Organic Farming on the Sinai Peninsula

Who Would Have Expected This?

 

 

According to Al-Monitor, The Pulse of the Middle East, the daily newsletter summarizing reports from Middle Eastern nations, including Israel, the southern Sinai Peninsula--once a thriving tourist resort, surrounded by stretches of dry desert--is now dotted with world-class organic farms.

 

These farms, that continue to expand, supply vegetables and herbs for both locals and tourists in the Red Sea towns of Taba, Nuweiba, Dehab, and Sharm El-Sheikh.

 

How Did This Happen?

 

After the January 25, 2011 uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's multi-billion dollar tourism sector plunged, suffering 90% losses.  Earlier,  in 2007, Maged El-Said, a tourism investor living and operating in South Sinai since 1989, had decided to start an organic farm.  Although he raked in millions of dollars from tourism investments, he was dissatisfied, wanting a sustainable, environmentally friendly business.  People thought him crazy for attempting such a venture.

 

He noted that during the Israeli occupation of the Sinai the Israeli government had developed a 400-acre agricultural estate--presently, its irrigation system in ruins and thousands of trees dying.  Nevertheless, from this Israeli farm produce was exported, even flowers to The Netherlands.

 

 

A Model Organic Farm Transforming the South Sinai Region

 

Habiba Organic Farm, El-Said's two-acres in Nuweiba, a Red Sea town 40 miles from the Israeli border, with the help of universities and NGO partnerships, now serves as a model for Egypt's South Sinai.  The farm demonstrates how an entire region can transform itself via sound organic farming practices in the desert.

 

 

A Demeter-Certified Biodynamic Farm

 

 

 

In 2012, the Habiba Organic Farm (HOF) began selling its organic products as Demeter-certified.  Demeter International is the certification organization for biodynamic agriculture and a top organic certifier worldwide.  The farm was officially registered with the Egyptian Center of Organic Agriculture and declared one of the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.

 

 

Developing a Self-Sustaining Society

 

A regional organism develops where



 

• Crops can be used to feed cattle and chickens on neighboring farms
• A free-range chicken farm supplies neighboring farms with chicken excrement to use as organic fertilizer

 

El-Said that others now see the wisdom of organic farming.  Eniz Eneizan, a powerful leader of the Tarabyn tribe in South Sinai, has turned his farms organic.  El-Said says,

 

But our major success was seeing the tribal leaders of South Sinai adopt the idea and open their lands to it.

 

An Organic Community

 

Blooms in the Desert

 

May Many More Bloom in Deserts Throughout the World

 

 

And in Your Neighborhood!

 

 

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What is the Role of Biodynamics in the Overall Organic Food Movement?

The Executive Director of the Biodynamic Farming

and Gardening Association Explains

 

 

Robert Karp, Executive Director of the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association in the U.S., speaking to an animated and receptive audience in Carlsbad, California, on December 2, 2013, offered these salient observations:

 

Medicine for the Earth

 

Whereas Karp enthusiastically acknowledged and welcomed the current, widespread interest in

 

• organic food
• eating from local resources rather than food trucked in from who knows where
• the dynamic growth of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture support and distribution services)

he pointed out that the earth is sick and needs healing.

 

Going beyond the valuable contribution of the organic farming movement, biodynamics--which is a vital part of it--offers medicine for the ailing earth, in a way that no other part of the movement does.  He then touched briefly on the various biodynamic "preparations," designed to enhance both the soil and also crops once they appear above the earth.

 

The Farm as a Self-Sustainable Organism

 

Another essential contribution of biodynamics is the concept of the farm as a unique organism unto itself.  Although a weak farm may initially need to import manure for its fields and food for livestock from elsewhere, ultimately to become healthy, the farm needs to produce its own field manure and raise enough of its own food to feed its livestock.

 

Furthermore, because each farm and garden is situated in its very own landscape, with its own local weather and climate, each farmer or gardener needs to tune into the overall "personality" of the region where it is located (Something impossible for factory farms!).  As the farmer or gardener through observation of his land, his livestock, his farm or garden organism, becomes more aware of the land's own personality, he learns to work consciously to develop it--the way it intrinsically wishes to grow and thrive.

 

The Surrounding Community

 

 

Robert Karp sees all farms--not just biodynamic farms--as the basis of a revolutionary transformation of civilization.  During Medieval times, the city was the source, the center, that drew people to experience community.

 

 

Now, people try to escape the deadening, albeit exhilarating forces of our cities.  They seek community in a healthier locale and on a healthier scale.  Karp sees farms as a source of renewal, a "potential source of social, community renewal."   Farms now have educational programs and have become places to hold festivals.  The farm is now playing a therapeutic role in civilization.  It is an ark for social renewal. 

 

The Farm as Our Heart

 

The movement toward the farm is a movement of consciousness.  "I am not whole as a human being if I'm not connected consciously to nature, the foundation of all life"

 

 

And the origin of life is the human heart!

 

 

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A Worldwide Organic Food Standard

Demeter International--Certifying Organic Food Since 1928

 

 

The Demeter certification program, established in Germany in 1928, is the earliest label for organically produced foods.

 

The name Demeter refers to the Greek goddess of grain and fertility.  Demeter Biodynamic Certification, now used in over 50 countries, verifies that biodynamic products meet Demeter's stringent production and processing standards.

 

 

The Highest of All Organic Food Standards

 

These standards require biodiversity and preservation and enhancement of the ecosystem.  Biodynamic farmers view farms as living, holistic organisms.  Consequently, they pay utmost attention to soil husbandry, livestock integration, and prohibit genetically engineered organisms.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter_International and http://www.demeter-usa.org.

 

Biodynamics and Demeter

 

"Biodynamics is a spiritual-ethical-ecological approach to agriculture, food production and nutrition," according to the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association.  Demeter certification is the certification method validating this approach.  Demeter and biodynamics go hand to hand.

 

The Association encapsulates its history and then provides an example of its global reach:

 

"Biodynamics was first developed in the early 1920s based on the spiritual insights and practical suggestions of the Austrian, writer, educator and social activist Dr. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), whose philosophy is called "anthroposophy."  Today, the biodynamic movement encompasses thousands of successful gardens, farms, vineyards, and and agricultural operations, in a wide variety of ecological and economic settings."

 

Biodynamics and Demeter have Even Reached China!

 

Weihe Hu reported (January 31, 2013) about a ten-day seminar on biodynamic and organic agriculture held September 19-28, 2012, on a biodynamic farm in Beijing (Phoenix Hill Commune).  The farm is the first, and so far the only, Demeter-certified farm in China.  "The seminar, which was organized by the Demeter China Association and Phoenix Hill Commune, consisted of three parts: a biodynamic training course lasting six days, a two-day forum on the management of organic farms and green marketing, and a two-day tour of organic farms in the Beijing region."  See https://www.biodynamics.com