My first day out in the greenhouse world
....Finally
So I have been my usual self and put off contacting my short list of contacts to conduct interviews. Finally the end of last week I got the huevos, cojones, balls, will, nerves or whatever you choose to call them, to call first the person who's greenhouse I toured this summer (Lola) and two the man I met during this tour (Fernando). Lola said that she would call me next time she was in Almeria to meet up and get coffee so that I could ask her the questions. Fernando asked if I could come to El Ejido (about 40km from Almeria) today at 4pm. So finally today the nerves of actually having to conduct an interview (in spanglish no less) hit both my head and stomach hard....the gargling could be heard in class, as could the lack of patience in the class.
I caught the direct bus to El Ejido remembering that the last time I took a similar route it was anything but direct and was like being stuck on a burning bus with no way out. Basically a ride that should take 30min took an hour and a half....including stopping at every possible bus stop known to man/woman. So needless to say I was looking for the direct. Once upon arrival in El Ejido, I took a Taxi to the Centro de commercial where I was to meet Fedrico. In my normal fashion I was about an hour early so I got a snack to eat and walked in circles a couple of times. Surely looking like some crazy person or like the tourist I am.
Fedrico, in usual Andalucía fashion was about 25 minutes late and with a coworker. We went for coffee so that I could ask my questions. I actually do not know exactly what he answered but it seemed like it was good stuff, although it was shorter than I expected.
After the interview we went to three different greenhouses so that I could see differences between them. The first was the least typical but most environmental friendly of the bunch. It used or reused I should say all of the water necessary for the mass of tomatoes plants being grown in sheetrock likes material. In addition to the water recycling, these greenhouses used a radiant heat like system of pipes that could be used to moderate the temperature of the greenhouse. I was told that this idea comes from the Dutch. I was pretty impressed with this although he admitted that it only up one percent of the greenhouses.
The second greenhouse was the most typical of the tree. Its only ventilation came from the screen windows surrounding the greenhouse. The water system was not recycled but was drip irrigation. This greenhouse used the most common "Sand Plot" technique for soil. This consist of the regular ground, a layer of clay, fertilizer, and then finally sand. He said that this is the most traditional and most widely used form of greenhouse agriculture. Why? Because the other system cost a lot of money and only a smaller profit benefit...some farmers do not see the benefit even if it better for people and the environment. During this visit I got to meet the owner of the greenhouse who was picking his zucchini with three of his Moroccan workers. Turned out that the majority of the greenhouses are owned by multiple families and it goes generation to generation....I could explain more but I will save that for the thesis.
Ok so finally we went to a kind of "in-between" the other two greenhouses. The water was not recycled, heavy chemical use, but instead of the sand plot technique they used recycled coco mulch to grow the tomatoes in. The owner of this greenhouse was a short, stocky man, very friendly, and very socialist (this I found out later but I had kind of guessed it). He and his wife (woman as he called her) were picking tomatoes when we arrived without the help of any workers. What soon exploded was a flurry of Spanish in which I picked up only a few words. Enough to realize that it was a discussion on politics.....I wish I would have recorded it because it was a great example of Spanish people just talking about politics. I wish we in the USA had similar conversations. We said are goodbyes, drove past the "bad" vegetable recycling center where veggies not sent to France, Germany, England, or pick your rich northern European country are recycled into fertilizer and used in the sand plots.
He gave me a ride back to the bus station and we said our goodbyes and I thanked him for being such a nice host. He said that if I could not understand any of the interview to just call him and that he would Two other interesting figures:
1) 22,000 hectors of greenhouses in the Campo de Dalias and 10,000 in the Campo near Almeria
This means Almeria has the highest number of greenhouses and largest concentration of greenhouses in the world.
2) The seed company and nursery are both locally owned and do not make genetically modified seeds.
The Bad (at least from visually seeing the greenhouses and understanding the bit of Spanish that I do)
The plants that do not recycle their water, i.e. the majority, are also the greenhouses that use the highest amounts of chemicals. The problem arises that since there is no drainage system the only place for the chemical to drain is into the earth, then the water (both drinking and AG water), and then back onto the plants via the drip irrigation. This could be the case why my roommates tell me that Almeria has one of the higher parentages of children with genetic disorders (like MS, autism, etc.). But this is only putting this together and not scientific proof.

Paz y Amor
Ty