In March of last year, the Special Plan for La Geria was presented, and currently, the Cabildo of Lanzarote is consulting on the Special Plan for the Protected Landscape of La Geria. This is an absolutely necessary document, whose elaboration is very complex and must be carried out with the utmost responsibility. It seeks to regulate the management and use of the landscape for which our island is world-renowned and a symbol for the people of Lanzarote of the values of our rural men.
La Geria tells us about the tireless struggle of the Lanzarote farmer to achieve good harvests despite the lack of water, the winds, and the heat that lash the vineyards, with the intelligent use of holes, shelters, walls, rofe... it speaks of the limitless resilience of our farmer in the face of bad harvests, who constantly bends down to offer the vines the care and pampering they need and who, standing upright, looks to the sky in search of the longed-for autumn rains or fearing the harmful summer drizzles. The legacy of our rural men of yesteryear is taken up by the current farmer, whose work continues to preserve the unique environment of La Geria.
Such is the attraction of these landscapes, with a significant tourist appeal, that they have become a busy route for cyclists, hikers, freetours, guides, tourist buses, rental cars; as well as the venue for frequent music festivals and sporting events.
The winegrower of La Geria has seen that, thanks to this tourist boom, the revaluation of their product, the grape, has finally arrived! In just a few years, the price per kilo of grapes has gone from 1 euro to 3.60 euros in the 2024 harvest. This is the price the farmer receives for the grapes whose wine leaves the winery at around 15 euros and is offered in restaurants between 30 and 40 euros, a price so high that it prevents the people of Lanzarote from tasting the wines of their land. What an irony to have heard from some restaurateurs that this price is justified by the increase in the price of grapes!
To understand that the island's wine sector is booming, one only has to take a tour of the island. In recent years, vineyard farms have proliferated in every corner, especially in areas where there are fewer limitations than in La Geria: the possibility of planting in rows and not in holes, greater freedom of movement of aggregates, and the possibility of irrigating the vines, in the best of cases with desalinated water and, if not, with purified water. Let's hope that the latter does not lead to a loss of quality such that the grape follows the same path as the tomato, the onion, or the Lanzarote sweet potato.
If all that the farmer of La Geria offers in return is the inconvenience of having to travel along the road at the pace set by cyclists, the heavy traffic, the road closures due to the different events, having to lift the stones of the shelters due to the irresponsibility of visitors who enter their farms, and conditions at an evident disadvantage when marketing their product, we will undoubtedly sing the Requiem for La Geria.
However, solutions can be put in place to prevent the farmer from throwing in the towel, here are some proposals: charging an entrance fee, tax, levy, call it what you will, to the many companies that only come to La Geria to do their business and whose collection goes directly to the farmer and not according to the criteria of the politician in charge; that the Regulatory Council makes a distinction within the Designation of Origin of Wines of Lanzarote for those made with grapes from La Geria and that grape prices are guaranteed that reflect the quality and difficulties of production compared to vineyards in other areas, many of which are owned by the winemakers.
The memory of paternal hands, calloused from lifting shelters, pruning, weeding, digging,... and the summer harvests, which have gotten under my skin to the point of almost being part of my DNA, prevent me from remaining silent and make me hope that the Special Plan for La Geria is not its Swan Song.
Someone who cares about their land and its people
