From the Villages: Ziad Hourani discusses solidarity through e-commerce

From the Villages: Ziad Hourani discusses solidarity through e-commerce

Reading Time: 8 minutes

Lebanon's ongoing economic crisis“”an indicator of which is the increased cost of living at a time when many are unemployed or have seen their salaries lose a chunk of their value due to the increase in the foreign exchange rate and price inflation“”has highlighted Lebanon's fragility when it comes to food sufficiency, defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as "a country producing a proportion of its own food needs that approaches or exceeds 100 percent of its food consumption.“ (See Executive's previous coverage on food security and sufficiency).

In response, several initiatives have been launched by civil society in the past several months to encourage Lebanese to grow their own fresh food or to support local producers and farmers in gaining market access or securing their farming needs. One such initiative is From the Villages, an e-commerce platform that connects local food producers and artisans from the south Lebanese village of Deir Mimas and neighboring villages to consumers in Beirut.

The story behind the initiative is a classic example of the saying 'everything happens for a reason.' For Ziad Hourani, co-founder of From the Villages, getting stranded in Lebanon with his wife Nai and newborn child because of