Last week egg farmers protested profound changes in government support and lack of protection from competition represented by imported shell eggs. Israel intends to extensively reform all agriculture removing subsidies and placing this segment of the economy on a market basis.  Quotas that have supported inefficient small family operated farms will be eliminated with payment of a one-time support package.

During the 1960s, immigrants from eastern Europe and then subsequently from North Africa were settled in the Galilee to form a barrier against terrorist infiltration from Lebanon.  The policy created a band of small egg production units with from 10,000 to 25,000 hens in cages, requiring a high level of labor that at the time was appropriate. Egg producers operate with quotas that can be "leased" or sold outright. Despite some consolidation, the Israeli egg industry cannot compete with imported product from Spain and Italy without costly subsidies that are now being phased out.

Protests took the form of farmers dumping shell eggs at major intersections to impede the flow of traffic in an attempt to draw public support for their cause.  In their event, their protests were counterproductive.  The actions of militant egg producers in Israel mimic the dumping of liquid manure by dairy farmers in front of city halls in France and Dutch farmers clogging roads with tractors as a demonstration of their opposition to environmental regulations.  None of these protests have any positive outcome for either producers or consumers.