Growing A New Business On The West Bank

JENIN, West Bank — Fares Hussein and his family have been farming olive trees in Burqin, a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, for more generations than he can count. But today it's organic farming – the techniques of his ancestors with a modernized twist – that keeps his land sustainable throughout rocky times.

Hussein is part of a growing cadre of more than a thousand farmers in the Palestinian territories who have switched to organic farming, a practice that avoids the use of chemicals. Palestinian farmers face many obstacles – from restrictions on movement and water usage under Israeli military occupation to limited rainfall and changing temperatures – but the international organic market is proving a markedly profitable high-end outlet.

To read the entire article by Miriam Berger, CLICK THIS LINK.