Giorgos Zeikos, apple farmer and president of the Agia apple producers’ cooperative checks the fruits at an apple orchard in the village of Agia, in Thessaly, Greece, June 12, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Alexandros Avramidis

Europe’s illegal pesticide trade surges as farmers cut costs

At least 14 per cent of pesticides used on EU fields today are illegal

As the cost of spraying crops with pesticides becomes increasingly expensive, farmers in Greece's agricultural heartland have turned to a cheaper alternative: liquids in unlabeled plastic bottles smuggled over land and sea.




Greece detects wild ASF case

Reuters – Greece has found African swine fever (ASF) in a wild boar in the north of the country, the World Organization for Animal Health said Jan. 23. The disease was found in a dead wild boar in a forest in the Serres region, which borders Bulgaria and North Macedonia, according to Greek authorities. Greece’s


Greece offers ships to export grain from blocked Ukrainian ports, NATO says

Greece offers ships to export grain from blocked Ukrainian ports, NATO says

Commercial maritime superpower says it has “special role” to play in effort

Greece is willing to provide ships to help export grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports that have been blocked by Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said June 29. Ukraine is one of the top global wheat suppliers, but shipments have been halted by Russia’s invasion, causing global food shortages. The United Nations has appealed to

File photo of cropland in Greece. (Urbazon/iStock/Getty Images)

Greek farmers stage tractor protest against soaring energy costs

Larissa | Reuters — Farmers in central Greece on Friday protested with hundreds of tractors against soaring energy costs, dismissing government support measures as inadequate and demanding more help to cope with rising prices. The farmers parked tractors on a national highway near the town of Larissa in central Greece, where they faced off with



Greek farmers clash with police in Athens during reforms protest

Athens | Reuters — Greek farmers clashed with police in central Athens on Wednesday when a protest against tax and pension reforms mandated by the country’s multi-billion-euro bailout turned violent. About 1,300 farmers who had arrived in Athens from the island of Crete overnight headed to the agriculture ministry, which was sealed off by police


A milk and ochre paint mixture used 49,000 years ago at Sibudu, South Africa. Researchers used chemical analysis to determine the origins of paint flakes found on ancient stones.

Milk, paint, wild beasts and an ancient African mystery

People were making paint long before previously thought

Around 49,000 years ago, someone in what is today South Africa mixed milk with ochre to produce a paint mixture. What the paint was used for remains unknown. But what is startling is that it was made earlier than the first previously known use of the paint — 47,000 years earlier. The mixture was preserved