals towards more sustainable agriculture is still sluggish. This paper argues that if the efforts continue to concentrate on farmers and rest solely on “fixing” modes of production at the farm level, the chances of arriving at significant changes are meagre. By conjugating Lefebvre’s triad of spaces and geographic explorations on politics of scale with data harvested over three years of qualitative research in farms, this paper explores Israeli farmers’ conduct in the field as they face many challenges at various scales. The paper presents their vulnerability against forces on a multiscalar level which present numerous obstacles in operating their farms. Addressing these challenges to allow them to integrate more sustainable modes of operation would require upscaling the debate and the taking of responsibility from all stakeholders concerned, from the farm level to global players.