Lebanon needs to lower its import dependency

My grandfather died in 2016 at the age of 103. He survived two world wars, the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (1916 – 1918), and the Lebanese Civil War. A few years before he died, I was with him as he read the newspaper and he turned to me and said: “Are you storing wheat? Things aren’t going well.” I remember laughing—at the time I didn’t understand why he was so worried. Then the day came when everybody started to worry about wheat and food security in general. Based on Food and Agriculture Organization indicators, the prevalence of undernourishment in Lebanon has been on rise since 2011, yet the issue of food security and hunger did not make it to the headlines until the economic crisis started to worsen in late 2019. With the fast deterioration of economic conditions and the outbreak of COVID-19, all pillars of food security—availability (through