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With Work Scarce in Athens, Greeks Go Back to the Land
The New York Times ^ | January 8, 2012 | Eirini Vourloumis

Posted on 01/10/2012 12:32:20 PM PST by dennisw

Nikos Gavalas and Alexandra Tricha, both 31 and trained as agriculturalists, were frustrated working on poorly paying, short-term contracts in Athens, where jobs are scarce and the cost of living is high. So last year, they decided to start a new project: growing edible snails for export.

As Greece’s blighted economy plunges further into the abyss, the couple are joining with an exodus of Greeks who are fleeing to the countryside and looking to the nation’s rich rural past as a guide to the future. They acknowledge that it is a peculiar undertaking, with more manual labor than they, as college graduates, ever imagined doing. But in a country starved by austerity even as it teeters on the brink of default, it seemed as good a gamble as any.

Mr. Gavalas and Ms. Tricha chose to move back to his native Chios, an Aegean island closer to Izmir, Turkey, than to Athens. They set up farm using $50,000 from their families’ life savings. That investment has yet to pay off; they will have their first harvest later this year.

“When I call my friends and relatives in Athens, they tell me there’s no hope, everything is going from bad to worse,” Ms. Tricha said , as she walked through her greenhouse, where thousands of snails lumbered along on rows of damp wooden boards. “So I think our choice was good.”

Unemployment in Greece is 18 percent, rising to 35 percent for young people between the ages of 15 and 29 — up from 12 percent and 24 percent, respectively, in late 2010. But the agricultural sector has been one of the few to show gains since the crisis hit, adding 32,000 jobs between 2008 and 2010 — most of them taken by Greeks, not migrant workers from abroad

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; usbondcollapse; usdefault; usdollarcollapse
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1 posted on 01/10/2012 12:32:23 PM PST by dennisw
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To: dennisw
alt

Nikos Gavalas and Alexandra Tricha tended to their snail farm in Chios, Greece.

(Fat smug Americans and Obama-voters....... this might be your future too!!!!!!!!!!!)

2 posted on 01/10/2012 12:34:37 PM PST by dennisw (A nation of sheep breeds a government of Democrat wolves!)
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To: dennisw; SJackson
alt
Eirini Vourloumis for The New York Times

Vassilis Ballas and his wife, Roula Boura, extracted the gum from a mastic tree on their 400-tree farm in Chios, Greece.


3 posted on 01/10/2012 12:36:27 PM PST by dennisw (A nation of sheep breeds a government of Democrat wolves!)
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To: dennisw

Back to the soil Graeculi!


4 posted on 01/10/2012 12:36:37 PM PST by rotstan
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To: rotstan
new project: growing edible snails for export
I guess the Greek economy really is slowing down.
5 posted on 01/10/2012 12:44:04 PM PST by dblshot (Insanity: electing the same people over and over and expecting different results.)
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To: dennisw

So the NYT has turned Greece’s decline and reversion into a country with an 1800s economy into some quaint, environmentally friendly fantasy. Greece is swirling down the toilet. Its modern economy is falling apart. Industrial and service workers have to go back to individual farming. But to the NYT, its wonderful. They do the same thing when you see stories about economies so F’d up that the people revert to riding horses. To the NYT and other Lib papers, its a wonderful alternative to fossil fuel.


6 posted on 01/10/2012 12:56:54 PM PST by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: dennisw

I say this story is fraud.

The only people going back to the land are people rich enough to own 400 trees or a football field sized greenhouse.


7 posted on 01/10/2012 1:04:58 PM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: dennisw; Kartographer; Red_Devil 232

Of possible interest, ping...


8 posted on 01/10/2012 1:10:25 PM PST by Uncle Ike (Rope is cheap, and there are lots of trees...)
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To: mamelukesabre
...The only people going back to the land are people rich enough to own 400 trees or a football field sized greenhouse.

And a herd of snails... I wonder if they have to brand them?
Round up time shouldn't be very tough, though, for the snailboys. Yee-haw little doggies...

9 posted on 01/10/2012 1:30:47 PM PST by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: Uncle Ike; JustaDumbBlonde

JADB I bet your geese would have fun at the snail farm!


10 posted on 01/10/2012 1:31:45 PM PST by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: dennisw; All

University Degrees from Greece have been particularly worthless for some years now. In the past the junk degree would yield a cushy government job because you knew somebody who knew somebody.

BTW private universities are not allowed in Greece.

USA universities, and students and lenders, should take note. Useless degrees yield useless results.


11 posted on 01/10/2012 2:39:33 PM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

The NYT glosses over the crony capitalism and the rampant socialist that created this mess.

Now the the same 6 or so rich families that controlled the drachma want to go back to the drachma in order to rule behind the scenes again.


12 posted on 01/10/2012 2:49:31 PM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: dennisw

Snails aren’t the first crop I’d have thought of, but, hey, Greece can use the export income.


13 posted on 01/10/2012 3:07:39 PM PST by BfloGuy (The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment.)
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To: longtermmemmory

“Useless degrees yield useless results.”

We’ve gone a step further; if you have a degree in high demand, 1,000 Asians with the same degree will be imported to take your job. If there aren’t enough in Asia we will educate them here, then they’ll take your job.


14 posted on 01/10/2012 3:19:58 PM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: Red_Devil 232

I would have a great time ... snails, shallots, garlic and butter!!! My silly geese are vegetarians.


15 posted on 01/10/2012 3:26:09 PM PST by JustaDumbBlonde
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To: dennisw

These people are at least producing something tangible. We are headed towards the same kind of collapse. That’s why I wrote the book “Going Galt”, to suggest ways to protect your lifestyle. http://www.futurnamics.com/goinggalt.php


16 posted on 01/10/2012 3:38:33 PM PST by DaxtonBrown (http://www.futurnamics.com/reid.php)
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To: dennisw

Good for the ones that can do it. If they were palestinians, they’d sell those greenhouses for scrap.


17 posted on 01/10/2012 4:11:48 PM PST by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn't do !)
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To: DaxtonBrown

The three basics of a real economy are agriculture, mining and manufacturing. You can add building roads and buildings to those three. What we have is a service economy and a consumer economy which is idiocy and cannot last. Too many consumers and not enough producers. Too many tax eaters and not enough taxpayers.


18 posted on 01/10/2012 4:57:42 PM PST by dennisw (A nation of sheep breeds a government of Democrat wolves!)
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19 posted on 01/10/2012 5:35:59 PM PST by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list)
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To: dennisw

[The three basics of a real economy are agriculture, mining and manufacturing. You can add building roads and buildings to those three. What we have is a service economy and a consumer economy which is idiocy and cannot last. Too many consumers and not enough producers. Too many tax eaters and not enough taxpayers.]

Couldn’t have said it better. I am scrambling personally to move into light mnufacturing, even a little gardening/agriculture.


20 posted on 01/10/2012 8:26:32 PM PST by DaxtonBrown (http://www.futurnamics.com/reid.php)
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