On an afternoon at the end of June, Alberto Ruiz laboriously extracts the pulp of several pink tomatoes, grown on his farm in Huesca, in order to obtain the seeds that he will use the following year. “There are many pink tomatoes, but here everyone has their home. I have been working with the same variety for more than ten years and doing a selection task, and the result is noticeable, in fact the pink tomato from Huesca is one of the products that I sell the most ”, explains this forestry engineer, a partner of the La Sazón cooperative, which manages a three-hectare orchard near the capital of Huesca. “We are five farmers in the province who are dedicated to growing and selling vegetables, greens and some legumes,” says Alberto. “We came together several years ago because we realized that we were all doing the same thing, the typical model in which a single person does everything: farming, selling baskets, distributing in restaurants, going to markets… and we couldn’t supply enough. We have verified that together we work better: every year we plan according to the products that are best given to each farmer, or that are more adapted to the climate of their area, and we organize ourselves to manage sales ”.
Many of the varieties that Alberto grows in his garden are indigenous to Huesca, a region with a great horticultural tradition. Pink tomato, bisaltos, stubble beans, chard… “It seems that all chard are the same, but that is not the case. You go to any nursery and you find chard with a narrow stalk, but the one from here in Huesca has a wide, white stalk. They are delicious and also endure the cold more than the others ”, explains the young farmer.
Another of Alberto’s ‘star crops’ is the stubble bean, which in its day was one of the basic food products of the inhabitants of the Hoya de Huesca area . “Here before it was cultivated a lot, and I am determined that it is consumed again. Every year I put in a little bit, and I have also convinced a farmer next door to cultivate a half hectare … if it goes well, it may encourage other producers to cheer up ”. Ismael Ferrer, a cooking teacher and partner of the Aragon Seed Network, an organization that is dedicated precisely to rescuing these forgotten varieties, also tells us about the benefits of the stubble bean. “She is an emblematic Jew here in Aragon, and with her all the gastronomy of winter and spring was accompanied. Nowadays there are legumes of very poor quality and very little flavor, and that is why they must be accompanied by other ingredients. This bean was so tasty that it was enough to add a little oil and salt ”.
Heritage and cultural heritage
Tens of thousands of years ago, humanity began to domesticate varieties of wild species, selecting season after season the seeds of the plants that produced the best foods. As a result and inheritance of that conscientious work, today we have in the world thousands of horticultural varieties, each one well adapted to the territories in which it has been traditionally cultivated and to the preferences of its inhabitants. In addition, many of these indigenous varieties are also part of the traditions and cultural heritage of the peoples. “When you start pulling the thread, you get great surprises and you find out fascinating stories”, explains Ismael Ferrer. “Some seeds were passed from generation to generation, from grandparents to grandchildren, or were eaten on a specific holiday. We are not talking simply about seeds adapted to the territory, but they also have connotations that go beyond cultivation ”.
Traditional varieties are also a source of genetic diversity, a key element to guarantee quality and food sovereignty, especially in the current context of climate change. According to the predictions, in the coming decades there will be a substantial change in the climatic conditions of agricultural systems. To adapt to this changing world, the key lies in preserving agrobiodiversity, since this variability within and between species gives a better chance of survival.
However, current market demands and the need to feed a growing population have led many farmers to adopt high-yielding, uniform varieties. One of the consequences of this change is, inevitably, the loss of genetic diversity and all its associated cultural heritage. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), currently only four plant species – wheat, corn, rice and potatoes – provide more than half of the plant-based calories in our diet. FAO estimates that three-quarters of the genetic diversity generated during 10,000 years of agriculture have been lost in the last 100 years. In addition, within these species there are many varieties that are no longer cultivated. However, food dependency on a few crops, and a few varieties of each, can create serious food problems.
Germplasm banks
The recovery and conservation of these plant genetic resources is a priority objective of FAO, and in institutions and botanical gardens around the world, collection and conservation of seeds, bulbs and tubers are carried out. In our country, one of the reference centers is the Horticultural Species Germplasm Bank of the Agro-food Research and Technology Center (BGHZ-CITA), in Zaragoza, created almost forty years ago with the aim of conserving the horticultural genetic resources of Spain thus avoid the loss of intraspecific variability. “We currently have a collection of 17,000 samples,” explains Cristina Mallor, head of the BGHZ-CITA. “What we do is contact market gardeners who provide us with the seeds of the varieties that they have been growing for generations. Then we sow them here to generate more seeds, which are those that are later kept in the bank dehydrated and at -18 ˚C. In this way we get the seeds to stay alive for a long time ”.
We are talking, in many cases, of varieties that were no longer cultivated in the field, so the only surviving sample is the one that is frozen in the germplasm bank. Thus, if at a certain moment you are interested in growing these varieties, or using them for research purposes, they are available. “ We attend requests for research and genetic improvement purposes, and also projects such as those of seed networks that seek to recover the cultivation of these varieties. We provide them with this initial material, some seeds with which to start the recovery process of a specific variety ”, indicates the expert.
Biodiversity Ambassadors
One of the latest projects carried out by the BGHZ-CITA, funded by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), dependent on the Ministry of Science and Innovation, has been Biodiversity Ambassadors. “It is a citizen science project in which we have involved two groups: market gardeners and schools, whom we distinguished as ambassadors of biodiversity. We have provided them with seeds of varieties from their area so that they can grow them again in those centers of origin. We grow the seeds in Zaragoza, but where they show all their potential is precisely in the places where they have been grown for centuries ”, Mallor tells us.
“The participation and involvement of the people has been enormous, in fact we had to expand the number of gardeners and even say no to some people because we could not cope. Some are with the summer varieties and have not yet collected, but we already have gardeners who have told us that they have left plants to get seed and cultivate next year, because in their town no one had those varieties anymore “, indicates the expert .
However, is there a real consumer interest in these indigenous varieties? For Alberto Ruiz, the gardener from La Sazón, it is not something that is especially in demand in the market. “Surely awareness work is needed, but today there are not many clients who value that. Although many people, especially older people, value my products for the mere fact that they have been grown here in Huesca, it is an area with a lot of horticultural tradition and that is something that is valued ”.
Local food in times of pandemic
How has this proximity consumption influenced during the harshest months of the health crisis? One of the biggest problems farmers had was the closure of open-air markets, in addition to the cessation of activity in shops and restaurants. “What we did was start delivering at home, it is something we generally do not do because it is crazy,” explains the gardener. “Orders increased, and we had to make a great effort because we also charged a symbolic price for the distribution, but we have done it at ease, it was a necessary effort so that the people who demanded it could continue to eat healthy and quality food. without leaving home during confinement. You had to be there ”.
Alberto also tells us “a very beautiful thing that happened in Huesca, and that is only possible when there is awareness and understanding with the producer”. As a result of the closure of the proximity markets, the producers of fruit, vegetables and bread got in touch and through word of mouth they managed to reach their regular customers. “We all got together at my farm, which is in Huesca and was the closest one, and we began to distribute bread, fruit and vegetables together.” These are facts that, although they may seem trivial, reveal the type of relationships that occur between producers and consumers when short supply circuits are established in which, unlike what happens with mass channels, other things matter beyond of economic benefit.
One of the factors that contributes to the spread of epidemics is precisely the massive transport of people and goods across the globe. It is no longer just a question of pollution, greenhouse gas emissions or loss of biodiversity: it is that our health is also at stake. The means of transport are fast, and go very far, and many pathogens potentially causing pests and pandemics travel in food that is distributed over long distances. “We are immersed in that barbarism of bringing, carrying, raising and lowering food from end to end” reflects the chef Ismael Ferrer. “We are already glimpsing the consequences of that nonsense. The planet belongs to everyone, it is our home. And when we do things wrong, we all pay the consequences too, although some more than others. Food has a primary weight in all this, because we all eat, and we also eat every day ”.
For Ismael, food should be much simpler: “you have to look for that beauty that gives the uniqueness, the identity of each territory, that adaptation between man and the earth that has been built for generations. The ingredients that are the basis of a good plate of food have to be produced locally, sustainably, ideally in short circuits , because when we break that reality we are ceasing to value the wisdom of the gardener. We have denigrated the profession, no one wants to be a farmer, and by farmer I mean that person who produces a vegetable and a legume to feed those around him ”.
We can all be guardians of agrodiversity
During the COVID-19 crisis, the essential role of the people who care for us and feed us has become visible. Without them, life does not go on. “You can’t eat a car or a smartphone … food is a treasure, and whoever has seeds has a treasure,” says the cook. In a deteriorated world, with a rapidly changing climate and the threat of new pandemics, it is worth pausing for a moment to reflect on how we want to live, produce and consume. The future of local food and crop varieties depends on a set of actors including researchers, genebanks, seed networks, producers and, of course, consumers. What we do, each one in their link in the chain, may be decisive so that those valuable seeds that constitute our natural and cultural heritage do not disappear into oblivion.
This report has obtained the first Prize for Journalism in Food Innovation and Sustainability, organized by EIT Food, in its second edition (November 2020).
