{"id":2112,"date":"2018-04-29T17:30:36","date_gmt":"2018-04-29T05:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/?p=2112"},"modified":"2018-07-01T20:11:07","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T08:11:07","slug":"israel-and-new-zealand-cooperating-in-agritech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/2018\/04\/israel-and-new-zealand-cooperating-in-agritech\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel and New Zealand cooperating in Agritech"},"content":{"rendered":"
While the story of New Zealand\u2019s earliest Agriculture started with the settlement of M\u0101ori, Israel\u2019s Agricultural history starts with the Canaanites and the Israelites over 3,000 years ago. But the modern history of Israeli Agriculture is one of reconstructing the wasteland left by the Ottomans (Turks). Mark Twain describes, in \u2018Innocents Abroad\u2019<\/a>, the land of Israel as<\/p>\n [a] desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds-a silent mournful expanse….A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action….We never saw a human being on the whole route….There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.Mark Twain<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Indeed, Israel remained a largely barren desert until increasing numbers of Jews returned to their indigenous homeland in the 19th and 20th centuries, joining those who had kept a Jewish presence in the land of Israel throughout history. A United Nations Special Committee on [British Mandate] Palestine Report from 1947<\/a> witnessed this and stated 1 <\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n The Jewish immigrants to [British Mandate] Palestine, who are said to be merely returning to their homeland, are portrayed as having been primarily responsible for developing the economy of the country, for establishing an infant industry, for cultivating theretofore waste lands, for instituting irrigation schemes and for improving the standard of living of Palestine Arabs as well as Jews. The immigrant Jews displace no Arabs, but rather develop areas which otherwise would remain undeveloped.UNSCOP Report<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The pioneer Jewish farmers tilled and tended the land under harsh desert conditions with a combination of hard labour, tenacity and science. The Kibbutz system which created communities who worked collectively on Israel\u2019s agricultural revolution built the foundational economy of the modern state of Israel and paved the way for the present knowledge economy.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s chemists, geologists, botanists and biologists helped<\/a> converted an infertile, low yielding, and barren land into a world-leading nation whose technologies in sustainability, conservation, cultivation and data gathering and analysis are helping to feed the world<\/a>. New Zealand has also benefited from Israeli agricultural expertise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you investigate almost any sector of agriculture in New Zealand today, you can find important contributions being made to local agricultural productivity by Israeli companies. The results of these Israeli-New Zealand collaborations have been sitting on most Kiwis plates, contributing to the local tax base and helping boost NZ\u2019s agritech reputation for many years. For example:<\/p>\n There are a plethora of cutting edge Israeli<\/a> agritech companies<\/a> that are now contributing to the challenge of feeding the world. Israeli technology will likely be a important contributor to helping meet current agricultural challenges in New Zealand<\/a> and around the globe. The New Zealand government is slowly awakening to this, as one of the 117 countries to co-sponsor<\/a> an Israeli-led resolution on the use of agricultural technology for sustainable development<\/a> in November, 2017.<\/p>\n Ex\u00a0Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, has bet big on Israel through Innovation Endeavours<\/a>, which, via\u00a0Farm2050<\/a>, invested in CropX<\/a> alongside\u00a0Arama Kukutai\u2019s Finestere VC<\/a>\u00a0and Kiwi investors\u00a0Marcel van den Assum<\/a>, Fonterra\u2019s ex CIO\u00a0and Green Button founder,\u00a0<\/span>and <\/span>former <\/span>MD of high tech for German WestLB,\u00a0<\/span>Ira Bing<\/a>. Mr Bing was also an advisor\u00a0to <\/span>the $8BN natural flavours company,\u00a0<\/span>Frutarom,<\/span>\u00a0on their $100m acquisition of Taura Fruit Processing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last year Israel, with a population of approximately 8.5m and less than 1\/12th the land area of New Zealand<\/a>, generated $23b worth of technology exits<\/a>. Israeli ag-biotech companies raised 2.3% of all global investment<\/a>. Buoyed by success in Israel, investors are looking for promising technology in New Zealand<\/a> and elsewhere.<\/p>\nIsraeli agritech collaborations with NZ and beyond<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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