The New Potato Movement In Greece

As the Greece turmoil continues and the recession deepens, consumers and farmers have come up with a new deal to combat high food prices: buying produce directly from farmers.

What's being called the "potato movement" in Greece, the Guardian says, is a win-win for both farmers and consumers; producers get paid right away, and consumers pay about one-third of the price they would normally pay. The directly sold potatoes go for about $0.25 to $0.30 per kilo, whereas supermarket potatos sell for nearly twice that (though some supermarkets have cut prices to keep customers). The direct sales are rising in cities like Katerini, where one such sale sold out of 24 tons of potatos within four days, and moving to bigger cities like Athens.

Said one consumer to the BBC, "We have to pay a lot of money for basic products like potatoes. This is the potato revolution and we hope to see revolutions of other types of food too because we are in great need of this." However, said another consumer to the BBC, it is "a little humiliating" to be standing in a food line reminiscent of a different time.