Spain: two million hectares of organic land are not enough

Spanish landscape. Photo Karin Heinze

Greenpeace Spain congratulates all the players in the organic movement and eco-industry. They would have made the dynamic growth of the ecologically managed agricultural area possible, making it possible for the consumer to buy healthy and environmentally friendly food. With an increase of 18.4 per cent compared to 2014, some two million hectares are now biologically cultivated - Spain has thus reached a new record. In the past decade, the eco-area on the Iberian Peninsula grew by almost 60 percent. Spain is one of the top producers of organic producers in the EU and has the largest eco-cultivation area - in front of Italy and France - in Europe. But this is not enough yet looking at the challenges of climate change soil loss and rural exodus.



As a region, Andalucia is responsible for organic farming in Spain, where more than one million hectares are cultivated, which is 23% of the agricultural area. In a number of other regions, such as Catalonia, Castilla la Mancha and Valencia, the politicians are striving to increase the number of green areas by 20 per cent. For the Murcia region, where most pesticides per hectare are used on the Spanish mainland, there is no current data, but the Minister of Agriculture promised to extend the ecological cultivation considerably - over 20 percent. In the Balearic Islands, 15.4% of the agricultural area is already biologically cultivated - here, too, it is to expanding organic farming.

Not only good news!



According to a report by Luís Ferreira, Greenpeace Spain (article in Spanish), there is not only good news. "When we analyse the data, we see that the Spanish organic area only uses 8.3% of the agricultural land, and secondly, the area decreases in some regions, contrary to the general trend. The development is particularly worrying in La Rioja, Aragon (champion in the cultivation of GM plants) and Cantabria surface 2015 is less than 10 years."



Tomato all the year from Spanish fields. Photo © Kai Kreuzer

Proposals: support for the domestic market and 30% organic area.

As a further important aspect, Ferreira states that the consumption of organic products in the domestic market is significantly below the EU average (€ 21.7 per capita in Spain to € 47.4 the EU average). The government should support domestic consumption through appropriate measures. This could give a major boost to today export-oriented organic farming in Spain.

"While industrial agriculture is becoming increasingly marginalized, the power of organic farming lies in its "multisolución", which provide answers to many of the challenges we face today: climate change, the loss of biodiversity, the pollution of the groundwater, etc., but also the loss of fertile soils, the migration of farmers and the rural population."

Olive plantations in Spain. Photo ©  Kai Kreuzer



Greenpeace and other organizations have therefore proposed to the new government to increase the bio-area by 2020 with appropriate measures. The aim is to achieve at least 30% of the agricultural area. "We have to seriously rely on a model of agriculture that not only can feed people, but also respect the limitations of our planet's resources, writes Ferreira. 

As part of our campaign on bees, there is already a Greenpeace petition, which also underlines the need for a rethinking and redirection.



Source: Luís Ferreira, Greenpeace Spain