Whether or not Spanish cucumbers contain E. coli we do not know, but does nobody wonder how Spain - with plenty of sunshine but very little water - manages to grow so many?
Here's the answer (via the FT), it's the usual triumph of human ingenuity. Heck knows how hot it gets inside these greenhouses:
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Green and pleasant land
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9 comments:
I read an article about strawberry-growing in Spain the other day. Their industry is massive and impressive. Of course, no success goes un-attacked by environmentalists who don't like the way that agriculture uses water...
Leave a door open and you get global warming from the greenhouse effect.
BE, this kind of farming uses a tiny fraction of the water that normal farming with fields uses.
AKH, but the roofs (rooves?) reflect sunlight into space so it tends to cool things slightly.
Increased CO2 means plants need less water...
AC1, that's as maybe, but water is the limiting factor in that part of Spain. Sunshine is not a problem and they can regulate the CO2 levels to suit themselves within the greenhouse, + or - a tiny percentage.
Those e-coli need lots of heat.
Now I know what the greenhouse effect looks like.
The Almeria region has many of these plastic-sheeted growing systems. As it is one of the driest areas of southern Spain, there is a big problem with over-extraction from boreholes, with short-term thinking dominating what will become total desert in a decade. Certainly the coverings help to avoid excessive evaporation losses, but they tend to grow thirsty salad veg & fruits.
There is a sizeable organic section (to supply concerned, rich people at premium prices) and that is where the (organic) sewage run-off could/might allow E-Coli pollution.
However, it now seems the E-Coli source was not Spanish salad at all, but a random mutation spread by touch.
JH, maybe, or maybe it'll turn out to be German propaganda blaming it on somebody else.
B, tee hee.
Ed, if you look at the surrounding hills, it looks like it was desert anyway. The Dutch have similar greenhouses and plenty of water, but lacking so much sunshine, they use a lot of power (electricity? coal? oil?) to heat them.
Neither system is perfect. Maybe the Spanish will suss out how to use sunshine to power desalination plants and problem solved, that I do not know.
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