Greeks mobilize to protect endangered seeds from GM encroachment!
ATHENS, Greece - May 25, 2011 - The remote valley of Mesohori in northeastern Greece seems an unusual choice for a stand against genetically modified crop conglomerates who are knocking on Europe's door.
Yet thousands of organic farming advocates seeking to bar so-called "Frankenstein" foods from the continent made the journey here to Greece to help raise awareness about dangers to seed diversity.
The event was an annual seed exchange festival organized by the Peliti alternative community, a Mesohori-based non-government organization working to preserve Greece's vegetal wealth against an encroaching global economy.
"We are doing something important here," beamed Grigoris Papadopoulos, a 60-year-old agronomist whose "green" epiphany came a decade ago after years of selling pesticide to farmers."I realised that money is not as important as quality of life, I saw the dirt in farm chemicals," said Papadopoulos, who came to trade his wild peach and apricot seeds.
Started in 1995, Peliti's drive to "to collect, distribute and rescue traditional seed varieties" has drawn notice among organic farming proponents across Europe.
The continent is caught between strong popular opposition to GM foods and pressure from major American GM producers such as Monsanto who say that European bans on such products are
Organisers said about 5,000 people showed up at this year's fair in the foothills of the Rhodope mountains between Greece and Bulgaria, 435 miles from the capital Athens.
"Around 4,000 plant types were distributed to organic growers and supporters from all over Greece but also from France, Germany, Turkey and the United States," said Peliti founder Panagiotis Sainatoudis.
"Every seed is important but the seeds from my mother are more important, and of my grandparents much more important," said Arif Sen, a grower from Marmara in Turkey.
But even the staunchest supporters of organic living can see the difficulty in resisting the mass appeal of cheap crops.
"Those who have money eat well, but the poor will still eat modified," Papadopoulos said. "Through our behavior, we need to force the state to respect us.
