Athens News

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 2:50pm on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Want More Cement with Your Cotton? Greek Farmers Adapt to Reduced Subsidies

The Athens News reported on January 25, 2010:

"The Farmers’ protests reflect a reality for a Greek agricultural sector that has, by and large, failed to adapt to a regime of diminishing subsidies and demands for more crop diversification by global markets.

The case of the Thessaly cotton growers is a textbook case in the perverse effects of subsidies, combined with a get-rich-quick mentality with disdain for any planning for the future.

Thessaly had for decades been producing large quantities of cotton. Acreage exploded in 1995 when drought hit hard production in Asia and Egypt. Support prices reached over 500 drachmas per kilo (1.50 euros in today’s money). The crop was easy to grow and harvest by machines, leaving farmers plenty of idle time. On top of that, farmers did everything to cheat on subsidies by adding water and even cement to the loads of cotton being weighed at the ginning mills."

The full story:
http://www.athensnews.gr/articles/13374/23/01/2010/24959