Flan de la casa con natas en texturas - Foods From Spain

ORGANIC AGRICULTURE
rural and its economic base
essentially agricultural. It is no
exaggeration to say that Spanish
history is predicated on the energy
and expertise of its farming industry.
To this extent, it comes as no
surprise that the Spanish organic
sector has come so far in such a
short time. Plotted on a graph, the
growth in organic cultivation from
the early 1990s until today is
illustrated by a steep upward curve,
beginning with 4,235 ha (10,464
acres) in 1991 and culminating in
1,602,868 ha (3,960,773 acres) in
2009. It’s a matter for justifiable
pride that Spain is now the EU
member country with the largest
surface area devoted to organic
agriculture, ahead of Italy, France,
and the United Kingdom, according
to Eurostat. However you look at the
organic scene in Spain, the story is
one of gradual but continuous
development. The number of organic
producers (as opposed to
manufacturers or importers) in Spain
rose steadily from 17,509 in 2005 to
20,171 in 2007 and to 25,921 in
16
2009. Organic crops now represent
just over 5% of all Spanish
agriculture. The contribution of
individual Autonomous
Communities to the organic fresh
produce market is in large measure a
reflection of their dependence on
agriculture in general. The leader in
total surface area devoted to organic
agriculture is Andalusia (southern
Spain) with 784,067 ha (1,397,471
acres), though its predominance is
partly explained by the region’s vast
expanses of olive grove, dehesa
(wooded pastureland), animal
pasture and other extensive systems.
This is followed at some distance by
Castile-La Mancha (central Spain)
with 119,668 ha (295,706 acres),
then by Extremadura, in western
Spain (85,806 ha / 212,031 acres)
and Aragón, in northeast Spain
(70,494 ha / 174,194 acres). When
it comes to manufacture, Catalonia
(northeast Spain) is far and away the
major player in Spain, but as a
producer it accounts for only 4.48%
of the total national surface area.
Think locally,
act globally
Murcia, a Mediterranean region in
southeast Spain, is a point of interest
in the general panorama of organic
production. Though one of the
country’s smallest Autonomous
Communities, the Región de Murcia
has a rich horticultural tradition and
a superb local gastronomy based on
a deep appreciation of vegetables
and fruit. Murcia also has a long
tradition of organic farming and was
a pioneer in the introduction of
organic fruit, vegetables, rice, nuts
and cereals; according to José Pedro
Pérez of the Consejo de Agricultura
Egológica de Murcia (Council of
Organic Agriculture of Murcia,
CAERM), the first crop in Spain to
be certified as organic was
Calasparra rice, as long ago as 1986.
In the league of producing regions
Murcia comes in sixth, with a total of
59,339 ha (146,6239 acres) given
over to organics. Proportionally,
however, Murcia is far stronger in
vegetables and (especially) fruit than