Our first day of field work has been decided to visiting some places around the city of Maspalomas which are linked to the rural areas and our domain of interest.
First, we wanted to go to the “Banana Park”, a Thematic Park made for tourist to learn more about the banana production of the Canary Island. Unfortunately it had been closed down a few years ago and today that place is a used as a farm cultivation of Mangos which offers also catering services for marriages and anniversaries.
In search of a local agriculture production we had visited the “Hortabell Canarias , S.L.”. The farm is very innovative example how a local farm can adjust to globalized economy. Instead of competing with the world market they are more focused on the local market on the island. They are trying to establish a new model of food supply. In addition to selling their products in shops and street markets, they also want to give the opportunity to the consumer to go there and collect the fruits (of every kind) by themselves.
The second stop was dedicated to a very important product in the past of the Canary Island. The Cochineal (Cochinilla) which is a small insect living on Cacti. It was collected to produce natural dye of red color, which is used for food coloring (like yoghurts without fruit, meat,…) or cosmetics (f.e. lipsticks). The farm we visited doesn´t collect Cochineals anymore. Instead they are selling the fruit of the cactus (called Tunos), which they sell on the local market. This seems to be a more lucrative business.
The last stop was the “Salobre Golf Resort”. A visit to a golf resort helped us to understand how tourism affects the rural area on the island. What used to be a tomato plantation was transformed into a luxury tourist resort, with a golf court as main attraction. Nowadays it provides jobs for the local community but in long term it could have negative environmental and social consequences such as the unsustainable water supply or soil degradation.
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