Sowing the seeds of locally-based agriculture
The agri-food sector is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, but new practices could help reduce its environmental impact. We spoke to María de Santiago and Jon Ruiz de Infante about their work in testing different production systems and exploring new, more sustainable ways of getting locally-produced food to consumers.
The agri-food sector accounts for a significant proportion of global carbon emissions, prompting an intense focus in research on developing new tools to reduce its environmental impact and improve sustainability. These issues are central to the CROPS4LIFE project, an EU-backed initiative based in the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, in Spain’s Basque Country. “We are working to de-carbonise the local food system, and to prove the viability of shorter, locally-based food circuits,” explains Jon Ruiz de Infante, a researcher in the Environmental Studies Centre in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
One aspect of this research involves developing new production systems which will help restore the ecological health of soils and enhance their capacity to absorb CO 2 “The systems we are developing in the project are based on regenerative agriculture,” continues Ruiz de Infante. “The wider aim is to restore the ecosystem of the soil and enable it to function as a carbon sink.”
Regenerative agriculture
This means restoring the trophic chain in soil, the different microbiota that result from nutrient cycling. These trophic chains are often in a poor condition in farmland soils, in large part due to the extensive use of pesticides and fertilisers in established production models. “We are trying to restore that trophic chain in the soil. This will enable the soil to be an active organism capable of capturing carbon, and help retain nutrients for the crops,” says Ruiz de Infante.
Regenerative agricultural practices offer a route towards achieving this, with the project team investigating and testing several different production systems. “We’re looking at a system called biointensive horticulture for example, where the soil never rests. The soil is continually supporting crop production. In another system cattle move from little squares of one field to another, transporting nutrients.”
A herd of cattle may over-graze some areas while neglecting others, leading to an imbalance in the health of the soil. Under the system being tested in the project, cattle may graze in a relatively small plot for a short period before then moving on. “This plot is
then able to recover from the grazing phase, with the manure that the cattle has just deposited. Hens and chickens then enter the plot, and their movement helps embed the manure into the soil.”
Promoting local food
A variety of crops are being grown in these plots, including cereals, beans and chickpeas, with the project team also aiming to encourage local people to consume this produce. “A recent study found that just 1 percent of the fresh food consumed in Vitoria-Gasteiz came from the local area. One of the goals of the project is to increase this proportion, and to reduce our
dependence on external sources of food,” says María de Santiago, also a researcher at the Environmental Studies Centre.
The aim is to get to a rate of 10 percent, while new ways of commercialising and distributing this locally-grown produce are also being investigated, taking into account the nature of modern lifestyles. It can be difficult for busy people to get to a market to buy fresh produce, so researchers are looking at new ways of getting fresh food to consumers. “We are looking at developing a digital sales platform where people buy the produce in a virtual marketplace, and the food is then distributed by bike and delivered to their home,” outlines Ruiz de Infante. While some people might be quite attached to their routines and supermarket trips, younger people today are comfortable with using these kinds of commercial channels, and they can be used to encourage people to eat more locally-grown food. “We are trying to prove that this is an economically viable means of producing and distributing food. With the aim of encouraging behavioural change in food purchasing, and to ensure the sale of food produced in these short circuits, the product is enriched with environmental information, the result of research and all the data collected in the field, and with social information on the production process.”
This includes analysis of each of the different production systems, with
“ We are working to de-carbonise the local food system, and to prove the viability of shorter, locally-based food circuits.”
researchers seeking to demonstrate that farmers can prosper using these methods. Alongside this work, researchers are also investigating how locally-grown produce can be brought to market efficiently. “We want to show to potential new entrants that it’s possible to thrive and make profits in the agricultural sector.” This research is currently focused on the city of VitoriaGasteiz, but a broadly similar approach could be adopted in other parts of the Basque country and Spain more widely, taking local conditions into account.
Agrifood system
The project is still at a relatively early stage of its four-year and a half funding term however, and attention is currently focused primarily on the agrifood system in VitoriaGasteiz, and encouraging more people to consume locally-produced food. In the first year of the project a lot of energy was devoted to organising the production model and an incubator to attract new entrants to the agricultural sector, and over the next twelve months or so researchers are going to focus a lot of attention on the digital sales
platform. “The marketplace has been built, but it is not yet open to the general public, as the tool is being adjusted and some tests are still in progress,” says Ruiz de Infante.
“The intention is to open the marketplace in the Spring, while the production work will require committed and skilled farmers. If we can shorten the production chain, we will start to de-carbonise the system and improve food security,” he continues.
The project’s agenda also includes encouraging new entrants to the sector and teaching them about agricultural practices. A cohort of students will learn about different aspects of farming, from working on the land to bringing produce to market. “We want to demonstrate the social and economic viability of the new farming model,” says de Santiago. However, while many people want to support local food producers, small-scale farmers do still face some legislative barriers, an issue Ruiz de Infante says will be addressed in the later stages of the project. “We want to identify those barriers and try to change certain restrictive local policies in the last two years of the project,” says Ruiz de Infante.
CROPS4LIFE
Carbon Removal governance Outline and Periurban agriculture for Sustainable food system
Project Objectives
The project objective is to decarbonise the local agri-food system in the current context of climate change. To this end, it seeks to generate a short circuit of production and consumption of fresh food, under regenerative agriculturebased management, thus reducing the sector’s carbon footprint and improving soil health and biodiversity associated with agrosystems.
Project Funding
Funded by the Program for Environment and Climate Action LIFE 2022, under the grant agreement 101114329 LIFE22-GIC-ESCROPS4LIFE.
Project Partners
• Environmental Studies Centre (coordinator)
• CoopCycle
• Sustraiak Habitat Design
• Javier Chaves Padilla
• Eraman Coop.
• Amaterra
• Neiker
• Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council
• Provincial Council of Alava (collaborator)
Contact Details
Project Coordinator, de Santiago, María Environmental Studies Centre of the Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council
T: +9 45 162696 ext. 3382
E: mdesantiago@vitoria-gasteiz.org
W: https://www.vitoria-gasteiz.org/crops4life
Jon Ruiz de Infante is a graduate in Biological Sciences. With experience in the research sector, I was part of the population ecology group of the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies, and in the technical sector, as an advisor in sustainability policies in the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Currently working as environmental technician in the Environmental Studies Centre of Vitoria-Gasteiz.
María de Santiago is an Agricultural Engineer.
The first years of my professional career were linked to geographic information systems, mainly in hydrological planning. Since 2014, have been involved in the development of the local Sustainable Agri-Food Strategy and have had the opportunity to discover the main challenges of the local agri-food ecosystem in relation to sustainability and climate change.
Jon Ruiz de Infante María de Santiago
CROPS4LIFE working team.
Testers carrying out composting practices.
Bio-intensive horticulture practices.
Vitoria-Gasteiz agricultural landscape.