The wisdom of farmers

The poor farmer.
“Once upon a time there was a very poor farmer who lived in a tiny house. The only tool he had was an axe to chop wood. On a cold day he went to the forest where he started to cut wood near a river. Suddenly he lost his grip on the axe and the axe glided into the water. The farmer was so upset that he started to cry because he had no money to buy a new axe.

In the river lived a god who took mercy upon the farmer. He crawled out of the river and asked the farmer what was the matter. The farmer answered that he had lost his only axe and that he could no longer cut wood for the coming winter. The god disappeared back into the river and returned with a golden axe. “Here is your axe”, he said to the farmer. But the farmer replied: “No, no that is not my axe”.

The god dived again into the water and reappeared this time with a silver axe. “Here is your axe”, he said to the farmer and again the farmer shook his head: “ No, that is not my axe”. So the god went into the water again and this time emerged with the farmer’s axe. The farmer was glad and cried: “Yes, yes, that is my axe!”

The god dived another time into the river and came back with all the axes: the golden, silver axe and the one the farmer had lost, and said to the farmer “all three belong to you because you are such an honest man”. The farmer was happy and returned to his house and then to the village to tell what happened at the river.

Another farmer heard this story and the next morning he ran with this axe in his hands to the forest. He threw the axe in the river and started to cry. The river god appeared and asked what was the matter. The greedy farmer answered that he lost his axe and that he now was unable to chop wood. The god dived into the river and came back with a golden axe. He asked the farmed if that was the one he lost and the farmer said: Yes, yes, that one is mine”.

The god was very angry and told the farmer that he lied. He was not a trustworthy person and the god disappeared into the river without even retrieving the farmer’s lost axe.

Greeks are very proud. Especially because of their past. Thousands of years ago Greek scientists and philosophers were world famous. There is nothing wrong with being proud, but it seems that the Greeks may have forgotten to learn the lessons of those rich centuries. Maybe they should tell this folk tale about the poor farmer more often to one another. If they did, the farmers might realise it was no use blocking roads every year (it was the same story last winter) to stop imports and to try and get bigger subsidies from the government. Certainly not in such poor economic times as now. Our neighbour Bulgaria is already claiming millions of euros in damages because their exports to Greece have been halted for three weeks at the border by farmers’ blockades of trucks and tractors. You can imagine what the damage can be done by three weeks of such actions.

The farmers might remember the work of the ancient poet Hesiod. In his poem ‘Works and Days’ he gives practical advice to farmers and tells them to do their work in an honest and economical way. Hesiod was a farmer and a poet who lived around the fourth century BC. Because of his clever suggestions to farmers some people see him as our first economist.

But Hesiod had little faith in the future. In the same work, in the part named “The five Ages of Men’ he describes how the world will perish: in the golden age the people lived like gods. Everybody was happy, they did not had to work and even though they had to die, they died very peacefully. In the Silver Age it was Zeus who ruled the world. Although it took some hundred happy years for a child to grow up, once an adult he had to work. But the mortals did not worship the gods, so after their deaths, Zeus banished them to the Underworld where they became blessed spirits.

In the Bronze Age people started wars with each other and fought with their weapons that were just like the tools they worked with made of bronze. In the Heroic Age life became a little better. Mortals lived amongst half-gods and great heroes. This was the time of the famous war at Troy where so many Greek heroes fought. Then came the Iron Age, which looks to be our own time — the time when children betray their parents, brothers fight against each other, guests are no longer treated well, babies are born with grey hair and the gods no longer care for humans. This is the age when Zeus will one day destroy the world.

So Hesiod was an interesting guy. It really is a pity that he died so long ago. He would have been a very welcome guest in all those popular talk shows on television where they try to find solutions for all problems in the world, (such as roadblocks by Greek farmers). Using the popularity of modern media Hesiod could have spread his wise lessons to many more farmers.

I guess not many farmers on Lesvos read Hesiod because many of them also live on subsidies. But they do not block the roads — although they complain enough about promised subsidies that do not come, about social security that is not paid and the general economic crisis faced by Greece. Their complaints are only heard inside the kafenions and the living rooms and they shrug their shoulders and they go into the fields to collect chorta (wild vegetables). There is no subsidy for chorta, it grows free in nature. Here on the island they know everything about the free gifts of nature. It was just a few decennia ago they were so poor that people lived partly from what nature gives. And that is a thing that the people here do not forget so easily...

(with thanks to Tony Barrell)

@ Smitaki 2010

Monkey business

As soon as from the first of October it is allowed to make fires in Greece, the farmers start burning pieces of land that are overgrown with small bushes. When the smoke close to the top curls up right to heaven it makes some mountains look like real volcanos. After the first rains you see the black earth turn green, thanks to the juicy new grass that form a real treat for the sheep and goats.

I hated these fires: they destroy the beauty of the landscape by many black burned patches and not all farmers are as careful as they should be. Last November a pretty big piece of nature on Rhodes went into flames because a farmer was not careful enough.

But landscape in Greece is not only there to be beautiful. The land is used as well by farmers for herding their sheep and goats. The farmers use the parts of land that are not used, making new land owners angry when they find their land eaten by the goats because they did not fence their land well enough.

I have been thinking about all this and came to the conclusion that the farmers here on the island (and off course elsewhere in the country) are facing difficult times. More and more land is sold and becomes a no go area for their sheep and goats. In the past they could herd their animals all over the mountains, now their region consist of go and no go pieces of land. Even if the land was not theirs, the owners who did not do anything on their land were happy that their plot kept passable thanks to the sheep and goats. After the big wildfires that raged through the country at the end of the summer in 2007 there even was a discussion about these land burnings: they could prevent fires.

When the animals do not eat all bushes and grass, the land can get overgrown, when the animals eat too much the land becomes bare and a danger for land or mud slides. There are many inhabitants here, especially western foreigners, who scold at goats and sheep because they destroy the landscape and are often enough as well a danger on the roads. They do not agree with the land burnings for new grass and they do not appreciate at all that a sheep farmer herds his animals on land that he does not own.

Modern time is gaining land, as well here on the island. And it looks like there is no place anymore for the traditional sheep and goat herding. Then I ask myself, what will happen when farmers stop working, like they do now in numbers? Will there be no free-range meat from goats, sheep and cows anymore, like is the tasty speciality on the island? And how are they going to make feta or lado tiri?

It may be clear that modern time and old cultures like herding goats clash. That does not mean that I do agree with everything concerning farm products. I am happy that finally they give penalties to the cheese and milk factories around Vatoussa, Andissa and Skalochori because they pollute the rivers. It stinks so much there that I even do not want to get out of the car whenever we were planning a walk in that region.

More and more farmers stop their work not only because their working areas get smaller but as well because cattle-fodder becomes too expensive and the sales of the animals and the milk do not bring enough money anymore. You do not earn any money anymore and you can barely live on herding sheep and goats.

However it are not the stock-farmers who turn Greece into a new chaos. It are the agriculture farmers all over Greece who are demonstrating now already for ten days. They use about 9000 tractors to block frontiers to Turkey, Bulgaria and FYROM, roads like the main road from Athens to Thessaloniki and even on Crete they close roads. Neighbor countries are getting mad because their truck drivers get stuck, shops in Athens are not provided anymore and today even the traffic controllers of the Athens airport want to support the farmers by a strike for a day.

The farmers are angry because Europe give too low prices for wheat, cotton and olive oil, the subsidies get lower and the government refuses to help.

Although here on Lesvos the farmers do not demonstrate, they as well are angry about the low prices of olive oil, milk and vegetables.

It is said that especially the middlemen get rich over the backs (Dutch expression) of the farmers and the consumers. Take a kilo of broccoli. In Molyvos a farmer sells the broccoli for 40 cents a kilo to a vegetable seller who sells it for 1,40! While the farmer has to plow, seed and harvest this vegetable seller only had to sell it and walks away with most of the money!

And it is not only the farmers that do not earn enough money. Wages in Greece are way too low so do not wonder that many Greeks regularly demonstrate or strike. Due to a bad tax system and a culture of corruption life gets even more expensive. Since the introduction of the euro Greece became the most expensive country of Europe.

If we do not take care farmers will die out, just like the meandering goats and sheep in the landscape. Modern time will take care that there will not be anymore local free-range meat, cheese, vegetables, fruit and olive oil. Greece will become just like Holland where you only can get packages of meat and vegetables from who knows which country or from the glasshouses and where most of the children do not know that meat comes from a cow or pig and the milk comes from the cow.

Copyright © Smitaki 2009