The denser, the better?

From a 100 trees per hectare, planted in traditional orchards meadows before the 1930s, over the years, the plantations began the get denser. Currently, they can reach up to a 6500 trees per hectare. This transition is due to socio-economic changes in our food systems in the last 100 years, and has consequences for the South Tyrolean valley landscapes.

Some historical events and facts explain this process, for example the boom of international trade following the opening of the Brenner-railway connecting Italy and Austria (1867) or the global economic crisis of the 1930s that made it reliable crops a priority for farmers. Landscape management (1880s) and technological innovations such as sprayers and tractors (1945) resulted in the increase of dry, cultivated land where more and more plants could be farmed. A big change came about in the 1950s, when the use of pesticides and narrow rows of apple trees forced farmers to gradually give up their animals, who were previously grazing by the orchards.

The shapes of apple trees shifted themselves, they became smaller and thinner, as they started planting more resistant, American cultivars, on a rootstock in the 1970s. Nowadays, as a result of policies supporting monoculture farming, the habitats previously rich in species, and apple varieties, are simplified and fragmented. The biggest crisis is caused by the intensive use of pesticides and fertilizers as they eliminate other beings around the apple trees, reducing biodiversity near the large plantations. Airborne pesticide drift is also a major agricultural environmental concern, affecting ecosystems far from where pesticides are applied.

In this fruit salad, the apple-grape ratio reflect the agricultural land use in South Tyrol: 94% of land is used to grow apples, while other crops (such as grapes, other fruit trees or corn) only occupy 6%. As consumers, we are presented with this option, even if the way apple-growing changes the landscape does not match our personal values. It is not a realistic choice to stop eating apples. However, it is possible to support local groups who protect indigenous seed varieties, work to save the remaining orchards or practice more regenerative farming techniques. They’re working on a slow transition, built on multispecies co-existence and care, operating on a much smaller scale. They leave much more breathing space in-between plants.