Each hectare of greenhouse cultivation absorbs the same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) as that produced by eight cars circulating during a day, hence the environmental importance of agriculture that is developed by this procedure in the Spanish southwest.

It is one of the "most sustainable agricultural systems in the world," says José Manuel Escobar, an expert in greenhouse agronomy and belonging to a fourth generation family of producers and exporters from that area of ​​Spain.

This system of intensive agriculture, which is currently taking a further step by implementing organic production in some projects such as those led by Escobar, also contributes to reducing global warming, reflecting sunlight.

Localized irrigation that is used in these agricultural production centers consumes twenty times less water than an open field crop, Escobar emphasizes in statements to Efeagro, while stressing that this cultivation system allows precise control, both of the same and of the resources it consumes.

The sun and the climate of the southeast of the Iberian peninsula, especially of certain areas of the Mediterranean coast of the provinces of Almería, Granada and Málaga, are great allies of this system because they avoid the need for heating and other sources of polluting energy.

Escobar is also one of the forerunners of biological control in this type of agricultural facility, using the technique of releasing the same insects suitable to combat pests. Likewise, with the organic remains generated by their farms, designed under the seal of organic thinking, they obtain earthworm compost to develop a sustainable bioeconomy.

Likewise, it has implemented a direct harvest system in its greenhouses with which it achieves a freshness and useful life of the product of up to three times greater than that of the rest of the producers, since the vegetables are collected and shipped refrigerated to customers in The same day.

His company, "LQA Thinking Organic", is dedicated to the production of organic vegetables, mainly cucumbers and zucchini, convinced, according to Escobar, that these techniques constitute the future of agriculture, within the framework of the new European Union guidelines. (EU), to whose countries its production is directed, practically exclusively.

With this, it is possible to maintain the ecological balance, the biodiversity and the quality of the water and the soil, within the framework of a series of practices that include crop rotation, for an efficient use of resources; the use of on-site resources, such as natural fertilizers, and the prohibition of the use of chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers and the use of genetically modified organisms.

The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, unveiled on May 20 its new food strategy, baptized with the name "From farm to table", which aims to lay the foundations for the transition towards more food production and consumption sustainable. Along with it, she also presented a new strategy on biodiversity, to ensure the sustainable use of resources and combat pollution.

Without being legislative proposals, the objective of both initiatives is to open the debate on the transformation of European food policy and measures to curb the loss of biodiversity, within the framework of the Green Pact with which the Commission wants to achieve, in 2050, a neutral economy in CO2 emissions.

In this way, the EU plans to tackle all stages of food production through a strategy that "will change the way of producing, buying and consuming, for the benefit of citizens' health and the environment," according to the European Commissioner. of Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides.