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The remote valley of Mesohori in northeastern Greece seems an unusual choice for a stand against genetically modified crop conglomerates who are knocking on Europe’s door.

Yet thousands of organic farming advocates seeking to bar so-called “Frankenstein” foods from the continent made the journey here to help raise awareness about dangers to seed diversity.

The event was an annual seed exchange festival organised by the Peliti alternative community, a Mesohori-based non-government organisation working to preserve Greece’s vegetal wealth against an encroaching global economy.

“We are doing something important here,” beamed Grigoris Papadopoulos, a 60-year-old agronomist whose “green” epiphany came a decade ago after years of selling pesticide to farmers.

“I realised that money is not as important as quality of life, I saw the dirt in farm chemicals,” said Papadopoulos, who came to trade his wild peach and apricot seeds.