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As price of olive oil soars, chainsaw-wielding thieves target Mediterranean’s century-old trees

SPATA, Greece (AP) — In an olive grove on the outskirts of Athens, grower Konstantinos Markou pushes aside the shoots of new growth to reveal the stump of a tree — a roughly 150-year-old specimen, he said, that was among 15 cut down on his neighbor’s land by thieves eager to turn it into money.

pan_troglodytes ,

that’s not how you make olive oil

ForestOrca ,
@ForestOrca@kbin.social avatar

Right, that's how you steal lumber. Price of hardwood is high. I picked a randomly searched site, and see 1/2" X 8 1/8" X 39 3/4" for $81.16 https://www.bellforestproducts.com/olivewood/

trash80 ,

who is going to buy bootleg olive oil

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

If you’re really interested in doing the research, there’s an entire black economy on bootleg olive oil and the mafia is a big part of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Italian organized crime is involved in this somehow.

trash80 ,

I am interested, though I do not want to get whacked.

SheDiceToday ,

Eh, just don’t go and make an organization dedicated to certifying olive oil… that’s actually effective. There have been several big stories about much of the oil you find in a store being either rancid or at best a mixture of olive oil and something else.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

rancid

It’s my understanding that light makes oil go rancid.

All those pretty clear bottles are destroying their contents lol

trash80 ,

weird

JungleJim ,

What short sighted idiots. Chopping down a tree to steal the fruit? Our species is its own Great Filter.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

The very last line stuck out to me:

Markou, the grower, said of the tree-cutting. “You kill your own history here.”

Kecessa , (edited )

Are the thieves to blame or the system in which they live in that’s full of social inequality? 🤔 Maybe it’s not the person with the chainsaw that’s killing their history.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

I think the people cutting down 150 year old tress are pretty clearly the ones to blame for cutting down 150 year old trees.

Kecessa ,

They wouldn’t be cutting them if Greece didn’t have a poverty rate of 20% and wasn’t one of the poorest country in the European Union. We can blame them all we want, if we were faced with the choice between not stealing or eating we wouldn’t be any better than them.

fishos ,
@fishos@lemmy.world avatar

You’re missing the point that they are cutting down the tree, giving them only one harvest from it, instead of just taking the olives and letting the tree live. The thieves are not only stealing the current harvest, but ensuring that there will be no more harvests. If you’re gonna steal to survive, you don’t burn everything to the ground in the process. It literally hurts themselves.

Kecessa ,

Much quicker to cut them down and load them to harvest later than to harvest in the field and risk getting caught.

wildginger ,

And its easier to take your wallet if I stab you to death, first.

Do you defend and justify murder, so long as the killer makes sure to loot the body after?

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

They aren’t stealing food to eat. They’re stealing someone else’s livelihood and damaging those trees so much that they could take years to bear fruit again. Some of the trees are being cut down completely, taken away, and sold for firewood. How would you feel if someone stole your only means of providing for yourself and your family? I’m willing to bet you wouldn’t be saying, “oh it isn’t their fault. Unemployment is high. That’s okay that I can’t feed my children anymore.”

Kecessa ,

I’m not saying they’re stealing them to eat, they’re stealing them to make money to be able to eat.

Freaking hell, people keep talking about the rich being the issue, well that’s what it looks like when you take from them, your can’t eat their money, you sure can buy food with it.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

How do you know olive oil farmers are rich? I know a few farmers here in the US and they are not rich. Most of them are barely making it. Most actually work a job on top of farming because farming doesn’t cut it on its own. What if stealing their olive trees breaks them financially? What are they supposed to do then? Go steal someone else’s livelihood? Your logic is fundamentally flawed.

Kecessa ,

Unemployment is over 10% and was over 20% in 2015, poverty is over 20%, farms are fucking expensive, these people are better off than a big chunk of the population.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

So anyone’s who’s even just a little bit better off than you is fair game? If you have a bicycle but your neighbor has two then you can freely steal his bicycle?

Kecessa ,

In a fair system the neighbor wouldn’t have more than one bike if not everyone can have more than one bike.

Heck, that’s the way children are raised with their siblings but as soon as we reach a certain age it’s like people just forget what they taught their kids for years.

rhythmisaprancer ,
@rhythmisaprancer@kbin.social avatar

I disagree with that is what we teach kids, we actually teach them essentially the opposite. This helps them, especially when young, to understand why someone else may receive a gift (it's their birthday) but they do not.

In general, I think that you are in line with Cynicism, but I am unsure how theft fits in to that view. It seems very possible with their general adherence to having as few possessions as possible and a general disregard for shame. We need our Cynic!

Kecessa ,

Man, good luck managing your children if one of them has a bunch of stuff and the other doesn’t.

rhythmisaprancer ,
@rhythmisaprancer@kbin.social avatar

Well, that's true, but that wasn't what I meant (or said I guess). What I meant is that sometimes we have to wait for gratification, even while others get something we want or need. Relevant to this thread, because the system has broken down/is built in a flawed manner (as you rightly pointed out) many folks have waited, only to never receive gratification.

I wasn't really trying to call you wrong or anything, just a minor point I guess. This is a challenging situation, I won't claim to have the right answer!

Sarmyth ,

Is your sense of fairness to just read half of what’s written and understanding only half of what’s read? Leaving the other half for others? It feels like it is, reading your responses here.

I honestly don’t know how you got here from what was written. I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume English isn’t your first language. That said, when it isn’t, you should really avoid being a pedant.

elephantium ,
@elephantium@lemmy.world avatar

Have you ever heard the phrase “golden child”? It’s sadly relatively common for a certain sort of dysfunctional family. Screws up entire lifetimes for people.

wildginger ,

Youve never seen a farm in person, huh

Kecessa ,

I live next to a bunch of them actually, there’s a crisis because no one can start working in that field because land is too expensive. Farmers are poor in the sense that they don’t make much a year, they’re fucking rich once they sell the land they’ve owned for the past 40 years.

wildginger ,

So you are excited that these farmers are now forced to sell to a big corpo farm conglomerate, since their crop has been killed off and wont make ends meet for 3-5 years?

You sound positively giddy about more consolidation of wealth. Like youre eager for more poverty.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

What about the people paying them to do it?

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

That’s a tough one … I think I’ll go with they’re all culpable.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

So what’s the remedy?

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

What’s the remedy when anyone steals anything?

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Depends who is doing the stealing and who is doing the fencing on their behalf.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

What does it depend on?

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

The quality of your legal team and the number of friends you’ve got at the local PD / regulatory agencies.

EmergMemeHologram ,
  • I really blew it, didn’t I?
  • I mean, maybe you could have been a better role model when she was young, but also, she never really had a chance. This is what our celebrity culture does to people.
  • So what you’re saying is: Everything is society’s fault, and we as individuals never need to take responsibility for anything?
  • Uh, no. Not exactly. I was just saying that.
  • Yeah. I like that. I didn’t do anything wrong because I can’t do anything wrong because we’re all just products of our environment, bouncing around like marbles in the game of Hungry Hungry Hippos that is our random and cruel universe.
  • Wait, no, that’s not even what I’m saying …
  • Yeah. It’s not my fault. It’s society. Everything is because of society. Hooray! Everything is meaningless! Nothing I do has consequence!

youtu.be/_KCUSGMHPNg?si=ChBiq6EHlp3eiuvl

Kecessa ,

In the case where people are poor enough that it’s the kind of choice they have to resort to to live? Heck yeah society is the issue.

EmergMemeHologram ,

Most of the thefts are branches. When an entire tree is cut down, the thieves typically cut it up and load the pieces into a pickup truck, selling the wood to lumber yards or firewood vendors and taking the olives to an oil mill.

“The (robbers) look for heavily loaded branches and they cut them,” said Neilos Papachristou, who runs an olive mill and nearby grove in a fourth-generation family business. “So, not only do they steal our olives, but they cause the tree serious harm. It takes 4-5 years for it to return to normal.”

These are gangs killing and damaging trees to sell oil without any costs. This isn’t Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family.

They’re actually making it more expensive to buy olive oil.

Kecessa ,

And why do gangs exist? Let’s go back to my first comment to try and figure that out… Oh, that’s right, social problems. Thanks for agreeing with me 👍

EmergMemeHologram ,

Because it’s easier to make money when you steal and have no costs than it is to build an orchard and work it.

Do you think the Mafia was just like “we’ll stop doing crime when we’re not poor anymore?”

If I leave a $50 bill on the table at a cafe or the library and go to the bathroom it’s not going to be there when I get back, someone will have taken it. It’s not because they were poor, it’s because someone could do so without consequences.

wildginger ,

It kinda seems like you think burning someones house and job down is justified if you steal while doing it

Its like you dont even actually understand what the societal issues are, you just overheard an adult say something kind of like that once.

Kecessa ,

It’s funny because if the victim was a known billionaire you wouldn’t be saying the same thing.

wildginger ,

If the victim was only robbed, and a billionaire, you mean?

Killing a century old culturally signifigant tree is still a crime, and unjustified by theft.

But yeah, bud, the fact that the cultural icon of a historic tree was also the livelihood of a different struggling worker makes it a worse crime, good job working that one out all on your lonesome.

Kecessa ,

If it’s that or starving you wouldn’t do any better bud.

wildginger ,

Youve had multiple other options explained to you that dont involve killing the tree, its clearly not kill the tree or starve

xmunk ,

The thieves are. Next question.

surewhynotlem ,

People may be driven to steal because of horrible circumstances… But they still choose what to steal.

If these guys were just knocking over a Target, I’d agree with you.

Kecessa ,

Kinda hard to steal in a target in a rural part of Greece 👍

angrystego ,

There are shops in rural parts of Greece.

Kecessa ,

There’s a major difference between a “shop” and Target

wildginger ,

Killing century old things isnt justified because youre rural 👍

Kecessa ,

Oh man, I’ve got bad news about farmers then 😂 You just not have went out in the country much!

wildginger ,

I am a farmer, dipshit.

Kecessa ,

Well then, do you feel bad about all the shit leaking down in aquifers from you field? Or heck, directly into rivers in some cases!

How about all the people living around fields getting poisoned by roundup and other chemical shit?

Lets not forget all the centuries old trees that got cut down so you can grow soy to feed cows or corn to produce ethanol for gas while being subsidized by the government because that’s the only way the production is viable.

Farmers aren’t angels either.

wildginger ,

We grow entirely organic, but the attempt at guilt tripping a stranger is very cute. (Thats actually not the only way production is viable, btw, we arent subsidized at all.)

Did you forget youre defending thieves who killed off the farmers livelihood?

Kecessa ,

“I’m the exception so everyone’s ok 👍”

wildginger ,

“My gotcha to shut someone up backfired, so I will pretend I meant it generally, as if it justifies killing other peoples livelihoods 👍”

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Its practically tradition. People have been robbing antiquities from the Mediterranean for centuries.

Yearly1845 ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    JungleJim ,

    It’s a person’s entire life’s work you dick.

    Fridgeratr ,

    Pretty sure if you go to Greece and ask around, you won’t find anyone who remembers 2000 years ago

    SARGEx117 ,

    Use whatever wood bits that are left to fashion a few stakes and do what stakes do to the people who cut them down.

    pinkdrunkenelephants ,

    To be fair, olive trees only take 2-3 years to mature, so they’re fairly easy to replace.

    Just the fact that they’d do that is terrible, though.

    JungleJim ,

    No, an olive tree may give you an olive at 3 years. One. A hundred year old olive tree gives thousands and thousands. It’s really not replaceable.

    RememberTheApollo_ ,

    Sure. That’s poaching, overfishing, clearcutting, and every other natural resource that is exploited into oblivion or causes environmental destruction for a profit.

    JungleJim ,

    The way you phrase this like you found me to be arguing in favor of those things confuses me.

    RememberTheApollo_ ,

    I was agreeing with you and expounding on the problem.

    JungleJim ,

    Gotcha. Have a good day.

    autotldr Bot ,

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    SPATA, Greece (AP) — In an olive grove on the outskirts of Athens, grower Konstantinos Markou pushes aside the shoots of new growth to reveal the stump of a tree — a roughly 150-year-old specimen, he said, that was among 15 cut down on his neighbor’s land by thieves eager to turn it into money.

    Warehouse break-ins, dilution of premium oil with inferior product, and falsification of shipping data are on the rise in olive-growing heartlands of Greece, Spain and Italy.

    The crimes mean fewer olives for growers already contending with high production costs and climate change that has brought warmer winters, major flooding and more intense forest fires.

    “The (robbers) look for heavily loaded branches and they cut them,” said Neilos Papachristou, who runs an olive mill and nearby grove in a fourth-generation family business.

    That includes Christos Bekas, who was among the farmers at Papachristou’s mill who were dumping their crop into stainless steel loading bins, untying sacks and tipping over tall wicker baskets from the back of their pickup trucks.

    The regional agricultural association issued a plea for police assistance following reports that 100 olive trees were destroyed or seriously damaged in a single incident last month.

    The original article contains 728 words, the summary contains 200 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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