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According to SIC Notícias, a campaign is underway in Germany against super intensive farming in the Alentejo and Algarve, especially related to red fruits and avocados.
German activist Friederike Heuer is urging consumers to boycott products originating from these super-intensive cultures, stating that crops consume what little water there is, degrade the soil and exploit the "modern slaves of Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe".
The association of fruit growers from Odemira and Aljezur has lamented the campaign. “I can make a first comment, which is, of course, to regret this type of campaign,” Luís Mesquita Dias, president of the Association of Horticulturists, Fruit Growers and Floriculturists of the Municipalities of Odemira and Aljezur (AHSA), told Lusa.
The official also regretted that, although the campaign is taking place in Germany, it has been "fuelled" by others "relatively identical" in Portugal, by "people who, knowing that the exception is not the rule, give the country, the region and the sector an image that does not effectively correspond to reality”.
Asked by Lusa about whether he fears that the campaign could harm sales of fruits produced in the municipalities of Odemira and Aljezur, namely exports to Germany, Luís Mesquita Dias replied that he would be "lying" if he did not fear "some implications".
The official said that AHSA knows that "most consumers are already very familiar with this type of demonisation campaign for some products and some practices" and, therefore, he admits that the German campaign “may have a momentary impact” on “some consumers”.
From a “reputational point of view”, Luís Mesquita Dias stressed that it was “profoundly disgusting” to the AHSA to see the names of Portugal, the region, the association and its members “mistreated in public”.
But if AHSA, "with the help" of Portugal Fresh - Association for the Promotion of Fruits, Vegetables and Flowers of Portugal and AICEP - Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade of Portugal, "continue to provide information on what is does in the country, people will realise that what is being described does not correspond to reality, at least in general and in most cases”.
Luís Mesquita Dias also argued that the sector and AHSA member companies are “aware and calm regarding good practices, which are of very high quality, in both the environmental and labour sense”.
He added that they are "very committed to helping solve the housing problem" of immigrants working on farms.
It is "a problem that, to a large extent, should be solved by public entities", but which private entities "are taking co-responsibility and trying to help solve", he stressed.
"We have to continue to work as we do, gather as much objective information as possible to counteract with facts what we understand to be slander and hope that consumers have the good sense to continue to buy our quality products”, he concluded.
Meanwhile, the Movimento Juntos Pelo Sudoeste (JPS) has welcomed the campaign and has once again called for an intervention from Brussels.
“This campaign follows on from various efforts” that the JPS movement has made “in recent years” for “other activists in the centre of Europe to raise their voices” and “draw attention” to the problem “of the exploitation of intensive agriculture in Baixo Alentejo”, Fátima Teixeira told Lusa.
Teixeira said that it is important that other international organisations warn of "human exploitation" and "the exhaustion of resources such as water" due to intensive agriculture in these areas.
“We hope that this action, which is taking place in Germany, will bear more fruit and spread throughout Central and Northern Europe”, she added.
Originally from the UK, Daisy has been living and working in Portugal for more than 20 years. She has worked in PR, marketing and journalism, and has been the editor of The Portugal News since 2019. Jornalista 7920
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Undoubtedly there are issues with the intensive farming, which financially benefit very few people. Swathes of rustic land and the habitat that it supports has been destroyed. Just look along the A22 corridor. A frighteningly amount of water is used to feed these farms which could be used for human use. According to Danwatch, 283 litres of water is needed to grow 1 kg of advocados. The supply to bore holes are drying up, or now penetrated with salt water from the sea. Fortunately the heavy rains last winter and the missing tourists has eased the water situation. The EU give grants to grow oranges, but so many goes to waste rotting on the ground. The response to water shortages in the Algarve? Sucking water out of the Guardiana river, a pipeline from the north to the south, paid for by the taxpayer. There has to be a way to provide a more sustainable methodology to farming that helps smaller growers and leave the world in a better place for our children and grand children.
By David Clark from Algarve on 18 Sep 2021, 10:20
I have been living on the edge of the Barragem de Bravura, not far from Lagos, for 33 years. Gradually, year by year, the rains failed to replenish the water level in the dam, which at the turn of the century annually filled and cascaded over the spillway into the valley below . First it was golf courses, then more people, more hotels, power showers, and it became obvious that water management was not a priority in the region, a region where so many earth dams could have been made in the deep empty valleys of the Dogs Spine hills. Big companies seek to destroy wetlands for yet another supermarket, while at the same time, of all things, cynical growers plant avocados and, perhaps worse, macadamia nuts. It's reported that these trees need 20 to 40 litres of water a day in the winter and 70 to 90 in the summer. Can we do do without macadamia nuts? Would it be better to plant legumes? Does it make sense for a massive automatic hose to water areas in the valley below Bravura until even the road is flooded to grow grass for cows? Will the tourist sector grow? Are they really thinking of desalination with the price of oil fluctuating between the sublime and the ridiculous? And finally, if a virus can cause international havoc, have they contemplated what might happen to a region in which water costs more than petrol? Avocados, macadamia nuts ..... forget about it, and legislate accordingly. These things are not necessary for life. But water is .
By Kit thackeray from Algarve on 19 Sep 2021, 08:56
That German actvist, should get the facts straight before he goes around telling the Germans to boycott fruits from Alentejo and the Algarve. What he needs is a job, and leave others alone doing their work and business. It should be against the law to ruin a bussiness by making up false information and tell others false information about something they don't know. That German actvist should be arrested by the German Police.
By Tony from Other on 20 Sep 2021, 17:48