Capitalism and consumerism in the Andalucian countryside
The following writing was inspired/provoked by TJ Brearton ‘The Part of Climate Change We Always Miss’ … https://medium.com/illumination/the-part-of-climate-change-we-always-miss-281ac51d8920 … which was talking to/about those who live/work in towns/cities …they being separated from nature and would be unable to survive without such support systems … In this writing I suggest that separation from nature and the inability to survive outside the system … these days applies as much to country folk as it does to city dwellers
I have lived in a rural, agricultural area of Southern Spain for the last 25 years … and from the actions I have seen around me during that time, I would suggest country people are as bewitched and beguiled by the consumer, get-rich-quick culture as are those urbanites … and have separated themselves from nature/seasons/climate just as much as city dwellers.
I will describe some of the actions which have led me to suggest that country people are as engaged with the consumer culture as those who live in towns or cities … and I would further suggest that trying to get myself involved in my local community to change attitudes would probably have me ‘burnt at the stake’ !
The construction frenzy
I am unclear as to what started this building boom but in the early 2000s many local farmers sold the land their families had owned for generations to developers … sometimes land which was quite unsuited to building houses etc ie unstable and/or prone to subsidence. Local mayors were happy to grant permission to build if they were offered a nice back-hander … to the extent that our local village mayor was eventually convicted and imprisoned for such offenses. At that time, no-one considered whether there was going to be enough water to supply all those new dwellings and swimming pools … although there had been a hydrographic study of water scarcity/sustainablility in the Axarquia in 2011? … but this was ‘an inconvenient truth’ and hence ignored.
Seeing so much building work going on, , it occurred to me that the history of the area was going to soon be covered by concrete … I felt I needed to research and write down that history … I talked with local people about their lives and memories … it was a fascinating, illuminating and humbling experience … the resulting book was published in 2008
https://www.amazon.es/Axarquia-History-Traditions-Guide-Region/dp/1904946461
2008 was the year when banks and financial institutions crashed … and that brought an end to all that construction work … leaving part-built apartment blocks and urbanisations all over the place … and empty/derelict for years …
The avocado and mango planting period
So what did the local people do next?! … they bulldozed/uprooted their drought-hardy olive and almond trees in their thousands and replaced them with water-hungry avocado and mango trees … encouraged by financial incentives from agro-businesses such as Trops and Sigfrido … Olive and almond trees were not only drought-hardy but, being long-established trees, they maintained the stability of the land/hillsides around them. Once that land had been disturbed, the surrounding soil was vulnerable to subsidence/landslides etc.
This area has long been known as a dry area … with little or unpredictable rain … which was why drought hardy olives and almonds survived here … . and local people have known of that erratic/limited supply of water for centuries … they also knew that avocados and mangos needed a constant. year-round supply of such … but ‘live now and pay later’ seemed to be the prevailing attitude.
Then came the spraying of those avocado and mango trees … hazmats had to be worn as the insecticides were dangerous/toxic to human beings … Earlier this year there was an interesting discussion on the forum of Andalucia.com re the use of insecticides on these sub-tropical trees, on the insects therein and on people living nearby … https://www.andalucia.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=41555
The installation of plastic pipes
With diminishing water resources to support those sub-tropical avocado and mango trees, farmers turned to installing large plastic pipes in the centuries old acequias/irrigation channels … they thought to prevent evaporation and hence more water for their newly planted ‘foreign’ trees. No longer could you walk along beside open clear bubbling water in those acequias …
and if those plastic pipes decayed, then what you did was to yank out the old one, throw it onto the bank or into a stream and put another plastic pipe in its place … the avocado orchard, adjacent to this mill, is littered with defunct/decomposing plastic pipes … as is the stream which runs ( or struggles to run ) in front of this place …
I would also add that in some places it is almost impossible to know where the acequias are as so much earth, rocks.weeds and general rubble been allowed to accumulate in them. Even when farmers are so dependent on the water and the pipes in those channels, they just don’t seem to care about the ongoing maintenance of such … again ‘live now and pay later’ prevails.
Another example of ‘live now and pay later’ was when someone came to cut down the canes growing along the stream bank here. (Canes are used as support for tomatoes, peppers et al … and it is accepted/common practice to cut such back from stream banks) … however … this man took what he wanted ie tall straight canes … and threw all the imperfect ones into the course of the stream … and there were a lot of imperfect ones … to the extent that in several places it is impossible to get passed those piles of discarded canes. I used to be able to walk up that stream … not so now!
The Response to Drought
It is more than 3 years since we had a plentiful supply of rain …the water level in our local reservoir has been reduced to 9% … and the stream which feeds the irrigation channel here here is similarly deplete.
There used to be an old stone dam which shared the stream water between the irrigation channel and the stream itself … then this dam was reinforced with sandbags … thus guiding more water into the acequia … then it was further reinforced with a thick impenetrable layer of concrete … and all the water that was left in the drought-struggling stream went into the irrigation channel.
Even reinforcing that dam did not create enough water for the avocado farmers … so, above that dam, they installed large plastic pipes in the stream course itself which directed what little water there was left into the acequia and further denuded the stream.
(That stream, apart from contributing to the general damp shady green valley here, is home to terrapins, small fish, snakes, frogs, crayfish … nightingales, golden orioles and occasionally a kingfisher or a heron … and visited at night by badger, genet and wild boar … for how much longer I wonder?)
Only very recently have authorities taken serious action towards farmers using water supplies illegally
I suggest it is not only town and city dwellers who have bought into that capitalist, consumerist society and would find it difficult survive outside it … as they live surrounded by bricks and mortar and tarmac, I can understand their separation from nature/the seasons etc … but, when those who have been born and lived all their lives in an area such as La Axarquia knowingly go against all that has been common knowledge for centuries and is so blindingly obvious now … words fail me!!!
Living here for the last 25 years has made me see close up, what capitalism and consumerism has done to us all, city dwellers and country people alike … and the damage we have inflicted on the environment in which we live. … we have forgotten how to care … for ourselves and for our surroundings … I wonder what phase or craze might come next … will this area be a desert before we learn?!
