Grandma's army

“WE ARE WHAT WE EAT” Food production is arguably the most important industry in the world – the entire population relies on it. For the best part of human history most of human labour was devoted to it. Today, it feeds over seven billion people and two billion people work in the food industry. Our physical and mental well-being is directly linked to what we eat and drink. The nutritional content of what we eat determines the composition of our cell membranes, bone marrow, blood, hormones, tissue, organs, skin, and hair. Our bodies are replacing billions of cells every day — and using the foods we consume as the source. Israel is known for its first wave of agricultural innovation – the invention of drip irrigation to counteract the country’s arid climate and water shortage. This was followed by the development of cherry tomatoes and other examples of agricultural technology. Today, we see a second wave of innovation – the transition from food security to nutritional ...

THE ECOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE – INTERNATIONAL Israel's innovative sectors are mainly the result of its numerous vulnerabilities. With almost no resources, lack of freshwater, large desert land, and surrounded by hostile neighbouring countries - Israel is left with the only option of investing heavily in the intellectual capacity of its people, creating numerous innovations in every sphere. Israeli technologies are used worldwide to address humanitarian crises.  A report, submitted by the world’s leading scientists states unequivocally that if we don’t move rapidly away from fossil fuels, we will experience more deadly heat waves, more destructive storms, and more intense and frequent droughts worldwide. There could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050 if current plastic disposal trends continue. It is estimated that only 14% of the world’s masses of plastic packaging materials is collected for recycling. A solution to recycle plastic bottles, thereby ma...

Until the mid-1970s, Israel had a strong agricultural orientation. In order to adapt to changing geopolitical, market and climatic conditions, a combination of sophisticated applied science, and rugged determination   enabled Israel to make   the transition to an industrial, hi-tech economy. Like most of Israeli innovation, technology was born out of necessity.   Agriculture was not abandoned, but was transformed along with the rest of the country. Israel has come a long way since then. The fact that representatives from over 40 countries convened in Israel for four days last week to discover technologies   in agriculture - involving artificial intelligence, machine learning, drones, etc., - testifies to Israel as being one of the leading countries in the world in the branch of agriculture. One of the most outstanding examples is an NGO, founded by Sivan Ya’ari,   with a mission to bring Israeli solar and water technologies to rural African villa...