READER’S DIGEST
May• 2019 | 87hours of hard work,” admits Juan
Antonio. But that’s nothing, he insists,
it’s the administrative load that drags
him down. “The bitterness of life
comes from the paperwork,” says the
old shepherd, shaking his head.
Juan Antonio is talking about the
ever-expanding rules and regulations
that have controlled the livestock
industry since changes were made to
the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy
back in the early 2000s. The rules are
designed to lower food prices and
control food quality and consisten-
cy. Shepherds say they vastly favour
intensive animal production and
make the livelihood of small-scale
shepherds with free-ranging animals
unsustainable.
Once Juan Antonio was more or
less left to his own devices, but today
even something as basic as moving a
goat from one plot of land to another
requires the approval of the local agri-
culture office. His homemade dairy in
the mountains is now technically ille-
gal. His son is constructing a dairy in
the nearby town so that they can sell
Juan Antonio’s cheeses legally again.
Yet in many ways, shepherds are
still freer than most. It’s evening on
the rolling tundra, and Julia, Mario
and Juan Antonio stand in the shade
of a scrawny tree, the land around
them bathed in the last of the day’s
gentle sunlight. They are quietly
braiding straw-coloured fibre as Juan
Antonio demonstrates how to weave
the strands into a good, strong sling.
“This has existed since David and
Goliath,” says Juan Antonio. “Did you
know that David was a shepherd?”
For Julia, this is the highlight of the
course, sitting up on this mountain
with her wise tutor at her side, watch-
ing the animals and hearing their
bells. It’s a contentment she’s willing
to work to preserve.
“I have the tools to make shepherd-
ing sustainable, and to change the sys-
tem,” she says. It’s young shepherds
like her – savvy in the ways of both city
and country – that may be what saves
this ancient profession from fading
into the past. Julia knows that the path
ahead will be difficult, but the peace
she finds in these moments makes it
all worth it. She gazes out at the hori-
zon as the sun dips low over the rocky
terrain. “There is a lot to fight for.”WHERE THERE’S SMOKE...Greece’s deputy health minister, Pavlos Polakis, told the European
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