The Spanish Drought

🇪🇸 Perhaps the farmers in Spain can take a vacation from farming this year, since their lands are suffering from severe droughts. Then they would no longer need the water from the protected ecosystems like the Doñana wetlands. Perhaps the farmers could spend the season learning new agricultural methods to prevent climate change or participate in debates on agricultural legislation or learn another valuable skill. Perhaps the Spanish farmers could use the EU crisis funds to recover lost income from their lost crops. There appears to be a surplus of cereal crops from Ukraine that can be used to replace the gap in supply from the lost Spanish crops. Other nations like the USA can help fill the supply gap in lost crops as well.

This solution might sound naive, but Spain does not have a lot of options. Water scarcity and extreme weather conditions like droughts are projected to get worse, not better. They can try to solve the water scarcity issue with desalination projects. But ultimately, you have to question the logic behind farming in areas prone to severe droughts, and start thinking about better land-use management across Europe, water conservation, alternative farming techniques, and new industries for ex-farmers.

xo

Response to:

1. https://www.politico.eu/article/france-backs-spains-plea-for-eu-crisis-funds-as-drought-hits-farmers/

2. https://www.politico.eu/article/manfred-weber-top-mep-denounces-unacceptable-eu-commission-pressure-over-spanish-donana-wetlands-plan/

3. https://www.politico.eu/article/grain-ukraine-european-union-export-war-invasion-farmers-trade/