I have spent some of the last couple of weeks visiting possible new farmers to join us at Tierra y Libertad. It has been inspiring, but also a much more complicated and difficult process than I had expected. It has reminded me how special a group of farmers we have, and also the reason why we grow slowly as a cooperative. Let me try and explain a bit.
Driving through the agricultural landscapes of Andalusia, where it seems every possible part of available ground has an olive or an avocado or a vegetable or some other commercial crop planted in it depending on where you are, you would think that amongst all these 1000’s of hectares of cultivated crops there would be a few passionate, regenerative farmers cultivating a few of these hectares. In all the vastness of the cultivated areas that seems a statistical given. Added to that that Spain has the most land in organic cultivation in all Europe, and Andalusia 47% of the certified organic land in Spain (2018), I never doubted that with our contacts and a bit of searching we could continue to find new farmers for the cooperative if we wished to grow.
Let’s take those assumptions one by one. First the statistics, which are very misleading. Yes, Spain has a huge amount of certified organic land, but half of it is pasture, which has been in organic since time immemorial as it’s mostly rough, semi arid land where sheep and cows scratch out a living over vast expanses. The land owners put it in organic to get subsidies but usually don’t have to change anything about the management of it, and continue to (mostly) overgraze and degrade it.
A large amount of these pastures are in Andalusia, and as of 2015 75% of certified organic land in Andalusia was either pasture, forest or ‘wild’ landscapes. Of the remaining 25% of organic certified land, 1/3 is olive groves, which after pastures is probably the easiest permanent crop to convert to organic (and sadly more often than not is allowed to degrade year after year even when in organic). That doesn’t leave a whole lot of organic certified land left for all the other crops which the clients of Tierra y Libertad look to Andalusia for.
So lets move to the farmers on this organic certified land. Unfortunately, my experience in Andalusia so far is that a lot of the farmers who are organic certified convert to organic for economic reasons, as in general prices (although not necessarily profits) tend to be higher in organic. While every extra organically certified hectare is welcome, these are not the type of farmers that Tierra y Libertad are looking for. For us farming organically is a given, the first step in a long process of regenerating the land, the rural culture and the countryside in general.
So, how do we go about looking for new farmers? By asking our existing farmers and their network of colleagues and other friends and colleagues we know in the small scale organic farming world here. For us the first step is a recommendation from someone we trust. The second a call to have a chat with them about what they are doing, who we are and what we are looking for, and if there might be a possibility of working together. If there is then we go and visit to meet them, see the farm and get a good feel for if we are on the same page. While it sounds not very professional or precise, the feeling is in fact the most important thing. Because having a good feeling between us is the foundation to a working relationship of trust.
So back to my visits over the last couple of weeks. Every farmer I visited was a good organic farmer, in the sense that they followed the organic rules and produced quality products and were able to make a living. But that’s where the similarities ended. The farmers went from one who was doing the minimum possible to be certified organic (so obviously not for Tierra y Libertad) to one who was doing everything they could to restore the health of the soil, the biodiversity and the rural economy as well as producing a great product (so obviously someone Tierra y Libertad would love to work with) and others at various places in between.
And so the search continues. One regenerative farmer at a time….
Confirmed father, alleged farmer, an occasional writer, undoubted if undistinguished linguist, shameless traveller, unreformed poet of the Chinese recluse type.
