More than 400 farmers, agrotech innovators, regional leaders, equipment manufacturers, representatives of philanthropic funds and academics from northern Israel gathered recently in a hotel just south of the border town of Kiryat Shmona to attend the Sunnyside Migal Annual Conference for Agriculture of the Future.
With a theme of “Bringing Good News to the North,” the symposium featured dozens of exhibits of innovative products related to agriculture and food tech.
Since the ceasefire with Lebanon went into effect in late November 2024 major efforts have been underway to return life to normal for the battered region. Economic development plays a vital role in encouraging families evacuated after Oct.7, 2023, to return to the communities near the border.
In his opening remarks, David Zigdon, CEO of the Migal Galilee Research Institute, the main convenor of the conference, noted, “In light of the ongoing effects of the war, we have an opportunity to reimagine and redesign the region’s agriculture—to build a 21st-century plan that integrates state-of-the-art growing techniques with renewal energy production, regenerative agriculture, and advanced technologies to increase productivity, yields and income in a sustainable manner.”
Zigdon told attendees that the day would be both a celebration of growth and renewal of the north as well as an opportunity to position the Galilee as a leading location for future agriculture and sustainable food systems.
The Migal Galilee Research Institute is located in the Tel Hai Industrial Park of Kiryat Shmona. It’s a regional R&D center affiliated with Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology. Four other government ministries were listed as supporters of the Sunnyside Conference but none of them sent representatives to attend.
Housing and Construction Minister Ze’ev Elkin, who is responsible for the Tkuma Directorate and the Northern Rehabilitation Directorate of the Ministry of Finance, and Galia Gamliel, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, were listed as speakers but did not show.
Beni Ben Muvhar, longtime head of the local Mevo’ot HaHermon Regional Council, blasted the lack of government participation in his remarks to the delegates.
“What, we didn’t invite them?” he asked rhetorically. “Members of Knesset don’t see us here in the Galilee. When Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] comes to Kiryat Shmona and doesn’t meet with the mayor, that’s a statement. Too bad, we’ll do everything ourselves,” he declared to sustained applause.
“We’re here because of the philanthropic organizations that help young families and support education and health care,” he asserted.
Tali Tzur, Chief of Staff in Israel for Jewish National Fund-USA, explained how American Jews have stepped up to contribute millions of dollars to help create “a new reality in the Galilee” that will encourage families to leave crowded central Israeli cities and populate the north.
Until now, a major deterrent to the population reshuffle has been the limited health care facilities in the area. The closest hospital is in Safed, about 45 minutes away by car. Construction is now underway for a new Kiryat Shmona Medical Center, largely funded by American donors, which will have an emergency room as well as a women’s clinic and MRI and CT services, housed in a fortified building.
Before Oct.7, the area around Kiryat Shmona was undergoing a revitalization to turn the area that had suffered from high unemployment into Israel’s food tech and agritech hub.
In 2021, venture capitalist Erel Margalit, head of Jerusalem Venture Partners, opened Margalit Startup City Galil in Kiryat Shmona to provide a home for food tech startups that would bring jobs and skilled workers into the area. The facility was closed when Kiryat Shmona was evacuated at the beginning of the war.
Before the war, 90 companies with 500 workers were operating in the area. After the evacuation, more than 60 percent of those companies left the area, but many are now returning.
One key facility that continued building during the war is the Galilee Culinary Institute (GCI), which is slated to become a major source of employment and a focal point in turning the area into the food and culinary capital of Israel.
Amit Avishai, the new Operations Manager of GCI, is a lifelong resident of the Upper Galilee who now lives in Kibbutz Shamir, less than five miles from the border. “We had a front row seat to the war, but I can’t imagine living anywhere else,” he told JNS.
Avishai explained that the main buildings of the GCI, housing kitchens and restaurants, will be finished by summer. The center, another project of Jewish National Fund-USA, which cost $27.5 million to build, will open with three programs simultaneously: a kosher five-star restaurant, initially open for groups, based on farm-to-table local products.
Culinary training workshops and a three-month culinary training program for 20-30 discharged and wounded soldiers are set to start in Oct. 2025. The full 12-month training program open to foreign students in cooperation with Tel Hai University is expected to open in the fall of 2026.
“As someone who has lived in the area all my life, I can tell you that the GCI will have a huge impact,” he said.
Avishai is cautiously optimistic about the revitalization of the border communities.” It depends on what the government will do to bring people back,” he told JNS. “There is some government support, but not like what was promised and not what there should be to a region that’s been in 18 months of a non-stop war. There’s definitely more that the government can do.”
Many of the friends Avishai grew up with in the north left the area during the war and relocated to the center of the country, where the education, health care and opportunities are better, he lamented.
“For now, there is a price for living here,” he said. “But everyone who did come back came back with a desire for change, with the desire to make the north as strong and vibrant as anywhere else.”