"They work for me night and day," smiles Antonio Zamora, standing in his greenhouse. His minuscule employees are bugs that feed on the parasites threatening his peppers.

Zamora, like most of his colleagues, no longer sprays his crops with pesticides, instead hanging small bags of mites on the plants, leaving them to attack parasites while sparing his produce.

He owns two hectares (five acres) in the so-called "Sea of Plastic", some 30,000 hectares of greenhouses in southeastern Spain's Almeria province, where much of Europe's fruits and vegetables are grown.

The sparkling mosaic of white plastic bordering the Mediterranean -- which is visible from space -- produces tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, peppers and aubergines all year round to supply Europe's supermarkets.

Last year 2.5 million tonnes of produce was exported from Almeria, half of Spain's total vegetable exports.

Like Zamora, virtually all pepper growers in Almeria have replaced insecticides with so-called "biological control" using insects.

About 60 percent of tomato growers have done the same, along with a quarter of courgette producers, according to the producers' association Coexphal.

Consumption of insecticides in Almeria -- where agriculture employs some 120,000 people and accounts for 20 percent of economic output -- has dropped by 40 percent since 2007, according to local authorities.

- A trillion insects -

The use of insecticides surged in the 1960s, but farmers have adopted new methods under pressure from consumer groups as well as the fact that their crops have become increasingly resistant to the chemicals.

"We have had to change course. The use of pesticides became excessive," said Jan van der Blom, an expert in biocontrol at Coexphal.

Encarnacion Samblas of environmental group Ecologists in Action described the change as a "very positive step".

"In many cases the reduction in the use of chemical products has been drastic, and the substances that are still in use are softer," she said.

French agricultural cooperative InVivo, which has yearly sales of 5.5 billion euros ($6.2 billion), recently opened a "biofactory", Bioline Iberia, in the heart of the Sea of Plastic.

Inside hermetically closed rooms with tightly controlled temperature and humidity levels, employees raise four species of mites to be sold in the region as well as in Portugal and Morocco.

The company projects production of a trillion insects this year.

Several other factories of the same type have sprung up in recent years around the Sea of Plastic, and roughly 30 firms sell insects, at steadily decreasing prices.

"Spain can be considered the largest area in Europe and perhaps the world in terms of the use of biological control," said Bioline Iberia director Federico Garcia.

- Chemicals still prevalent -

But the road to truly green farming remains long, said Samblas of Ecologists in Action, noting that many farmers still use fungicides and various other substances to disinfect soils.

"Farmers continue to use chemicals in a not very rational way, because they are recommended, they are sold to them. Often they use them as a routine, without really knowing why," she said.

Even "organic" greenhouses -- with 2,000 hectares certified as such or seeking the label -- often pay little heed to biodiversity or fail to take proper care of the soil, the ecologist said.

She noted that European regulations on these issues are lacking.

An increase in the amount of land used for farming has put pressure on water resources in an arid region, Samblas added.

Agronomist Jose Manuel Torres warned that year-round farming methods favour the growth of parasites, arguing that the region should halt production during the summer.

Samblas noted another problem: old greenhouse plastics often find their way into the Mediterranean.

Fishing for plastic on Amsterdam's eco-friendly canal cruises
Amsterdam (AFP) July 26, 2019 - Equipped with fishing rods and thick gloves, a group of people peers into the water from one of the many boats that line Amsterdam's famous canals.

But it's not fish they're hunting on their cruise along one of the Dutch capital's most famous tourist attractions -- it's plastic.

With eco-tourism booming around the world, the canal cruises run by the Dutch group Plastic Whale are reeling in big business.

"It's a completely other way of visiting Amsterdam," Plastic Whale founder Marius Smit told AFP.

"Obviously you're on the beautiful canals of Amsterdam in a really nice boat, but at the same time you're active as well, and you add something positive to the canals and to the city because you're making it cleaner."

Smit set up the company eight years ago, aiming to create "economic value" from the plastic waste the tours dredge from the canals.

Plastic bottles are separated from the rest of the trash and are then recycled to be used in office furniture -- or in building more Plastic Whale boats.

In 2018 the Plastic Whale cruises, which also run in the port city of Rotterdam, drew 12,000 visitors and this year they expect more, said Smit.

Britain's Prince Harry was due to be among the visitors earlier this year but had to cancel due to the birth of his son Archie.

- Pineapples and shoes -

On a hot summer's morning, seven people are lined up on the bright green boat decorated with smiling whales.

Angela Katz, an Australian who has lived in Amsterdam for just over a year, is on her second tour, after learning about the cruises through Facebook.

"I really enjoyed it but also it's really eye-opening just how much rubbish there is in the canals," said the 51-year-old graphic designer, fishing rod in hand.

During the two-hour tour they fish out a bizarre range of objects including various shoes, ski gloves, bleached out soda cans, wine bottles, a nappy, and even a whole pineapple.

"I think the Netherlands has an image of being very environmentally friendly so it is surprising," added Katz, who brought her husband on the cruise as well as two friends and their three children who were visiting Amsterdam.

One of those friends, Guy O'Loughnane, from Vancouver in Canada, said he was particularly surprised by the amount of "stuff that is not even used", such as unopened bottles.

Last year, the thousands of amateur fishermen on Plastic Whale's boats collected 46,000 plastic bottles, said Smit.

"And for every bag of bottles that we take out of the canals, we take out two or three bags of other kinds of materials," he added.

- 'Tourists aren't careful' -

Plastic in the sea, rivers and other waterways is a problem around the globe, causing harm to marine ecosystems.

Just how much plastic is in the canals of the city dubbed the Venice of the North is hard to estimate, but solutions are easier to find.

"Tourists aren't careful," says Angela Katz as she stands in front of a pile of rubbish.

Marius Smit says however that despite the growing strain on Amsterdam from huge numbers of tourists, local residents are also "careless with their own waste".

"It's a combination of factors," he says, explaining that the city's bins fill up more quickly because of the numbers of tourists, and then people simply place their rubbish beneath them.

"So before you know it there is a lot of waste on the streets, then it begins to rain or the wind begins to blow and it rains or blows into the canals," he says.

Amsterdam is increasingly a victim of its own success, with its canals, architecture and notorious red light district attracting around 18 million visitors last year, more than the entire population of the Netherlands.

The Plastic Whale tours are part of a growing trend, with Amsterdam authorities separately launching a series of initiatives to direct tourists to alternative activities and ease the pressure on the top sites.

Smit however says that tourists are outnumbered by the Dutch on the cruises.

"Interest in the environment is growing explosively within Dutch society in general," he said.

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Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up

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