Kibbutz ravaged on Oct. 7 looks to renewal through gene-edited potatoes and tomatoes
As the southern community mourns its losses, Holit is set to trial a potato whose natural toxins have been gene-edited out and a tomato that grows semi-dried on the bush
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
As part of its rehabilitation after it was ravaged during Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre, Kibbutz Holit on the Gaza border is set to trial two new innovative vegetable varieties — a potato whose natural toxins have been gene-edited out and a tomato that grows semi-dried on the bush.
Potatoes are members of the Solanum (nightshade) family. Like eggplants and tomatoes, they contain solanine, a glycoalkaloid poison that plants use to defend themselves against herbivores.
Farmers harvesting potatoes routinely cut and dispose of the leaves.
Now, thanks to gene editing by Emeritus Professor Haim Rabinowitch, founder and CTO of Rumafeed, the stems and leaves can be used as livestock feed, freeing up land to cultivate other crops.
Earlier this year, Rumafeed was one of five companies chosen to partner with Intel Ignite Tel-Aviv, the startup accelerator that determined that the potato trials would be undertaken at Holit.
Rabinowitch, formerly a Hebrew University rector and dean of its Agriculture Faculty, is an expert in plant physiology and genetics. He was part of the team that developed the world’s first commercial cherry tomatoes in the 1980s, and the first ones with two rows on either side of a stem and a long shelf life.
He told The Times of Israel that while pondering the challenges of a growing world population in which “2.3 billion people can’t go to sleep on a full belly,” he realized that something had to be done about the wasteful nature of growing potatoes and tomatoes.
“Before harvesting, herbicides are used to destroy the leaves,” he explained. “Think of the harm to the environment. Some 400 million tons of potatoes are grown worldwide every year. Around 170 tons of the crop is thrown away, along with the inputs such as water and labor.”
Rabinowitch said the nutritional value of potato leaves was similar to that of alfalfa and that sheep fed the former gained 20 percent more weight than those fed the latter.
About 20% of Israel’s agricultural land is located in the Gaza border area. This includes 60% of the potato fields, 50% of tomato fields, and 40% of the areas where carrots and cabbages are grown. Today, Israeli potato farmers import potato seeds from overseas.
Rabinowitch’s vision is to set up a center at Kibbutz Holit where farmers will propagate the gene-edited seeds.
He said he was seeking a donation of NIS 3 million ($800,000) and ideally NIS 12 million ($3.2 million) over three to four years to create facilities to cultivate seeds from tissue culture with a few cells to an entire plant.
“The idea is amazing,” said David Ben Lulu, a Kibbutz Revivim resident chairing Kibbutz Holit while its members live in temporary accommodation there.
Intent on turning the kibbutz into a hub for agricultural innovation, Ben Lulu and others met with several startups on Sunday and decided to partner with three, including Rumafeed. The first potato trial is already scheduled for the spring.
Of the other two, Supree, a subsidiary of NRGene, develops fruit and vegetable varieties that naturally dry on the vine while preserving nutritional value and taste. Kibbutz Holit will trial the company’s semi-dried tomatoes.
A Supreee spokesperson said the company was working to “broaden its agricultural footprint and boost production capacity” and is in talks with several kibbutz communities, including in the Gaza border area. The company saw these collaborations as a strategic step towards achieving its expansion goals while supporting and helping to rebuild local agricultural communities, the spokesperson added.
The third start-up to be piloted at Kibbutz Holit is LiVA, which harnesses good bacteria to fight food spoilage by microbes and extend the shelf life of anything from strawberries to avocados to bread.
During the October 7 attack, 12 Holit residents were murdered, along with one Moldovan and two Nepalese laborers.
Youssef Hamis Ziyadne and his children Hamza, Bilal, and Aisha, from Israel’s Bedouin community, were abducted to Gaza while they were working on the kibbutz. Aisha and Bilal were released in November. Youssef and Hamza remain in Hamas captivity in the coastal enclave.
The kibbutz is currently empty, except for security team members guarding it. Community members are not expected to return home before the end of next summer.
Ben Lulu, business manager for 14 years at Revivim, which is joined with Holit and Kibbutz Re’im in a three-way agricultural partnership, said the plan was to create an ecosystem at Holit to trial agricultural start-ups.
While the Holit community focused on the dead, the injured, and the missing, “We are thinking of renewal,” Ben Lulu said. “Perhaps that’s an advantage of someone like me who lives outside.”
