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Organic Cultivation in Greece, started in the early 90s, and today a large variety
of organic products are produced in an ever-increasing range and
quantity.
The Greek farmer has always followed traditional methods of production,
and the absence of large factory farms, has maintained the family run smallholdings
system.
It was only in the 60s & 70s that technology & the use of pesticides and fertilizers, that promised to increase production
and minimize the risk of plant disease, lured some farmers away from the way
their ancestors were working the land.
However, Greece is a country with a small industry, a largely unspoiled
countryside, and a climate that has no equal the world over. The combination
of all three with the right type of soil, created the superb quality the Greek
products are famous for. The adoption of Organic cultivation, or it is more
appropriate to say, the return to tradition, added the seal of approval to
what was already pure, natural and wholesome.
The Certifying organizations, "DIO","Phisiologiki","BIO" and "AGROCERT", apply internationally approved methods of inspection & Certification, and are members of International Organic Bodies.
YOUR FOOD IS YOUR MEDICINE "Hippocrates"
It is the Greek diet that has the uninterrupted continuity of many
historical periods, from the bronze age to Classical and Hellenistic periods,
and from the Byzantium to the days of our grandmothers.
It is characteristic that the eating habits of the Byzantines were
adopted by the nomadic people of the Ottoman Empire and re-appear today at
our table as "Eastern delicacies", with Turkish names…
Even the French cuisine has its origin in the sweet and savory sauces
of Ancient Greece and the Byzantium.
The purity of Greek products, the richness in vitamin content and
their superb taste, constitutes a model for the followers of healthy nutrition,
and a subject of scientific research.
The Greek diet that has attracted international interest and not
the general and vague “Mediterranean”, which has been used by various competitors
in the field of nutrition, and started with the now famous "Study of the seven countries".
This study was contacted by Prof. Ancel Keys over a period of 15
years, by monitoring the traditional lifestyles of 10,000 middle age men from
each of the seven countries (Finland Greece, Holland, Italy, Japan, USA and
former Yugoslavia), chosen by the researcher, and the effect it had on their
health.
The results were incredible!
Over the experiment period, 2,288 men died from heart disease. Of
this number, only 9 deaths occurred amongst the Greek sample, while the number
in other Mediterranean countries was 184 deaths.
 As a result of this fact, the French Professor Serge Renaud carried out another
experiment in France, using two groups of patients that had already suffered
a first heart attack. He put the first group on a fat-free diet, while the
second was put on a traditional Greek diet.
After 27 months, 16 patients of the first group died from a second
heart attack, while another 38 suffered non fatal heart attacks. The second
group only suffered 3 deaths and 8 non fatal heart attacks.
The traditional Greek diet is present continually for at least 5,000
years with little change and is depended on local production, seasonal produce,
local habits and religious instruction.
It mainly consists of olive oil, cereals, bread, pulses, vegetables,
fruit, and small quantities of eggs, cheese, milk, meat, fish and a little
red wine with each meal.
In years gone-by, transporting of goods was not easy in a mountainous
country with many islands, so food produced locally, constituted the bulk
of the diet, with the addition of products un-effected from long periods en-transit,
like rice, legumes, and dried fruit and nuts, as well as salted or smoked
fish or meat.
The consumption of meat was rear and reserved for Sundays and Holidays,
while fish was consumed more often especially in the costal areas and the
islands.
This tradition was formed over the years, not only as a result of
the availability of products, but also due to the regulation of the Christian
Orthodox Church, that forbids the consumption of animal products over long
periods (ex. 40 days before Christmas and 40 days before Easter, as well as
a number of other occasions).
A special mention must be made on four commodities so important to
the Greek lifestyle. Olive oil, bread,cheese and coffee.
The Greeks consume more olive oil,bread and cheese than any other
country in the world, with 25ltrs more than 100kg and 23kg, per person, per
year.
There is no space for me to mention in detail the benefits of olive
oil to the human health and its role in preventing cardiovascular disease,
breast, skin, stomach and intestinal cancer and a number of other ailments.
Scientific research has long established these facts.
In this modern time, when the exchange of information is done with
the speed of light, fast food is as great a danger to the health of our young
people, as smoking, or the use of alcohol or drugs.
In this age of computerization and space travel, life in the Greek
villages evolves in a slow pace, centered in the "Kaffenio" (or the local coffee shop), where usually old men (and sometimes women these
days), sit drinking their coffee, discuss and have solutions for all the problems
of the world. They continue a tradition that started in 1475 with the opening
by Greeks of the first “Kaffenio” in the world, in Constantinople (Istanbul).
The coffee is prepared in the same way now, as then!
I could continue writing about Greece, its culture, tradition and
gastronomy. Greece goes back 10,000 years and cannot be covered in one or
two pages.
Of course, Greece is not only about food. The Greek thinking that
inspired the world and created western civilization, is as active today, as
it was in the Classical Greece of the 5th century B.C.. The values held sacred
by them, are as important today, and reemerged last year in Athens, where
the youth of the world competed for the olive branch of Heracles. |
