“Mejana is the most unique area in the orchard of Tudela, a land as an island, where three or four centuries ago the course of the Ebro River was modified and rich sedimentation lands remained.” Patxi Uriz Domezain, producer and director of the documentary Los ultimas de la Mejana has given us the explanations. The chef Santi Lifeline, from Tudela, has been in charge of creating the new project.

The decline of gardeners also in the city of vegetables

The idea of the documentary is based on the proposal of Cordon for the film. “A year ago his father, one of Mejana’s last horticulturists, died and called me telling me that he would like to document the work of these last ortuzeros,” the director explains. The project was submitted to the subsidies of the Government of Navarra, and they were put to work as soon as they received the aid.

If in 1980 there were 1,500 horticulturists in Tudela, today it's only 25. The change that has taken place over 30 years is total. “Today there is no generational relief that works handcrafted together with the cycles of nature. Agroindustry has done great damage to small gardeners,” says Uriz. The objective of the documentary is to value the work of the last remaining horticulturists, disseminate all their knowledge and encourage people to reflect on the current paradigm of food.

“The most local is the international”

In addition to Tudela, the recordings of the documentary will also be made in Almeria and Murcia. “It is a question of making a parallel between the forms of cultivation of small farmers here and that of agro-industry,” the director explains. “As in South America happens with quinoa or soybeans, here it is with vegetables. Today Tudela buds are produced in Murcia, where no one consumes buds…”. Another example of an absurd situation.

The authors are now thinking about the possibility of travelling to Japan. The idea would be to collect in the documentary the legacy of Masanobu Fukuoka around permaculture. The work is expected to be completed by June, regardless of whether it is going to Japan, in order to be able to present the documentary at the end of October. So that the “last ones of Mejana” that appear therein are not the last ones.