NATHAN JEFFAY
Thousands of date trees surround Eilon Bdil as he makes his way to work. But he spends his days tending a far less traditional kibbutz crop — cannabis. Kibbutzim became famous for their dates and orchards and cowsheds. Today, they are quickly turning in to a driving force in this increasingly-important Israeli crop.
Bdil lives on Kibbutz Elifaz, near Eilat, which eight years ago became the first kibbutz to grow cannabis and sell it in Israel for approved medical use.
He is coy about how big the operation is and how much income it brings his kibbutz, which was founded in 1983, but will say that it is a good fit for the kibbutz’s need to pay the bills and desire to do something it believes in.
“It is both important and profitable — a combination we like,” he said, adding that it is poised to become a bigger part of Elifaz’s focus.
The medical cannabis sector in Israel is currently limited to producing for domestic use, but the government is working on legislation to allow exports — the move that will allow the industry to soar. Among 300 potential growers who have preliminary licences to produce marijuana, there are dozens of kibbutzim.
“Growing cannabis was strange at first for many members,” says Bdil. “There were a lot of fears but as time went by people accepted it.”
It helped that one founding member had long been convinced that cannabis had potential.
“There was a member from among the founders who believed one day cannabis would become legalised in Israel, and when it was we should be there,” recalls Bdil.
When the cannabis growers on Elifaz started out it was a big challenge, as the methods are very different from growing dates and other crops. To make matters more complicated they were blazing a trail in Israel and there was no support.
“There was no one to guide us on how to grow cannabis and how to do it right so we needed to work out everything for ourselves.We started with home-made knowledge and developed our methods. We’ve become better and better.”
Kibbutz communities have turned out, to the bemusement of of their socialist founders, to have an eye for business. Necessity, it turns out, really is the mother of invention, and this means that the country’s 260 kibbutzim and the companies they set up, as well as accounting for about half of Israel’s agricultural output, are also behind about a tenth of traditional industry.
Big business may not be the path that the founders of the kibbutz movement anticipated, many of the successful companies have had a strong social impact as well as good profits.
On Indian farms, crop yields are rising, partly thanks to Kibbutz Hatzerim near Beersheba.
Founded in 1946, Hatzerim had for 15 years made a success of its agriculture. But by the 1960s it was flagging, as kibbutz members resigned themselves to the fact that salty soil was scuppering attempts to grow crops.
Members were excited to hear about an innovator from Tel Aviv who had some fresh ideas to do with watering crops. They formed a company and took the concept to production. By the middle of the decade, the first irrigators were giving plants exactly the water they needed.
Over the years, the kibbutz has exported the technology to boost irrigation in developing countries such as India.
The project has been so successful across the board that in February, Mexichem, the Mexican pipe manufacturer, paid 1.895 billion dollars for an 80 per cent stake in the company, partly from the kibbutz and partly from previous investors. The kibbutz retains a 20 per cent stake.
The spirit of kibbutz diversification is probably at its strongest at Kibbutz Kinneret in the Galilee, where members have gone in to a sector far from their comfort zone.
The second oldest of all the kibbutzim, established in 1913, Kinneret was set up as an avowedly secular community. Now, its biggest business is religion — not Judaism, but Christianity.
It runs the Yardenit site on the Jordan River, where busloads of Christian tourists visit to undergo baptism.
Around 600,000 people arrive annually, and while entrance is free, most buy baptism gowns (which must be worn, according to site rules) and other items from what looks like a New Testament-themed Duty Free superstore.
Members were reluctant when the opportunity fell in to their laps in the 1980s, as the government wanted an organised baptism site following drownings at ad-hoc sites. But they gave it a try and now it represents one of their biggest sources of income.
“Almost any tour guide working with pilgrims is likely to be going to Yardenit,” says Geoff Winston, tour guide and programmes director of Keshet Educational Journeys.
“The Sea of Galilee area was the incubator of the kibbutzim, and now these same kibbutzim are finding ways to flourish in today’s world where tourism is a big business.”
Dozens of kibbutzim are growing cannabis