Introduction

Lebanon’s agricultural sector is facing unprecedented pressure due to escalating military attacks on key agricultural regions, particularly South Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley.

These areas are central to the country’s food production yet are increasingly exposed to destruction, displacement, environmental damage, and loss of livelihoods for farmers.

In this context, strengthening local food production systems is critical to preventing deeper food insecurity and ensuring community resilience.

Summary of our work March-April

When our ecosystem of life is targetted, we should resist by investing even more in the infrastructure of life.

This is why we focused on :

• Knowledge production
• Political work
• Fundraising campaigns
• Solidarity support
• Coordination work

1. Knowledge production as resistance

Because we believe that fighting against the narrative is even more crucial in times of war, we invested time in sharing information, writing about the militarization of food in times of war1 and gave interviews to newspapers and researchers.

This included media such as Al Jazeera, Reporterre (France), Confédération Paysanne (France), Al Akhbar (Lebanon), Megaphone (Lebanon), al Rawiya (Lebanon), Public Source (Lebanon), le parti des Femmes (France), al mantiq (Lebanon).

Academic interviews included discussions with researchers from the University of Salerno and a panel on Political Ecologies (“Ecocide and sacrifice areas in Mediterrenean Ecosystems”).

2. Political Work

• From the first week of the war, we worked on a political statement to denounce the Israeli attacks.
• We have also been keeping a close eye on the Fishing and Seeds draft Laws, to make sure that they won’t pass.

Signed by

• Socio-Economic Action Collective (SEAC) - مجموعة العمل الاقتصادي الاجتماعي (سياق)
• Arab Network for Food Sovereignty - الشبكة العربية للسيادة على الغذاء
• Cartography of Darkness - خريطة الظلام
• Seed In A Box - سيد إن آ بوكس
• Free Palestine Front - جبهة فلسطين حرة
• Tafkeek- تفكيك
• Sikka Saida - سكة
• Development Movement - الحركة التنموية
• Deyer Men Dar - داير من دار
• Arab Network for Food Sovereignty - الشبكة العربية للسيادة على الغذاء
• Siyada Network: for a popular sovereignty over food systems and resources - شبكة سيادة: من أجل سيادة الشعوب على الغذاء والموارد
• Aatma - عتمة
• Agricultural Committee in Bakhoun Municipality - Al-Miniyeh-Diniya District - اللجنة الزراعية في بلدية بخعون ـ قضاء المنية الضنية
• Bladi Khadra - بلادي خضرا
• Cultural Club of The South -AUB - النادي الثقافي الجنوبي في الجامعة الامريكية
• People's Movement- حركة الشعب
• National Meeting for Agricultural Entities in Lebanon - اللقاء الوطني للهيئات الزراعية في لبنان
• Observatory for Freedom and Sovereignty - Lebanon - مرصد الحرية والسيادة - لبنان
• Popular Democratic Party in Lebanon - الحزب الديمقراطي الشعبي في لبنان
• Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon - حملة مقاطعة داعمي "إسرائيل" في لبنان
• The Agroecology Coalition in Lebanon - إئتلاف الزراعة البيئية في لبنان
• National Union of Cooperative Societies in Lebanon - الاتحاد الوطني العام للجمعيات التعاونية في لبنان
• General Federation of Trade Unions and Employees of Iraq - الاتحاد العام لنقابات عمال وموظفي العراق
• Anti-Racism Movement (ARM) - حركة مناهضة العنصرية
• Shabab Al Tanmiya Association (Youth for Development) - جمعية شباب التنمية
• The Popular Committee in Lebanon - التنسيقية الشعبية في لبنان

4. Our Projects

Throughout the war, we have been working on supporting already established projects in Tyr and Saida, as well as connecting farmers and producers with solidarity kitchens initiatives and displaced communities.

Total:

• Hygiene Kits: 360
• Dry food Parcels: 304
• Hot Meals: 100+ meals
• Fresh Products to Solidarity Kitchens: 345 kg
• Fresh Products to Families: 2,572 kg
• Solidarity Kitchen Utensils: $950
• Fuel for shelters in Sour : 5,281.25 L
• Mattresses: 96
• Blankets: 151
• Drinking Water: 29,500 L — $5,030
• Gas: 32 units — $650
• Medication: $600
• Customized Clothes: 335 people
• Solidarity farming assistance: $3,745
• Farming Inputs: $1144.5

The need to rethink food aid

In times of war, providing prepared meals to displaced communities can hold challenges, including financial strain (on operations, transportation, daily fresh ingredients, labor costs) which can reveal unsustainable in the long run, environmental impact, with single-use plastic containers and aluminium contributing to pollution, as well as social concerns, with meals often not fitting cultural preferences and dietary needs.

We made sure to take into account the nutritional value of our food baskets, to make sure that displaced communities receive the proper intake of nutritional counts.

We designed the food baskets with the help of a nutritionist. Each Box’s nutritional counts :

• Calories: ~30,000 – 32,000 kcal
• Protein: ~750 – 800 g
• Carbohydrates: ~2,000 – 2,200 g
• Fat: ~1,500 – 1,700 g

5. Coordination Work

We also acted as intermediaries for other solidarity initiatives, and helped send :

• March 5 100 hot meals to displaced families in Beirut.
• March 20 20 kg of orange blossom delivered to Beirut
• March 24 30 mattresses, 30 blankets, 4 food baskets distributed to Khaldeh
• March 25 50 food parcels sent to Khaldeh
• March 28 780L diesel delivered to shelters in Tyre
• March 30 60 hygiene kits distributed to Tyre
• April 1 100 food parcels distributed to Tyre
• April 11 50 water (10L), 150 food parcels, 150 hygiene kits, 200 underwear (male & female) to Tyre
• April 11 medical supplies & first aid delivered to Nabatiyeh
• April 13 100 water (10L), 100 food parcels, 100 hygiene kits, kitchen kits distributed to Nabatiyeh
• April 23 32 gas cylinders (10L) distributed, supporting 32 families in Nabatiyeh
• April 24 50 food parcels, 50 hygiene kits, 50 fresh produce parcels, 321 kg fresh foul akhdar distributed to Nabatiyeh

Key contributors

• Arab Network For Food Sovereignty 
• APN - The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature
• AgriMovementFr   
• SEAC - Socio-Economic Action Collective 
• Oath 
• The Popular Committee Lebanon 
• LUTF- Lebanese University Task Force
• Atmaa
• Jibal 
• The three Sisters 
• JaBoulangerie
• Cartography of Darkness
• Jeyetna
• Lebanon solidarity collective
• Artists : Chams Kamel (@chams.ka)
• Constance Boesch
• Eazuka Khazrik
• Inès Sanad
• Takwa Makhlouf
• Valentin Nozay

AgriMovement Farmers’ Network

Conclusion

The aim of our report is to document our activities in March and April but also to shed light on all the support we received in the last months.

Resistance comes in different forms, be it through anonymous donators, artists who helped in our designs, friends who shared our campaigns, material and helped us design our logos, templates, farmers and producers who donated their products, and showed solidarity in times of need.

Our deepest thanks go to everyone who helped, volunteered and supported us for the last weeks.