Feeding the World: Sustainable Agriculture

“The trebling of the population in this small country, flowing with milk and honey but not with sufficient water, rich in rocks and sand dunes but poor in natural resources and vital raw materials, has been no easy task: Indeed, practical men, with their eyes fixed upon things as they are, regarded it as an empty and insubstantial utopian dream.”

“In order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.”

David Ben-Gurion - First Prime Minister - State of Israel

• Food for thought

• Soil and Water

• Plant Sciences and Genetics

• Environment

In 1942, the Hebrew University established the Institute for Agricultural Sciences in the nascent State of Israel to ensure there would be enough food for the existing population and – as it turned out – for the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who arrived in the years that ahead. By developing new technologies to optimize water resources and tame the wilderness, that Institute – now the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment – has been in the forefront of increasing and enhancing food production, food safety and food security – locally and globally.

Striving to reduce world hunger and improve the quality and purity of agricultural products through innovative and sustainable farming practices, Hebrew University scientists continue to devise imaginative approaches to the agricultural and environmental concerns that beleaguer the world.