Resist, olives

According to Spanish José Maria Blazquez, writer of World Olive Encyclopedia, olive growing started in Anatolia about 6,000 years ago. The world’s oldest-known olive oil production was discovered near the Aegean town of Urla, in the ancient city Clazomenae.

Olive is one of the most ancient, most symbolic products of these lands. If the bill that has been debated for days is passed in Parliament, then olives and olive growing will suffer a major blow. The bill in question has been prepared by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. Actually, you might wonder why the olive groves are a matter of interest to the Energy Ministry instead of the Ministry of Agriculture. Good question.

The issue is this: The bill introduces an application where small olive groves which cover less than 2.5 hectares will be considered as “ordinary land.” As a matter of fact, the average size of olive groves in Turkey is only 1 hectare. Because they will no longer be considered olive groves with this bill, they will easily be opened for mining and energy investments.

The key point is this: The olive growers call this bill the “death sentence” of olive groves. In the case that this bill is passed, thermic power plants will be constructed in olive groves, as well as permits granted to gold mining companies. The current situation is, unfortunately, the lobby of the energy and mining investors is so much more powerful than the olive producers. The government also seems to be siding with them.

The most support given to olive growers is the campaign that has attracted more than 65,000 signatures in a short time at change.org.

Olive growing in Turkey is the recent trend and about 500,000 families earn a living from it...