Many years ago, when I first moved to Spain, it felt like I had landed on another planet. I would drive down the roads in Almeria, passing greenhouses constructed out of wires and poles and vapour barrier. These greenhouses were surrounded by whole ecosystems of niche businesses, and I would see signs that said curious things like ‘We lay plastic’ or ‘We do whitewashing’. Or maybe ‘We keep bees’ would be written in what looked like graffiti on greenhouse walls. And I thought, ‘what is that all about’?
It’s about growers having a symbiotic relationship with the businesses that support them. Zucchini organic growers, for instance, can’t spray hormones, so they need ready access to pollinators. Greenhouses need whitewashing in summer to reduce the UV light, and the plastic covering must be replaced when it degrades. Whatever a grower needs, there’s always a local business ready to provide it.
For Almeria’s growers, it’s all about trust. They trust these local businesses. They trust their friends, other farmers, their cooperative or the seed company their family has relied on for generations. That trust remains until it’s broken.
Seed companies put up big posters on the streets of Almeria saying things like, ‘The best cucumber for summer is…’ or ‘The best tomato for winter is…’, but when I ask growers if they trust those posters, only about 10 per cent say yes.
I’ve learned that growers have chain of trust they rely on when making important decisions. At one time, it was person to person, farmer to farmer. That’s how they’d done it for generations, and that’s how they intended to keep on doing it. These days they share information on WhatsApp or Telegram, but the principle is the same.
Gaining a grower’s trust is a very long process. You can hang a poster on a wall or show them data from a local breeding program, but they aren’t used to making decisions based on those things, and don’t trust them. If you were to introduce them to a grower who has made millions of dollars more than they have growing a new variety, maybe they’ll accept that the one they’ve grown for a few years isn’t the best. Then again, maybe not. There’s no substitute for a grower’s chain of trust, and that’s a valuable lesson to learn in Almeria and around the world.
