If you’re European and go grocery shopping, you’ll notice that around half of the fruits and vegetables available at any supermarket are from Spain. No shocker here, as the country’s Mediterranean climate favors year-round farming activities.
Yet, what most people don’t know is that most of the harvesting comes from an area of just under 1,000 km² called Poniente Almeriense, also known as the Garden of Europe, that covers a flat coastal territory just south of the popular resort town of Almería.
Why am I mentioning some Spanish farming area in an answer about the “strangest place on Earth”, you may ask? The truth is, this area is completely covered in greenhouses, to the point that Spanish people refer to it as mar de plástico (sea of plastic).
It all started in 1963, when the area, known as Campo de Dalías, started hosting the first intensive farming facilities. By 2000, the area had been entirely covered in plastic greenhouses. The two main controversies this practice is facing concern the near-slave conditions of workers, mostly African, and the pollution it produces, as discarded plastic waste ends up in the Mediterranean, heavily impacting the marine environment.
(NASA satellite pictures.)
Spain is the third-most visited country in the world. It gathered 75.6 million tourists last year alone. Yet, I bet nobody would expect such place to exist just a few minutes away from some of the most popular vacation resorts!
Picture Source Wikipedia
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