Economic downturn spurs return to family farms
In the face of economic hardships, many young Greeks return to work the family olive groves that have been kept in their families for generations.
One might imagine that ef zin, the Greek term for welfare or more colloquially, “the good life”, would be harder to come by lately in Greece, a country whose economic hardships are well-known to the rest of the world. Since the onset of the crisis, Greece’s GDP has decreased by 25 percent. Household spending has fallen by 40 percent.
Fields of land that for decades were abandoned are returning to be cultivated and productive again.
(Kostas Liris, Iris IKE)
Many young Greeks are turning to their family olive groves as a means of chasing a better reality. In the 1970s and 1980s, many of these young people flocked to metropolitan centers in pursuit of professional careers.
Read the full article by Joanne Drawbaugh via Olive Oil Times.
[Photo by Heather Cowper | Flickr]
