Don’t panic, eat organic
Just a few years ago, people in Cyprus lived from the land, now you’d be hard pressed to find local produce sometimes, not too mention organic
Until a generation or two ago people here in Cyprus knew where their food came from. If they didn’t produce it, they usually knew the farmer who did. They saw the fields and orchards where their fruit, vegetables, and grains grew. The chickens that laid their eggs and provided a regular roast clucked in a local yard and the pigs, sheep, goats and cattle that gave meat, wool, and milk often came from little further away.
For most people here, that has all changed. A visit to Yiayia in the village supplies a quick glance into the ways of the past, and perhaps a basket of fresh eggs and some home-grown fruit and vegetables — the taste of which is superior to those at the supermarket, but the production of which is ultimately dismissed as anachronistic and inefficient in today’s world.
Food shopping has become another weekly item on the ‘to do’ list, and the importance of healthy food is often submerged in a sea of other priorities.
Convenience rules. Supermarkets buy from the cheapest seller, and we tend to buy from the cheapest market. The connection with seasons is lost, and while we might mourn the lack of taste in winter tomatoes, they’re there so we buy them, never realising that with one more chemical-laden out of season purchase of imported produce, we are moving another step away from the natural rhythms of the land that sustains us.
In the quest for larger yields, farmers often resort to synthetic chemicals to protect and fertilize their crops. Many of these are harmful to both human health and the environment. The potential future effects of genetically modified crops represent an environmental disaster. The spate of food scares during the last decades has worried many people across the world, yet short of raising one’s own food, there are few alternatives to supermarket fare, especially in Cyprus.
In Europe, certified organic food – food guaranteed by an independent party as grown without recourse to harmful chemicals – is the largest growing sector in the food industry. Organic was a way of life in Cyprus until a generation or so ago. People made compost with their kitchen scraps and nurtured the soil. Their fruit trees and vegetable gardens flourished with regular applications of manure, and pests were kept at bay with preparations of sulphur, garlic and lemon juice or fragrant concoctions of wine and rotting octopus. Even in the towns and cities backyards and balconies sprouted tomato vines or cucumber trellises, aubergines, courgettes, and teepees of beans.
That began to change with the arrival of cheap synthetic fertilisers and pesticides in the late 1970s. The Department of Agriculture is now struggling to overcome three decades of promoting chemical agriculture by vigorously pursuing a course of organic alternatives. Financial incentives lure growers who otherwise might not consider organic methods, and the number of certified organic growers in Cyprus has skyrocketed from a handful five years ago to more than 350 today.
Most produce olives and wine grapes, but in the last three years more than 1,000 hectares of cereal cultivation have begun the conversion process and the first certified organic wheat and barley will be available at the next harvest. Herbs, citrus, and fruit trees are a much smaller market sector: vegetables, the smallest. As yet there is no certified organic livestock raised on the island – only one farm produces organic eggs.
Some growers have lost their certifications. Some farmers, by virtue of their land’s location, are ineligible. Proximity to a busy road or prevailing winds that can cause pesticides to drift from nearby fields can also compromise a grower’s certification.
I became interested in organic food and sustainable agriculture when my eldest son, now twelve, was a baby. I began learning about the potential health hazards of food additives and agricultural chemicals on children, and I became hooked on finding alternatives. I had no agricultural background, but we had land. We began growing fruit trees and raising vegetables without recourse to chemicals, and friends – mostly the parents of children at my own children’s nursery school – became customers. Green Goddess Organics began its slow and sometimes interrupted journey to where it is today.
From struggling alone delivering ‘surprise’ bags (customers were never quite sure what they would get – just that it would be fresh, seasonal, and chemical-free) around Paphos in the late 1990s, I have traveled a long and interesting route collecting organic certification, partnership with a one-time customer, and business relationships with a number of health-food suppliers and other organic farmers. Green Goddess now provides clients with a weekly newsletter including recipe suggestions, a price list and an order form. Each household places its order by phone or email; my partner and I liaise with other certified growers and various health-food stores which supply us with non-perishables, environmentally friendly cleaning materials, and natural personal care products; and two days later we deliver each order. We are a weekly one-stop alternative to the supermarket.
Yes, organic food is more expensive that conventionally grown produce. We pay for certification, and hand labour is more expensive than blanket-spraying chemicals. Whether organic produce is worth the extra cost is a question that only the punters can answer. Those who feel that it is cite superior taste and quality and the peace of mind that comes with knowing that they are keeping harmful chemicals from themselves and their loved ones. Our customers, in particular, like the idea that they have a personal relationship with the growers of their food. They know that they can come and visit our fields – even pick their own fruit and veg if they choose – and reclaim, if only for an afternoon, a connection with nature and the rhythms that sustain us.
Green Goddess Organics
Tel: 99414098, email: [email protected]
WHERE ELSE TO GO
Organic Crops Loucas Solomou
Fresh fruit and vegetables, biologically manufactured produce form UK and Europe
49 Metohiou St, Engomi, Nicosia
Tel: 22 784441
Igias Edesma
Therapeutic dry herbs, biological packaged goods, biological cosmetics, aloe vera, essential oils
1a Romanou St, near the Hilton Hotel, Central Nicosia
Tel: 22 757538
An Apple A Day
Fresh fruit and vegetables, biologically manufactured produce form UK and Europe
29 C Panagi Lapa St, behind Woolworths on Makarios Avenue, Limassol
Tel: 25-737320
Fisis Nosos Iatros (Doctor Of Nature)
Fresh fruit and vegetables, vitamins and natural supplements, natural make up and body products, essential oils
Nicosia:
4A Marathonos St, Makedonitissa. Tel: 22 591511
67B Armenias St, Akropolis. Tel: 22 518166
Larnaca: 44 Hakket St, Merica Building. Tel: 24 665900
Limassol: 45 Andreas Zakou, Ayios Nikolaos. Tel: 25 345535
Paphos: 28 A Archbishop Makarios St, Chlorakas. Tel: 26 273322
