Solar Peppers Imagination and Infrastructure between Change and Adaptation in Desert Agriculture

This article examines the implications of changes in agriculture over the years on identity and culture in the Arava, a desert region in southern Israel where intensive agriculture has long shaped both local society and the environment. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article traces how residents’ environmental–agricultural imagination historically structured space and community, and how agricultural infrastructures have adapted to political, ecological, and economic pressures. It examines how early settlers framed their efforts to “make the desert bloom,” while highlighting the constraints imposed by national politics, environmental limits, and global markets. By combining the concepts of environmental–agricultural imagination and agricultural infrastructure, the article analyzes agriculture’s role in producing place and identity and considers how the spread of solar energy may reshape the spatial and social dynamics of arid regions.