{"id":31976,"date":"2026-02-27T07:25:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/?p=31976"},"modified":"2026-02-27T07:26:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:26:01","slug":"turning-spains-desert-into-europes-orchard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2026\/02\/turning-spains-desert-into-europes-orchard\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning Spain&#8217;s Desert into Europe&#8217;s Orchard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>B2 &#8211; Upper Intermediate<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spain is a major agricultural powerhouse. It is also tagged as the &#8220;market garden of Europe.&#8221;\u00a0It is the leader in producing and exporting important crops such olive oil, wine, fruits, and vegetables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Biosabor Farm is just one organic farm in Almeria, one of the driest parts of Southern Spain. Such farms allow the region to produce crops all throughout the year with its high-tech greenhouses. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch this video about turning Spain&#8217;s desert into Europe&#8217;s orchard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Turning Spain&#039;s desert into Europe&#039;s orchard\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v0jI8cYqqfc?wmode=transparent&amp;rel=0&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Vocabulary Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Define \u201c<strong>blight<\/strong>\u201d. \u201c<em>Some would say the sea of plastic is a <\/em><strong><em>blight<\/em><\/strong><em> on the landscape. You say it\u2019s impressive.\u201d <\/em>Use the word in a sentence. Give a synonym.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What is a \u201c<strong>drip irrigation<\/strong>\u201d? \u201c<strong><em>Drip irrigation<\/em><\/strong><em> maximizes water use.<\/em>\u201d Use the term in a sentence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What does \u201c<strong>patch<\/strong>\u201d mean? \u201c<em>This <\/em><strong><em>patch<\/em><\/strong><em> of desert has become Europe\u2019s orchard.<\/em>\u201d Use the word in a sentence. Give a similar expression.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Discussion Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What is your opinion about the shrink wrapped greenhouses in Almeria?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What are the good and bad things about these greenhouses?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Talk about some challenges the agricultural sector of your country is currently facing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Share your insights about the crackdown on undocumented workers in the region and that despite this, it\u2019s still possible to find a job without proper papers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>More than 70% of growers transition to using natural predators as pest control. Share your thoughts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>B2 &#8211; Upper Intermediate&nbsp; Spain is a major agricultural powerhouse. It is also tagged as the &#8220;market garden of Europe.&#8221;\u00a0It is the leader in producing and exporting important crops such olive oil, wine, fruits, and vegetables. Biosabor Farm is just one organic farm in Almeria, one of the driest parts of Southern Spain. Such farms [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[291,304,292,290,14],"class_list":["post-31976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homework","tag-b2-upper-intermediate","tag-environment","tag-first-certificate-fce","tag-listening","tag-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v16.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Turning Spain&#039;s Desert into Europe&#039;s Orchard | phone english blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2026\/02\/turning-spains-desert-into-europes-orchard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Turning Spain&#039;s Desert into Europe&#039;s Orchard | phone english blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"B2 &#8211; Upper Intermediate&nbsp; Spain is a major agricultural powerhouse. It is also tagged as the &#8220;market garden of Europe.&#8221;\u00a0It is the leader in producing and exporting important crops such olive oil, wine, fruits, and vegetables. Biosabor Farm is just one organic farm in Almeria, one of the driest parts of Southern Spain. 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