Spain<\/a> for more than 20 years but has been working in Almer\u00eda for almost 10.<\/p>\nTwo friends, Karina Milonchikova and Alba Mart\u00ednez Redondo, both 19, take a walk in the middle of the \u2018sea of plastic\u2019 with two horses from the Cortijo Blanco equestrian club.<\/p>\n
Left: a chromotropic insect trap in a greenhouse; the yellow colour attracts many insects that damage greenhouse crops, including whiteflies. Right: in the chemical laboratory of the Municipal University Analytical Centre (CUAM), analyses are carried out mainly dedicated to agriculture and the environment, such as the study of this tiny and highly damaging nematode.<\/p>\n
This economic miracle began in 1963, in an arid and sunny peninsula called Campo de Dal\u00edas \u2013 where the region then recorded some of the lowest economic growth rates in all of Europe and extremely difficult conditions for horticulture \u2013 when farmers stubbornly began to protect crops from the wind with rudimentary plastic greenhouses. They soon realised that greenhouses could also diffuse light, retain heat and preserve humidity, and thus control the microclimate. This \u2013 together with drip irrigation, natural pest control and genetic research \u2013 made it possible to increase the number of harvests, even allowing them in winter. The sea of plastic thus became a true intensive agriculture district, where, alongside the greenhouses, there are nurseries, chemical laboratories, vocational schools and research centres (such as Fundaci\u00f3n Tecnova, where more efficient plastics and climate-adapted crops are studied), as well as packaging companies and distribution cooperatives. The products are exported everywhere, especially to northern European countries.<\/p>\n
A technician at the Campo de Dal\u00edas desalination plant in Balanegra, managed by the public company Acuamed. One of the largest in Europe and operational since 2015, the plant draws more than 120km3 of water from the sea every day and desalinates the equivalent of two Olympic swimming pools an hour.<\/p>\n
In Balanegra, along the western coast of Campo de Dal\u00edas, technician Patricia Baldan Cruz is chatting with her colleague Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 Araos Fuentes outside a large desalination plant run by the public company Acuamed. \u201cThe sea of plastic,\u201d Patricia says, \u201chas become a global benchmark for efficient, safe and responsible food production.<\/p>\n
In El Ejido, Lola G\u00f3mez tells a group of tourists about the history and characteristics of the \u2018sea of plastic\u2019 inside her greenhouses. Lola is the owner of Clisol, a family-run farm that grows vegetables on two hectares (4.9 acres) of land, but also offers guided tours for tourists.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, as the planet faces the dual challenge of feeding a growing population and protecting natural resources, Almer\u00eda stands as a living laboratory of solutions. It produces fresh, healthy food all year-round with strict environmental standards, advanced technology and minimal water consumption. Our desalination plant, for example, is one of the largest in Europe and has been operational since 2015: every day it draws seawater and desalinises more than 120 cubic kilometres of water, the equivalent of two Olympic swimming pools per hour.\u201d<\/p>\n
What will be the future of the sea of plastic? A possible answer can be found within the walls of the Escuela Agraria de V\u00edcar, founded in 1972 on the outskirts of the village of La Gangosa. Here, 480 students from various parts of Andalusia study the latest agricultural techniques and prepare to enter a working world that \u201cin the next 20 years,\u201d says the school\u2019s director Francisco Valverde, \u201cwill lead to agriculture powered by applied AI, IoT and advanced sensors, strengthened by agrivoltaic systems and bio-composites, using resilient crop varieties and a mindset oriented toward the circular economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe teach our students both theory and practice, cultivating and marketing products on a two-hectare plot next to the school. We aim to pass on new technologies that in the future will not only ensure sustainability and food security, but also strengthen Almer\u00eda\u2019s role as a global benchmark for innovative growth combined with social development.\u201d<\/p>\n
An African migrant worker in farmer Paco Moreno\u2019s greenhouse in Santa Mar\u00eda del \u00c1guila. Paco, who owns almost one hectare (2.4 acres) of land, is a typical farmer in the area: small and independent, his is a family business that employs three or four African migrant workers.<\/p>\n
The problems generated by such intensive agriculture cannot be denied. The main issues are linked to human exploitation. In the sea of plastic, the workforce consists of more than 70,000 foreign workers, mostly from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa. While it is true that many live in decent and dignified conditions, often in clean towns with full services, many are frequently underpaid, and some live in precarious conditions, in rural houses next to or among the greenhouses.<\/p>\n
Along the shores of a lake in the middle of the \u2018sea of plastic,\u2019 Las Norias De Daza, there is abandoned plastic waste. Although most farmers comply with environmental laws and send their plastics to recycling companies, illegal dumps can still be found in the area.<\/p>\n
Moreover, although a significant percentage of the plastic used is properly recycled (85% according to some sources), critical situations still exist involving illegal dumping and abandoned waste. Sustainable development must become a concrete objective and cannot be reconciled with human exploitation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s vegetable garden is in Andalusia, southern Spain. It is so vast that it can even be seen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-572384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}