Why Nothing Is Organic Anymore: A Documentary from the Black Sea Highlands

Now this nature after tea arrived in 1950 everything started to decline. Everything started to decline. Right now, pears are growing but they are small and tasteless. There used to be a lot of pears on this tree, now when you look inside it's completely dry. In the past, animals used to roam. Now there is nothing but grass. There are no cattle. Okay. Only 20 lives, I had. You had. fifteen lives (animals). Now, everywhere is tea. This area is Sontepe, you see. So, Sontepe. These used to be the village's pasture, cows used to graze and stuff, this and that. There used to be a large forest. There is no forest left right now. Everyone is cutting down trees. So now I named this place Sontepe. Inside things that do not contain chemicals, non-chemical things. Sometimes that chemical they call fertilizer There are many who defend it. So what is it? It gives a lot of yield. And a lot a lot of money is being made in financial matters etc. But they do not know that this is a slow death, these chemicals, fertilizers. Hey hey! Hey hey! Hey! Hey! How can it be more organic? After this tea the organic thing has naturally disappeared. We are using synthetic fertilizers. Where you apply fertilizer the taste of the fruit has changed. So inevitably, water sources, the flavors of water have changed. So pears, apples, everything's taste has changed. Why? Because of this chemical fertilizer. We don't have the chance to change this again. So it should be organic... How can it be organic with this much? in a wide area? So if you have 20 acres of tea You need to have 3 acres to be able to do it organically. So if you can't grow this, it won't be organic. So it's not possible for us to go back to organic. Chemical fertilizer... to make nettle anyway People can't find a place that hasn't been fertilized. When you hit from above... Fertilizer is going everywhere, it's even going to the sea, it's going to the fish. This artificial fertilizer, chemical fertilizer has finished us off. The forest is gone, We used to fall asleep here to the sound of this stream, with the sound of this stream. Is there a sound now? There is no water. From this homeland, look from this homeland... as long as the fertilizer is not removed Believe me even more nothing will happen. Right now, huge pumpkins are growing. Last year, 10-15 huge pumpkins rotted in this garden. In my father's time, in 1952 at the place we got off across this stream for incentive purposes one meter wide in one dönüm of land for incentive purposes they had tea planted. They said to make tea here, we will also give you incentives. So it was planted in 1952. Besides that, there was no tea, the citizens were not planting tea. with their corn, with their cabbage, they were dealing with livestock. When there was a development in tea, they started to get a yield from tea... it turned into tea now everywhere. Hazelnut orchards, corn fields, even in the best orchards everyone made their tea. So wherever the money is, everyone turned to where the money was coming from whether they wanted to or not. Now you saw the hazelnuts. They were across there, there were hazelnut orchards, all wild animals... ...came, broke, pruned. That's why there is no turning back... There was a population back then. In those places we mentioned, there would be waiting in those orchards. They would set up tents, they would wait. They would call out with a whistle, to keep wild animals away... ...to protect their corn, their beans. When the trees disappear, the water also dries up. Everything, yes, of course, money is flowing into the pocket but... ...naturalness is gone. It's gone. There will be no fruit. There will be pears, but they will be defective inside. There are no apples at all. Mulberries do not grow. Cucumbers... Let me give you an example: from 10-20 meters away our local When eating cucumbers, the smell would come. Now it seems like a poison, that is not available either. I said naturalness is gone, naturalness is gone, they finished it. Let's see what will happen from now on. Of course, from the grocery store, some things we buy from the market... Not some, most of the things we buy are all death. Slowly death and short life. In this Sontepe, more precisely in this Sontepe, no chemicals can enter. No chemicals can enter at all and... ...this place will stay like this. Let it be an example for everyone. Let it be an example for the public. Right now, I am looking around my garden here. My tomatoes, my beans... Everything grows here but there is not a single thing in the name of fertilizer. I mean, there is nothing in the name of chemicals. And I am eating naturally here. I am nourished from here. As I said, only a few Sontepes are left in the Black Sea. There is nothing else left now. No trees are left, no nature is left, nothing at all. Very insensitive as humans, as humanity we are very insensitive. Only money, Money. There is nothing else. We have no business other than money. Because I am against these, some people find me strange. That's okay, it's permissible. But as I said, one more time I repeat. I live in Sontepe. I will die in Sontepe. No chemicals can enter here. When you don't spread fertilizer there was no more tea. Of course it's bad, but you can't get a harvest if you don't hit. The pears have dried. because of the fertilizer. There were no blackberries. It didn't happen. It didn't happen. There were never any cherries. The branches used to be full before. The chestnuts are already gone. Due to the disease. Then it became bad. Of course, it became bad. If you ask me, it didn't go well. Why didn't it go well? Nature is finished in the world. Look. Nature is finished. Fruits are gone. Look at that pear tree, is there even one? You know the spoon, the soup spoon... I know they spread corn flour with a spoon. Nothing that doesn't spoil is left. We used to go fishing in the creek for an hour. We used to bring 50 or 60 trout of this size. Now there are no fish left in the creeks, trout. The return has already begun. Nothing is left in the village either. Back... Brand new houses are being built. Everyone from the big cities to their places of birth will have to return but they finished this place too. He used to work alone on that black stone, with the back, carrying it with that saddle and made this place. Yeah, with those primitive tools. Now there are opportunities, there is technology but now we get tired, we get exhausted, we don't have the courage to do it. The courage of ancient people... We, the local people, don't appreciate it either We say that, we live in the forest. How beautiful this greenery is, living in this oxygen. Is it bad? Because we live here, we don't know these values. Those coming from outside, from Europe, from other countries, people coming from abroad know the value of this place. We still haven't realized its value but who knows? People our age, those older than us... Now even those older than us are in the village. 3-5 people are left. Now it's our turn. I am 66 years old too. Now there are a few people above us. there are older people. Now in the elderly class and now "We are the ones who will say 'we have aged'." Now to our young people, something for the upcoming generations saying, when they ask us something and road We no longer have anyone to show. Now we are the ones left. as much as our minds can comprehend. We also say that, Our young people; do not lose your natures. To live organically, take care of your village, Take care of your homeland. Know the values of your land, Know the values of your valley, Know the value of water resources. One tree... As I looked across. time was not counted as a tree in the past, was not counted. Animal husbandry has ended. If you count in this village... All the households from the bottom to the end I know. Five households don't raise a cow, not even one that raises a cow. In my childhood, we used to raise twelve cows in this barn. You will buy everything from the market, you will get it from the store. You will get yogurt from there. And oil from there. What it is is also unclear. Now cheese, oil... Everything has become artificial. It has become artificial... The taste of old milk is gone now. that. What is already a forest has become a forest. The others have become tea. There is no place left to graze cattle. that. They used to wander in the wilds. they used to have weddings. Animals would eat grass in the evening. They would become like logs. Now we can't taste anything anymore, we can't get any flavor. There were so many grassy places. Sometimes I sprinkle salt, salt. on the grasslands, to these places, to the riverbanks... At that time, beautiful... When my father was a child, my grandfather says that... My grandfather İbrahim, who built this house, I am also İbrahim. They landed in Işıklı. At that time, by ship from Samsun Bafra corn will come. And they will take it to the village, take it to the mill, make flour and feed those children. That day, the ship did not come from Samsun, it did not come from Bafra to Işıklı. At that time, they had paper money in their hands. "What should I do?" he said, he tore the money, and spilled it on the ground. "What will I feed my children in the evening?" he said. Of course, money cannot be eaten. Back then, those who had a garden, those who had a vineyard, those who had corn were picking something to eat. Back then, he said, right now there is a descent to the market, there is a flow towards the city, but there will be a return to the village again. You will take care of your animal... Look, beans... Your aunt, my wife, has planted beans, freshly planted. If you pick one, a pot, freshly picked, organic. It's so delicious that, don't add any oil at all. I bought it last time, I bought it from the greengrocer, believe me, I cooked it for 3 hours. I added all kinds of oil. I added butter too. It's like you're eating mushrooms exactly. like, so there is no flavor at all. That's why it's completely far from our natural state. we are left. Why have these diseases increased? Never anything organic there is none left. The place you pulled in after going inside. stove, the corn bread over there... We used to plant corn in this garden. We would gather it. We had a mill up there, we would take it to the mill. We would grind it. With that butter, fresh butter, daily butter, between that warm bread... Now if you could find it, would you eat it or would you eat that? I swear I don't eat döner. Why? What is in that döner? Is there any organic meat at all? Pumped up, always closed meat. And at that time, there were healthy people. They had never seen illness or a doctor. My grandmother was 96 years old when she passed away. time. She passed away without going to the doctor but always lived naturally. A household at least two tons of fertilizer is hitting. One and a half to two tons. Consider these children of ours as well. Calculate. Only at the purchase location below, in the past. There were eighty partners. Now he found two hundred partners. Two hundred households. Calculate two tons each. Come on, say one ton each... Like this... Like this... In the past... In our childhood in the hamlets in the mornings. Every household lets its cow loose. Three of them, five of them, eight of them... Anyway, we were crowded. With animal sounds, excuse me... Ox, sounds of calves the village would cheer up. Now that's gone too. Now those who feed the animals also when they are fed with pulp, you can't pass in front of the house where animals are fed because of the smell. In the past, there was always grass in the square. There were pastures. Linden, black tree... Leaves are cut, They were given to our cows as feed. They dried up and went away too. The chestnut dried up. There are no black trees left now. Chestnuts were affected by disease due to the moth. All the chestnuts started to dry up. What a pity, let's see what will happen. Surely there is no honey either. We used to say chestnut honey is famous, that's gone too. But to the plateau... The plateaus are also from a certain place. then there are no trees. But in our deviation from this path, my you know the generation, Let's say the 70 age group, Do you mean 50-70? Do you mean in between...? "The old ones didn't know anything" We waited for them to die. What they produced, we destroyed everything. We set them aside. The refrigerator came out. What you put inside the refrigerator What things? When you open the lid... All industrial products. Market products, that is. He made it a bowl, He put it in your house. So how much flavor have you given up since that refrigerator came in? Can you eat dried fish? Smoked? No. Pickles are gone. Because they produced flavor to preserve those foods in the old days. At least we knew how they preserved them. They produced cheeses with preservation methods. Can you find those cheeses? No. There were storage places, food storage areas. Dried dates, blackberries. Dried, you know, various kinds of apples, various kinds of pears... They would hang the dates. Can we eat them? No. Natural, They were original things. Yes.