Mohamad Adham Alzoukra in the fields near Baalbeck (left); Émilie and Joumana Rizk (Left and right - in the middle) and Khaled AlZoukra (right) (Credit: Sobhiya Najjar / L'Orient Today)
The Bekaa Valley, long regarded as Lebanon’s agricultural heartland, not only feeds the nation but also serves as the cornerstone of its economic stability and has been proclaimed by the Ministry of Agriculture as vital to Lebanon's food security. It provides 57 percent of the country's grains and 62 percent of the country’s industrial crops, including sugar beets, tobacco, olives, fodder, sunflowers, vegetables, and fruit trees — essential raw materials for various industries. However, the ministry is warning that relentless Israeli strikes threaten to force the country to the brink of a food security ‘catastrophe.’Swathes of the once lush and fertile lands of the Bekaa Valley now lie shattered under the weight of a destruction inflicted from above — destruction that has left in its wake silent fields and abandoned homes. Israeli...
The Bekaa Valley, long regarded as Lebanon’s agricultural heartland, not only feeds the nation but also serves as the cornerstone of its economic stability and has been proclaimed by the Ministry of Agriculture as vital to Lebanon's food security. It provides 57 percent of the country's grains and 62 percent of the country’s industrial crops, including sugar beets, tobacco, olives, fodder, sunflowers, vegetables, and fruit trees — essential raw materials for various industries. However, the ministry is warning that relentless Israeli strikes threaten to force the country to the brink of a food security ‘catastrophe.’Swathes of the once lush and fertile lands of the Bekaa Valley now lie shattered under the weight of a destruction inflicted from above — destruction that has left in its wake silent fields and abandoned homes....
