The Greenhouses of Almeria: The Garden of Europe 

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I came here to see a Megaproject video and got a lesson in economics, logistics and supply chains of fresh produce. Good job, Simon.

My father's family lives there and have worked in and owned greenhouses since the 80s. Your video is quite accurate. Also in underscoring how problems, enviromental and social, are so hard to address. The economic forces are simply too strong. Nobody in this system has really much of a choice. Anyways, outside this megastructure, Almeria is actually a nice place to be!

Topic idea: The great man made river in Libya which is one of the biggest irrigation systems in the world at the cost of 25 billion and 4000 km of concrete pipes. Its pumping water from the Sahara to the cost line. This is done for a country with a population of 6 million And btw the bigger pipes are large enough for a truck to fit in them.

Do the Arecibo Observatory Telescope

i live in europe and i never ever heard of this. im kinda shocked. im aware that a lot of mediterranean fruits and vegetable come from spain like oranges and stuff but i never knew something that vast exists.

Hey Simon, I'm Spanish and I live next to this place and after watching this video I have to say a couple of things: first about working conditions, I have many friends who have worked here and yes, conditions are horrible: extra hours that go nowhere, working sundays, etc. but inside this green houses of course you can find spanish workers and the major part of the inmigrants are not treated in such a bad way. As you say in the video, there are abuses that must to be solved, of course, but I think I'ts important to point out that this still a minority and the major parts of the inmigrants come here, work and improve their lives. (again, those problems should not exist) Second about envirionment: This is not (yet) an envirionmental dissaster. Actually worst pollutants are nitrates that come from pesticides used (without any regulation) in the green houses. This problem affects the ground and groundwater. The waste problems are different and again I want to pint out that local governments and companies are making big efforts to reduce the impact of plastic and plants waste. In general, I think things are not perfect but have been improoving through last years and I hope it continue improoving. I just want to give the vision from inside, for me it looks like spain always takes the worst news. People here worked a lot (and still working) to take this place to this point, in the 40's this was basically the north of Africa and I think is not fair for us to speak only bad words about this.

Hey, Simon, in your myriad collection of video identities, have you ever done a video about the fake town built as camouflage on the Boeing factory roof during World War II?

really interesting Simon. I knew nothing of this at all

I worked in Canada’s Salmonella Epidemiology Laboratory from 1965 to 1968. It was well known that at that time, canned goods which had been pulled from the shelves due to suspected Salmonella contamination would be shipped to Spain. . . I suspect (hope?) that this is no longer the case. . .

Across the pond, Leamington Ontario has the largest concentration of greenhouse in N. America and is also visible from space. Also Russia is building greenhouses like crazy because of european sanctions.

Do the green houses of the Netherlands next!! I want to see what high tech green house farming is like.

Megaproject Suggestion. Longest deep bore ice core in Antarctica. Took years, loads of drama with it and they found some cool stuff like a fresh water lake under the ice containing previously unknown lifeforms. Would go Well with the other hole projects that are popular Speaking of deep holes, how about the Kidd Mine as well

This is a great topic and a very interesting episode, more of that kind of content will be much appreciated

i liked that snap at the beginning

Simon, thank you. I realized today your various channels have been essential in preserving my sanity through this ridiculous year. You sir, are the Legend.

I literally asked about this yesterday....THANKS SIMON!!!! :)

This was one of the most informative Mega Project episodes that I've seen (I've seen all of them). I had no prior knowledge of the existence of this region, yet in 15 mins you've managed to cover the basics from several different angles. Well done.

Can we get an episode about the arecibo radio telescope

That’s amazing to see. Makes us wonder where are food comes from. Thanks Simon and Danny in the basement and Sam.

By far the best video you have ever made. Great job

Your Delivery is impeccable - day-in-day-out; how do you do it?

Simon, would you consider doing a episode of Mega Projects about the Mackinac Bridge?

I first learned of this area by watching the Netflix series, "Mar de Plastico." It's a detective-murder mystery series. Then I google-mapped the area. It's astonishing how vast and complex the area really is.

Another great video.

Fantastic project! Never heard of it.

A consumer can only choose from the options available and has little power to influence what is available.

Good docu!

2:30 - Chapter 1 - Europe's fruits & vegetables 3:45 - Chapter 2 - The 1960s 4:45 - Chapter 3 - Early greenhouses 6:05 - Chapter 4 - Intensive farming 7:15 - Mid roll ads 8:55 - Chapter 5 - Workers 10:50 - Chapter 6 - Problems further the chain 11:50 - Chapter 7 - The cost of cheap produce - Chapter 8 -

Thank you

Good video 👍

I live in the area, but instead of the greenhouses its sheets of plastic on the ground and millions of lettuce grown around my house, a lot of the plastic is cut but the tractor during harvest and gets blown everywhere by the winds, lots of small tornadoes daily. My land fences and trees are constantly covered and cleaning up is full time job in itself. But lots of free veg to be had.

That’s amazing to see. Makes us wonder where are food comes from. Thanks Simon and Danny in the basement

Nice side track to your commercial.

Never heard of it. Great stuff 👍

Something to consider is that the main benefactors (consumer-wise) from these farms are likely lower income households, who thusly now have better access to fresh produce, compared to if we relied on more traditional and expensive farming methods.

Today i drive from Nerja to Cartegna - OMG from the mountains to almost the sea, there were white plastic greenhouses freaking EVERYWHERE!!😮 Great article, thanks!!😉👏

I would love to know more about the profit margins and other costs, and the prospect of the unionization of the workforce in this and similar facilities. Also, I believe some of the benefits of this approach include water savings and decreased pollution if worker rights are addressed.

Wild views!

Like the video. Never thought you would do this. The beaches of Cabo de Gata is beautiful and its ridiculous to drive through the invernaderos just to see Europes only true desert.

During the winter in NC we get Tomatoes from Spain. I've always wondered if they came from this place.

I can't even afford the cheap produce. Eating healthy is a rich man's luxury.

Lot to digest there!! We willingly turn a blind eye to the negatives as ling as we get our cheap good.

Live and let live

Hey Simon, great video! To keep certain research topics for university courses interesting, I watch YT videos. I would like to be able to reference your facts and figures, so referencing your statements would be appreciated!

Awesome

For all it’s drawbacks I think we need to remember it’s difficult to say the effects of environmental damage is a huge concern here. the landscape being used appears to be otherwise Barron and is now productive. On that note How about a Re greening the desert video?

Eyyyyy Spain again! Can you do Madrid Metro?

Here is a megaproject. The USS Monitor. She may not have been huge, but the impact on naval warfare was massive. She ended wooden sailing warships and warships with rows of guns, had more than 40 patentable components, and the world's first rotating turret ever to be used in battle. She is the true ancestor to all modern warships.

Really interesting! Even though the specific way this is done in Spain does have a lot of labor and waste issues, it's really interesting to see one can really do hydroponics on such a large scale & more or less independently on local conditions. This really opens many possibilities for isolated artificial environments such as bit polar stations or Mars/Lunar/orbital colonies. Of course you need to provide an atmosphere, light and water but apparently the farmers of Almeria managed to figure the rest & on a huge scale. Also hopefully these future implementations will manage to avoids the many downsides of the current one, with waste recycling or even robotic picking.

Can you do one on Canada's west coast trail? (AKA The Dominion Lifesaving Trail/ is a 75 km backpacking trail following the southwestern edge of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It was built in 1907 to facilitate the rescue of shipwrecked survivors along the coast)

Hi Simon, could you do a show on the Snowy Mountains hydro electric scheme? Cheers.

Megaproject on SETI or the Arecibo Radio Telescope?

I recommend the 2015 series Mar de plástico . It shows many of the issues faced by the workers in Almeria. Plus it's a great crime story.

Resembling a mirage? Guess you could say they're like Andalusian.

How about an episode on The Berlin Airlift?

Good report. The aerial views of land around Gulf of Almeria are really stunning. Why the concentration there though, and not other parts of southern Spain? Cheap land I guess?

Simon, Utah has a large greenhouse run using natural gas from a garbage landfill. The largest workforce within the place is bumblebees pollinating the tomato (toe-may-toe) vines. :) This supplies Utah and Nevada with tomatoes year around.

If you travel by plane to the north of moroco you can se the white patch from the sky. It is very distictive.

Liked video 👍

Can you do a video about the construction of Flevoland?

I've you are fluent in Spanish, check "Mar the Plástico" it's related to a small village with many green houses and a shady past

I think this is where they shot some of the scenes for the new opening shots from the new blade runner movie

It’s pretty damn bad that I’ve not heard of the issues before. I’ve seen the images from above but really didn’t know anything about it

please do a video on the Holland Marsh. its just North of Toronto Canada its a REALLY big garden... it has a lot of history behind it.

Just a tip, when you say a currency, say USD not dollar. Because canada calls theirs dollars and it csn be a bit confusing. Thanks! Keep up the quality content!

Do the Sydney Harbour Bridge pleeease

ThrustSSC first land vehicle to officially break the sound barrier

Arecibo Radio Telescope would be neat

Love to watch a video about IOWA class battleships.......Simon

I live and work here, in Almeria. But here is not a bad life. Almeria it's a place great to be.

One of the bigger drivers for issues world wide is frankly profitability. But it is a hard problem to actually fix and a lot of people rarely think past their own nose.

I’ve been to Almeria, I do not remember these greenhouse at all though.

Talk about the arecibo observatory

A bit of a 'film noir' look on this one. Ominously cool.

I lived just over 1 hour away from this for 10 years and never knew it existed.

"Federal Reserve Bank of New York" is the epitome of a megaproject.

The temperature is lower there then surrounded area, just like snow

Out of the corner of my eye, I thought this title was "The Caves of Altamira" (you know like the Steely Dan song) haha

Have you done the Eden project yet?

These are one of those things that have already begun to become automated, and probably will go entirely so in the near future. If it does, similar giant automated greenhouse farms could be built in places where no one lives and where the waste byproducts can be dealt with, stored, or recycled with minimal to no hazard to people. Plus it just might simultaneously be a useful tool in the battle with global warming. If they were automated and the fertilizer runoff contamination problem solved massive greenhouse farms could be built on glaciers or icesheets that are melting too. Great episode.

Can you make a mega project on Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet built in later part of 17th century.

It seems to me that all the issues around working/living conditions could be solved with proper regulation and the plastic/chemical waste are a similar regulation + technology issue. But once those get sorted out this just seems like an incredibly effective and efficient way to grow produce!

"helish worker treatment" sounds like Amazon corporation :)

Ameria is also known for its cannabis seeds. Now makes more sense that i know about the greenhouses :)

There is nothing like a good education form a bald British man with a great big beard

Yo, do the Arecibo telescope

I might add more to this comment but stopped the video when you mentioned movies filmed in this area. I just have to say, THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY isn’t just the best western ever made, it’s one of the best damn movies of any ever made. An epic film that never fails to enthrall and give me great pleasure. I can’t imagine any other actors filling these roles: Clint Eastwood as "the Good", Lee Van Cleef as "the Bad", and Eli Wallach as "the Ugly". What a line up, what a movie. Back to Simon’s video. Simon Whistler the GOAT of RU-vid. The Legend...not allegedly but for real. Had never heard of this incredible plastic farm. Clearly this has to change at the top. The supermarkets ripping off the farmers have to be held accountable and their customers need to fully understand WHY the rise in cost of produce is necessary. I would think the EU would get involved in such an issue but obviously not. I could write pages of our, US, exploitation of illegal immigrants to feed our population but will shut up.

Thank you, great story on Garden out of No Use Land. Miracle revolution. Gotta give it to Spanish Agro ingeniius. But With a ugly side.

Seasonal veg is a joy to embrace. Open your brains and try it :)

Great for planet cooling too. More white reflection stuff.

As population increases around the world this kind of farming is going to become more common. If a way of automated harvesting could be found then it would be amazing.

Sadly, so true 😢

I used to be one of those East European low paid workers, although in UK and not in Spain. We must not take away the choice from the workers by mandating how much they must be paid. If they are willing to work for cheap, that is their business. They are better off to do this or they would not be doing it. As long as there's no coercion involved, it is none of our business what they have chosen to do and for how much. However, employing people who have no right to work in the country is another matter. There should be a heavy-handed crack down on this if there's to be rule of law in Europe.

Food for thought. (Please, no beating. Someone had to.)

100,000 workers for 98,000 acres that sounds way high.

Have u done the Panama canal it was pretty mega imo

I have a few suggestions: --> Zheng He's "treasure ships." --> The Titanic. --> The HMS Dreadnought. --> The first "ironclad" warships. --> The Bismarck, and the sinking thereof. --> The increasingly-absurd Nazi superheavy tanks, including the Maus and the unbuilt Landkreuzer P.1000 Ratte and P.1500 Monster (humorously enough, the latter two tanks were allegedly designed by the same guy: Eduard Grotte, a Krupp weapons designer who apparently was obsessed with making giant weapons, regardless of how practical they were). --> While we're on the subject of impractical Nazi megaprojects, perhaps the Schwerer Gustav, the Dora, or the V-2 Rocket?

also would pass as a setting for a horror movie/game.

Blink, and there's a new video by Simon :)