Ecological Impacts of Agribusiness Transformation in a Spanish Mediterranean Enclave: Impacts on the Mar Menor Coastal Lagoon

Abstract

In recent decades, most Spanish Mediterranean agricultural regions have been transformed to meet global food demands and have joined global agricultural production networks: a convergence process that has granted them steady economic growth. In certain cases, however, this transformation has led to a process of ecological degradation. This article focuses on the Torre-Pacheco case, in the Campo de Cartagena region (southeast Spain, Murcia), to reconstruct the events that have led the region to become a global production enclave in agribusiness and to determine the connections between agribusiness transformation and ecological degradation. To this end, a water transfer project is first addressed as the turning point for the local agricultural sector from which the transformation of agribusiness is described regarding land use, technical adaptations, employment/recruitment changes, etc. A documented result of these agribusiness transformations is subsequently presented: a significant contribution to the ecological degradation of the Mar Menor coastal lagoon, whose natural site will remain endangered if ‘business as usual’ continues.

In recent decades, most Spanish Mediterranean agricultural regions have been transformed to meet global food demands and have joined global agricultural production networks: a convergence process that has granted them steady economic growth. In certain cases, however, this transformation has led to a process of ecological degradation. This article focuses on the Torre-Pacheco case, in the Campo de Cartagena region (southeast Spain, Murcia), to reconstruct the events that have led the region to become a global production enclave in agribusiness and to determine the connections between agribusiness transformation and ecological degradation. To this end, a water transfer project is first addressed as the turning point for the local agricultural sector from which the transformation of agribusiness is described regarding land use, technical adaptations, employment/recruitment changes, etc. A documented result of these agribusiness transformations is subsequently presented: a significant contribution to the ecological degradation of the Mar Menor coastal lagoon, whose natural site will remain endangered if ‘business as usual’ continues.