Examining Israel’s cottage cheese revolution

July 13, 2011 - 8:02 AM by

It’s been a few weeks since the cottage cheese revolution that Jessica described here began – the grassroots movement of consumers fed up with the spiraling prices of basic food commodities resulting in a Facebook campaign calling to boycott dairy products like cottage cheese until the prices went down (good thing this was before the anti-boycott bill in the Knesset passed!)

The campaign turned into a national furor, with the whole issue of high prices in Israel for everything coming to the forefront, and now economists are already analyzing the effects of the our own version of the ‘Arab Spring’ on the future economic life in the country.

At a symposium at Hebrew University this week examining the 40 percent price jump of cottage over the past three years, price rises in Israel, the monopoly in the dairy industry, and why this particular incident over cottage cheese has Israelis up in arms, HU economists called the Facebook boycott and resulting hoopla a “watershed” and looked at how social media has been instrumental in driving the consumer protest.

“I’m not exaggerating to say that I’m thrilled about this cottage cheese revolution,” said Dr. Avi Simhon of the department of agricultural economics and management at the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Science. “This is a watershed in the economic life of Israel.”

“Because we are a small country, we are surrounded by cartels, monopolies and non-competitive behavior by producers. Cottage cheese is not an insignificant product – it totals over 1 billion shekels a year. The producers of the other cartels have learned a great lesson now. They have learned they can’t squeeze the consumer. This is an important lesson that will have a very large affect on the Israeli economy.”

Commenting on the Facebook campaign to boycott cottage cheese, Dr. Paul Frosh of the HU department of communication and journalism cited the case of popular news website Ynet posting a link to the Facebook campaign on the day that it was launched as proof that there was a symbiotic relationship between the mass media and social media and that they do not compete, rather they collaborate.

“Clicking a button on a website is now a kind of political action that can be seen, counted and reported by mass media. [It is a] form of visible political action in the way that attending a demonstration is a form of political action,” he said, referring to social media campaigns as “low energy.”

“Not buying cottage for a month is not a huge decision to make. When you ring those clicks together, you can create large political waves.”

And evidently, the next wave is about to break. High cottage cheese prices are one thing, but have you noticed the rising prices of our real national food – hummus? We hear that the next boycott will be against buying the chickpea paste. But, it’s not a sure thing that this will catch on to the same extent. Doing without cottage cheese is one thing, but hummus? It’s a vital life force.

Tags: • Category: A New Reality, Business, Food, General, Israeliness, Life, News, Pop Culture, Social Justice, Technology 

Comments

3 Comments on Examining Israel’s cottage cheese revolution

  1. Rachel on Wed, Jul 13th 2011 1:38 PM

    2. I have been bitching about Tnuva for years (see the Jerusalem Post archives for a summary of my article “Cash Cow” from 1996. Just for starters, at that time Tnuva’s retail market share was 75% but it also controlled 90% of the raw milk market — while at the same time sitting on the Dairy Board and determining prices. The article went on to cite a study proving that Tnuva milk (sold at a subsidized price to Israeli citizens) was so depleted of butterfat (sold at a profit to US kosher cheese manufacturers) that its nutritional value was little more than that of water. Since then, I’ve taken to casually calling them the “evil milk monolith” in the hopes that someone, some time, some day, might notice that they are.
    http://israelity.com/2008/06/08/nostalgia-sunday-55/
    http://israelity.com/2011/01/09/nostalgia-sunday-tzena-tzena-tzena/
    http://israelity.com/2010/06/20/nostalgia-sunday-welcome-to-eggs-rael/
    I hold little hope for this so-called consumer revolution which is a one-note deal as far as I can see and will probably peter out as quickly as Silvan Shalom’s proposed restructuring in 2002.

  2. Honey costs | ISRAELITY on Wed, Sep 21st 2011 9:28 PM

    3. [...] the price of honey is up 26% in five years. Given the price of cottage cheese, it’s not all that astounding to hear that honey is also [...]

  3. treatment of heart disease on Fri, Sep 23rd 2011 1:41 AM

    4. This cottage cheese is very good and I am really glad that it’s gaining exposure. I have prescribed this food for patients that I know who are either on heart failure and high blood pressure. Every single person on this cottage cheese diet, following my prescribed workout plan has improved their health significantly.

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