Goodbye, Columbus - American Farm School

The largest and most widely accepted English weekly dedicated to Hellenic Americans
VOL. IX No. 40
Refugees
left mark
on Athens
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2009
The Hellenic Voice ®
Goodbye, Columbus
Annual Philadelphia parade canceled
Editor’s note: John Zervos is
director of the Athens Centre in
Greece, an institution that offers
study abroad programs for students
from around the world. The following is Part II of an article he wrote
about Athens and its ever-changing
and
versatile
(protean) nature
PROTEAN as well as his
ATHENS own personal
story of growing
up in the city.
Part II
The suburb of
Nea
Smyrni,
between Athens
and
Pireaus,
might not be distinguished archiJohn
tecturally, but in
Zervos
1922 it hosted a
large group of
refugees from the Greek town of
Smyrna on the Anatolian coast that
was sacked and burned during the
Greco-Turkish war. Known as the
Asia Minor Disaster, it is the most
>> Please see REFUGEES, page 13
The Associated Press
Six months before Philadelphia’s Italian American groups canceled their annual Columbus
Day parade, the Hellenic American Societies, above, shortened their parade route to offset
new city fees that doubled the cost of the event, to $30,000.
Despite new parade fees,
Hellenes vow to march on
By STEVE CROWE
Peter Papadeas wasn’t so much
surprised as saddened to learn
that
Philadelphia’s
Italian
American community canceled
its annual Columbus Day parade.
As president of the Federation
of Hellenic American Societies
of Philadelphia and Greater
Delaware Valley, he and the
Greek Independence Day parade
committee faced hard decisions
of their own after the city decided to charge for police details for
the March 29 event.
Photos by Stellios Lambrou
The fees doubled the cost of
the parade – to $30,000 (from Peter Papadeas, president of the Federation of Hellenic
$15,000 a year earlier), Papadeas American Societies, shakes hands with Philadelphia Mayor
Michael Nutter, as Rania Lambritsios, left, and Chris
>> Please see PARADE, page 4 Papadeas stand by, in the mayor’s office March 25, 2009.
By AMANDA DUMOND
The Hellenic Voice
The island of Patmos takes center
stage in a new film called “Opa!”
which opens October 16 in the United
States.
The story is a modern day treasure
hunt for a chalice on the island where
St. John had a vision and wrote the
Book of Revelation. The film stars
Matthew Modine (“Full Metal
Jacket”) and Greek Cypriot actress
Agni Scott.
Modine portrays Eric, an archaeologist who brings high-tech equipment
to the island and discovers the chalice
his father had sought for years is
buried beneath a taverna. Extricating
the artifact is not an easy task as Eric
discovers the establishment is owned
by Katerina, played by Scott, with
whom he has fallen in love.
When the mayor orders the treasure
be unearthed, Eric must decide
whether to complete his father’s mission or to preserve the life of the
island and win Katerina’s favor.
Other Greeks starring in the film
include Alki David as Spiro,
Katerina’s Greek love interest,
Christos Valavanidis as the mayor and
>> Please see OPA, page 8
PM reveals
100-day
action plan
By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
The Hellenic Voice
Film highlights
beauty of Patmos
$1.50 per copy
ATHENS, Greece – Greece’s new
Socialist prime minister took charge
October 7, promising Greeks “time to
breathe” before they face the realities of a
rapidly cooling economy compromised by
high state spending and a soaring public
debt.
Prime Minister George
Papandreou, 57, has
announced a 100-day
action plan to address the
country’s economic woes
with a stimulus package of
up to 3 billion euros ($4.42
billion), tax reforms and George
infrastructure investment. Papandreou.
“We won’t change
Greece in 100 days,” Papandreou told his
first Cabinet meeting after its members
were formally sworn in. “But we will give
the country enough time to breathe, to gather its forces for the big leap forward it must
take.”
His PASOK party won a crushing electoral victory October 4 over the scandal-battered conservatives, returning after five
years in opposition with a comfortable 160
seats in the 300-member Parliament.
Orthodox Church leader Archbishop
Ieronymos of Athens swore in the new government during a religious ceremony
attended by President Karolos Papoulias on
October 7.
The 36-strong new government walked
to and from the presidential mansion,
cheered by hundreds of people lining the
street and jostling to shake hands with
Papandreou.
As well as being prime minister,
Papandreou will be responsible for foreign
policy – a position he held in the last
Socialist government.
A son and grandson of Greek prime ministers, Papandreou has merged several existing portfolios, created a new ministry for
>> Please see TRANSITION, page 2
Green movement has taken root on Greek farms
By BRENDA L. MARDER
On our annual summer trip to
Greece – we visit the country two or
three times a year – my husband
Everett and I decided to focus on the
hottest topic of the moment, at least
in the United States and Europe: the
environment.
Are Greeks concerned about the
environment? Are Greeks making
significant strides to improve their
lives? Is there reason for optimism?
What better place to start our
investigation than visiting farms and
talking with farmers, observing and
taking notes directly on the spot. So
we headed to Thessaloniki and
checked in at The American Farm
School to discuss with faculty and
staff places we might visit in the
bucolic stretches of Central
Macedonia. What we have to report
from our travels is heartening, to say
the least.
For our first venture, we drove 30
kilometers from Thessaloniki to the
village of Vrachia to visit a farm
owned by Comninos Biros. Among
the compelling reasons to visit this
American Farm School alumnus
(Class of 1990) was his broadly
based interest in the food business.
For our project, we judged that he’d
be a fine source, since he is not only
an organic farmer but his business
interests encompass organic prepared foods and an organic catering
business as well.
As we strolled with him through
his lush fields – he has 180 stremmata (45 acres) – we noted that all his
animals (pigs, chickens, geese,
turkeys, cows) were strolling, too.
But that’s to be expected. Logically,
all organic farmers would offer their
animals free range. As we gazed
across his farm there was not a single
cage in sight.
“I believe in an organic way of
life,” he tells us as we meander in the
warm Greek sun. “Instead of chemical inputs, I use the manure I gather
from my own animals and plough it
into the earth.”
including school children, visit my farm to
learn about sustainability,” he adds.
To ensure that his
animals eat organically, Biros grows their
feed (and he also does
the slaughtering). The
Left, Athina Bekas, 9, and organic field crops and
Dimitris Bekas, 10, with the vegetables he grows
Gourmet Award for the Bekas are processed into pasFarm. Center Yiannis Bekas. tas, sauces, preserves
Right, Comninos Biros
and baked goods at his
packaging facilities in
He also cultivates certain plants Thessaloniki and exported to
that are ploughed into the soil as Germany and other parts abroad, or
enrichment. Where others would use sold in Greece.
insecticides, he grows specific plants
We ask him when the movement
known to drive off destructive toward sustainability in Greece
insects. He smiles as he remembers, began to take off.
ironically, that his grandfather used
“In 1986,” he says, “we Greeks
much the same methods he does.
began to hear about organic farming,
“After my grandfather’s time but the ideas then were vague and
though, that is after World War II, slow to take root. I learned the basics
farming in Greece became industri- at the American Farm School, but I
alized like the rest of Europe and the also delved deep into the subject by
United States,” he said. “I have a reading everything I could to expand
totally different philosophy – sus- my knowledge.”
tainability. That is, I am looking
He explains, “I began this operatoward the future.”
tion here about 12 years ago on land
His organic operation attracts owned by my wife. Now Greece is
many people from Thessaloniki and really moving ahead. In Thessaloniki
surrounding farms to board their ani- they hold a huge annual organic fesmals on his land to mature under his
>> Please see FARMERS, page 8
supervision. “And many people,
Visit us online at www.TheHellenicVoice.com
Page 8
THE HELLENIC VOICE
arts, culture & education
Farmers
continued from page 1
tival, drawing 400 to 500 people, where not only farmers
but also people with various
interests come to discuss and
learn about the environment.”
The main problem he identifies with organic methods is
the cost. “It is very expensive
to grow products and raise animals in such a careful manner.
It follows naturally that the
end product is more expensive
for customers in the market.”
***
We drive a few kilometers
on to Sindos to meet Yiannis
Bekas, American Farm School
Class of 1991. One of his specialties is using water buffalos
(vouvalia), both for their meat
and their milk.
He reminds us with a grin
that “2,500 years ago Xerxes
came to Macedonia and told
us about the buffalo here. But
the lions attacked the buffalo,
so the buffalo ran away and
sought the protection of farmers.”
A myth or a snatch of truth,
it doesn’t make any difference.
The buffalos are truly back in
Macedonia. This modern
Greek farmer is selling their
meat and milk in 12 stores in
Athens, where there is an
eager market. He claims water
buffalo milk contains half the
amount of cholesterol and 56
percent more calcium than
cow milk.
He buys the milk from buffalo breeders at Lake Kerkini
in
Serres,
north
of
Thessaloniki, then pasteurizes
and processes the milk into
yogurt, cheese, butter and buttermilk. His impressive array
of machinery for milk-based
production glints in the sun.
The products are registered
with Greece’s Ministry of
Agricultural Development and
Food. In fact, Bekas won the
2009 Gourmet Magazine
Award for producing the best
butter in Greece. And yes, his
butter is made from vouvalia.
As residents of New
Hampshire, we felt especially
drawn to Bekas. When he was
a teenager, he had spent a year
as a student at Kimball Union
Academy, in Meriden, N.H.,
less than an hour’s ride from
our hometown of Hanover. At
Kimball, he learned new
approaches toward sustainable
farming and gained fluency in
English. He loved New
England.
“New Hampshire reminded
me so much of Macedonia –
the hills, the greenery, the
landscape in general. I felt so
at home there,” he says.
After he graduated from the
Farm School, this progressive
farmer attended the TEI (polytechnic university) in Larissa
for four years, and earned a
bachelor of science in livestock production. In 2006, he
joined the Hadjis company,
sellers of gourmet food since
1908, producing his water buffalo dairy products under their
label in prestigious shops in
Athens and Thessaloniki.
Bekas and his wife have two
children whom they hope will
study at The American Farm
School.
***
One of our best sources for
obtaining a real sense of how
young Greeks regard their
environmental situation was
our escort, Dr. Dimitris
Zouzoulas, an instructor of
biology and sustainable agriculture in the secondary
school of the American Farm
School, and also at the
University of Volos, where he
teaches anatomy and morphology of plants.
According to him – and he
is certainly in touch with the
student-age population –
“young people are extremely
interested in the environment,
and the American Farm
School has the best high
school program on the ecosystem in all of Greece. Young
people understand that tourism
provides Greece with a robust
income stream. They appreciate that the natural beauty of
our country is a tremendous
tourist attraction, and above
all a place to cherish for our
own people.”
One tremendous element of
the Greek environment is the
sea, a habitat for thousands of
fish. The University of Volos
provides special courses in
fish conservation.
Professor Zouzoulas says,
“Greek seas are the largest
habitat for tsipoura (sea bream
or dorado) and lavraki, (sea
bass), which the Italians
import by the thousands. The
graduates of the University of
Volos are a marvelous
resource for Greece because of
their expertise in the fishing
industry and generally because
of their proficiency in keeping
our seas unpolluted.”
Volos is not the only university contributing immeasurably to the nation’s understanding of the environment.
To mention only a few, the
University
of
Athens
Agricultural School is noted
for a superb program specializing in bees, headed by
Professor Paschalis Harizanis
(also an American Farm
School graduate).
In regard to bees, it is significant to note that Greece is not
suffering from “Colony
Collapse Disorder” as are
many countries in Europe as
well the United States, and
remains a large producer of
honey. For instance, the EU
relies on Greece to produce
14,000 tons of honey per year
for local consumption, and
exports another 600 tons to
other countries.
Also, for decades the
Aristotle
University
of
Thessaloniki has been spearheading a range of studies and
experiments to advance agricultural and environmental
know-how. The TEIs (polytechnic universities in Florina,
Larissa, Kalamata, to mention
only a few) offer specialties in
agricultural and environmental studies.
While Greece, like every
other country, unmistakably
faces enormous challenges to
its environmental health, its
many vital projects demonstrate that the country is facing
up to the ordeal.
Brenda Marder is the historian of the American Farm
School
in
Thessaloniki,
Greece.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2009