Miller Magazine Issue: 115 July 2019

40 NEWS MILLER / JULY 2019 In Greece, a rebel organic farm goes against the grain On the Greek government’s list of certified organic farmers, An- tonis Antonopoulos has the serial number one. What makes Antonis and his brother Yiorgos a phe- nomenon, is not that their model farm pioneered organic methods in Greece; it’s that they were among the first to realise that organically grown, local varieties of wheat and barley other farmers had cast aside could be a commercial hit. They have branded and shipped their organic flours made from indigenous grains to speciality shops and bakeries for years. Two years ago, their Zea flour, derived from a double-kernelled wheat bred in their town of Dilo- fo, became the key ingredient in an eponymous sliced loaf that is distributed nationwide. Zea’s commercial success has brought an ancient grain back from the brink of extinction. “Demand is growing,” says Yior- gos, who won’t disclose his annual turnover or how many hectares he cultivates. “Suffice it to say that I’m better off than anyone else in the area.” This success is important because Greece is a natural gene bank. Its archipelago, varied terrain and microclimates favoured so many divergent evolutionary paths that today it has the highest plant biodiversity in Europe, with approximate- ly 6,000 wild plant species or subspecies, and thousands of cultivated plants. Should this vast genetic vocabulary The Antonopoulos brothers are leading a farming revolution in Greece, which has Europe’s highest plant biodiversity. Source: John Psaropoulos /Al Jazeera