Organic Farm
Towards the end of the 1990s, Tunisia jumped onto the bandwagon of organic production as the global agro-food industry was being called into question by recurring food scandals. The use of synthetic chemical products and genetically modified organisms (GMO) was denounced from all sides for the harm inflicted upon health. A widespread attempt to break away from the chemical-intensive «conventional» agricultural practices widely adopted after World War II sought to revive healthier, more organic methods. In 1999, the Tunisian government created Law 30 concerning organic agriculture, and started to export olive oil and dates, primarily towards European countries. From the very outset, general policies were designed more to fill the government’s pockets with foreign currency earned from the country’s ancestral goods than they were to encourage farmers to adopt new ecological practices—even though this last concern exists on paper, under Law 30.