Looking to Israel for climate innovation

If our climate crisis requires plucky survival strategies, consider Israel: a narrow strip of semi-arid land sustaining 9 million people, without much oil, bounded by hostility and the sea. 

Necessity mothers innovation, says Israeli Ambassador for Climate Gideon Behar, who contacted me through the Chicago Consulate to talk dirt with an Iowan. And rain, or lack of it.

Despite near self-sufficiency in feeding its own, Israel depends on the Midwest for grain and to keep agriculture’s carbon footprint in check. He worries. 

“One way or another, agriculture in the United States will have to change. This is clear,” Behar told me. 

He knows soil health. He revels in microbial activity in root systems. He realizes the U.S. Corn Belt has lost a third of its most valuable topsoil — threatening food security in the here and now, with declining crop productivity already showing up in field tests. He worked on sustainable agriculture in Africa, concentrating on Senegal, during diplomatic service that preceded his climate appointment. He speaks from a vantage point in the Middle East where climate first asserts its pushback. The Israelis have been working on climate strategies since 1960. We think about survival only when Texas goes dark during a storm that used to be freak but now is all too normal. 

Behar warns that danger is upon us. 

“You won’t be able to rely on the rain,” he says. “Water is everything.” 

Sure enough, a searing drought has beset the Great Plains and Southwest, including my parched patch. It looks like it could last decades, the leading climatologists say. It’s getting tough to grow corn in Kansas, and the Ogallala Aquifer underlying cattle country around the Panhandle and beyond is bound to pump dry soon. It’s one of those mega-problems that we ignore because it is so huge 

The U.S., Europe and China are on a latitudinal belt of water stress that will worsen through the next two decades, Behar points out. Plowing up every inch of the Midwest to plant corn and soybeans to feed hogs and burn in biofuel (it takes three gallons of water to produce a gallon of corn ethanol) is pushing Earth to its limits. 

“Literally, we are eating our planet. If we don’t change our dietary habits, we are all at risk, rich or poor. There must be a shift in the way we eat,” Behar warns. 

There also must be a shift in the way we handle water and produce food. 

Israel recycles 90 percent of its sewage into dry compost and water “pure enough to drink,” Behar says, which is used to fertilize gardens and feed crops through precise drip-irrigation (perfected by the Israelis in 1959). Water is mixed with fertilizer in precise amounts and applied directly to root systems. He believes it will have to be used everywhere in agriculture as water shortages soon become more acute, and as more hungry mouths open to be fed. The main method of irrigation in the U.S. is center-pivot sprayers — a big part of the reason the Ogallala is running dry. Drip systems, of course, are more expensive but can double yields while reducing water evaporation. Behar knows where you can buy them. Israel also is a world leader in water desalinization. 

In China, they’re building high-rise confinements for hogs to sate growing protein demand. In Iowa, our rivers reek from manure and fertilizer feeding toxic algae blooms. In Israel, about 100 companies are growing meat from lab cultures that reputedly tastes like chicken or beef. Commercial production is expected this year, as the cost falls with manufacturing scale and price becomes competitive with traditional meat. They’re making products that mimic milk and eggs, with all the essential proteins, using fermentation of plants. 

Israel is a pioneer in “vertical agriculture” — growing produce indoors using water recycling and solar energy for power as arable land is lost to desert. It now exports vegetables to Europe as a result. 

Solar and wind energy producing hydrogen can replace oil revenue in the Middle East. Behar says Israel wants to collaborate with its neighbors in building out that industry. “We are living amidst a real revolution. We do not want to do harm. We want a positive transition. It should not be confrontational,” he says. 

Already, Israel generates about a third of its electricity from renewables, and will eliminate natural gas (which it does have offshore in abundance) within 30 years. 

Putting a cost on carbon is fundamental to the transition. Behar believes some sort of carbon tax or fee is imminent in Europe and the U.S. But that tax must show immediate benefits to people. 

Tom Vilsack, the U.S. secretary of agriculture, says creating carbon trading markets in agriculture (where polluters pay farmers to plant grass or trees) is on his to-do list. Skepticism remains that the benefits won’t simply accrue to large landowners like Bill Gates, which is why Behar and Vilsack agree that agricultural conservation demonstration projects are urgent — to convince voters that they benefit. 

“Together, all these things create a possibility, a strategy, something that didn’t exist before,” Behar says. 

Art Cullen is the publisher and editor of The Storm Lake Times. He won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 2017 and is author of the book “Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper.” Cullen can be reached at times@stormlake.com.