In Lebanon, Change From the Ground Up

In the heart of the Bekaa Valley, about 30 miles outside of Beirut, concrete dwellings covered in colorful carpets mingle with white tents bearing the blue insignia of the UNHCR, where refugees from neighboring Syria have been living for more than 10 years. One building stands out from the rest. Its walls are not made of gray slabs but are covered with a natural mortar of soil, sand and straw. “It allows us to maintain the ideal temperature for storing the seeds,” said Harfouche. In Arabic, Buzuruna Juzuruna — the name of his cooperative — means “our seeds are our roots.”

Harfouche was born and raised in Tripoli, on the northern coast of Lebanon, where he once worked as a librarian. While his friends were leaving the country amid financial and political crises, Harfouche opted to stay, but moved to the countryside. He bought a piece of land and, in 2015, with a group of young Lebanese, Syrian and French friends, founded Buzuruna Juzuruna. Their vision is to promote regional and ecologically sustainable agriculture through the recovery and selection of heirloom seeds.

Lebanon’s present economic crisis dates to the political instability following the October Revolution of 2019, in which citizens demanded accountability from a government that had failed to supply necessities like electricity and sanitation. Making matters worse, in August 2020 an explosion in the Port of Beirut — the result of government mismanagement — destroyed the national grain stock. In recent months, the war in Ukraine has compounded Lebanon’s food shortage. Historically this country has relied on Ukraine for about 80% of its wheat, while Russia supplied another 15%. Russia’s invasion has caused global commodity prices to soar, while the Lebanese people are left holding a near valueless currency.

“We have about one or two months of [grain] reserves left. We will witness the most serious repercussions in the coming months,” Amine Salam, Lebanon’s current Minister of the Economy, told OZY.

In the streets of a central Beirut neighborhood, the owner of a small bakery making manakish — the staple traditional bread seasoned with za'atar — told us, “We small producers only find flour on the black market.”

A growing number of farmers and small cooperatives like Buzuruna Juzuruna seek to provide bold answers to an economic crisis that has brought Lebanon to its knees. Faced with hyperinflation and a currency that has lost 95% of its value, citizens seek a return to the land in order to produce their own food. Establishing a short food supply chain has the potential to guarantee nourishment for a hungry people in the midst of national and global crises. Yet, even as they struggle to meet basic needs, innovators like Harfouche have chosen not to focus merely on survival. Instead, they see in this unlikely moment the opportunity to regenerate biodiversity and restore lands that have been degraded by industrial agricultural practices.

Clustered around the entrance to Buzuruna Juzuruna’s farmhouse, members of the co-op discuss how to prepare for the next urban market; a lush field stretches hundreds of meters in front of them. “Here we plant local varieties which were abandoned a long time ago, replaced by imported hybrid seeds that require fertilizers and pesticides,” explains Harfouche. “We try to produce enough food to feed all the cooperative’s members and the surrounding community.” They are currently meeting this goal nearly year-round. Yet, Harfouche and his co-founders have set their sights even higher:

“Our goal is also political: We want to keep the seeds in our hands.”

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On a dusty road in a village on the slopes of the Jabal Terbol mountain is Lebanon’s branch of ICARDA, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas. This drab-looking facility is a seed bank that houses hundreds of genome varieties of barley and wheat, grain legumes and forages, all native to the Mediterranean and Fertile Crescent. These are stored, reproduced, studied and distributed to local farmers, serving the urgent priority of producing staple foods, yet practitioners also have an eye on the future.

“Currently, there are only three crops that feed a large part of the planet: rice, wheat and maize. But we have hundreds of different crops that can cope with extreme climate events,” explains Dr. Mariana Yazbek, gene bank manager at ICARDA. “Preserving local seeds means working for the future generations.”

In an emptied capital that has grown dark with only three hours of state-provided electricity per day, an association sells vegetables, dairy products and other local produce in a supermarket where only “points” are accepted, not Lebanese liras or dollars. This is the work of Beit el Baraka, an association that provides for the nutritional needs of 226,000 Lebanese families who are teetering on the edge. Elderly folks, who are no longer guaranteed a pension by the state, are first in line.

Beit el Baraka cultivates 200,000 hectares (494,210 acres) of land across Lebanon. Among those cultivating these fields are siblings Sara Achkar, 20, and Yves Achkar, 26, agricultural engineers who work land that has been in their family for six decades. Their terraced hillside overlooks Jounieh, which according to Greenpeace is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Yet, every week the Achkars’ products are trucked to Beirut and distributed to Beit el Baraka’s beneficiaries.

“We plant the same seeds that my grandfather sowed. They are over 40 years old and have already adapted to the environment,” Yves explained as we walked slowly through the fields. “We don’t use anything chemical. We make natural compost and add it to the soil. This way we don’t spend anything.”

Yves and Sara dream of a new Lebanon heralded by a return of the country’s youth to the land. Sara said, “Making food is a bit like making a revolution. We work the land to produce healthy food, to protect the environment and to leave healthier soil for future generations.”

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