Portugal

António da Encarnação, farmer, aged 75 ECO123: What can we do to avoid forest fires in Portugal? We need young farmers. I love the place where I was born. I love it a lot. I’ve always loved it. I’ve never left it to go anywhere else. The best product that we have in Portugal is medronho. We don’t want a subsidy, we want it to be free like it was in the past. I’m 75, I started distilling when I was 13. The most miserable thing that the Portuguese have got is gathering medronho. It’s very badly paid, there’s a …

Doctor Gerd Zabel is a farmer and botanist. He is German, aged 69 and lives in Silves. He is the owner of “Quinta da Figueirinha”, an organic farm with 30 hectares of land, and olive, fig, almond and carob trees. He is experimenting with less flammable trees, as part of a project financed by the EU. The Quinta has drought-resistant agricultural and forest plants to preserve the pasture and control erosion, and fire-resistant trees, shrubs and ground cover to prevent forest fires. The choice of plants is essential, and requires a series of precautions and information about the species, varieties …

After a scorching summer, the freshness of autumn brings us pleasant and more moderate temperatures. It’s time to put away your short clothes, pull one or two jackets out of the drawers and rediscover some recipes for warming, comforting dishes. Chef Tiago Lopes’s vegetarian suggestions include autumnal colours and intensity, in a perfect combination of flavours for an early evening with friends or family. Use fresh ingredients, whenever possible bought from local, organic producers. Autumn is ideal for good conversations – talk to the farmers, ask for tips for cooking their produce, and perhaps you’ll discover an old family recipe …

There it is in front of the door, and it looks like a completely normal car. Could even be a BMW. You don’t feel the difference until you’re sitting in it. On the dashboard, I find a 17” touch screen. It’s the car’s nerve centre. Roberto explains how it works. The computer (or the NSA) controls the navigation system, the internet connection, the front and rear cameras, the built-in telephone, the media centre, energy consumption and all the other personal control functions which you have to adjust yourself before setting off. You can say that the car is a machine …

Every day, thousands of cosmetic products are consumed, the majority of which contain some kind of chemical agent which tends to affect one’s health. It was with this concern it mind that the sisters Rita and Cátia Curica founded Organii, the first Portuguese company dedicated to organic cosmetics with personalised solutions for each skin. Products are cultivated without any use of pesticides and produced without the addition of any artificial ingredients. Organii’s idea is to obtain purer and more active extracts, and in parallel reduce their environmental footprint. It is not only that the products were not tested on animals; …

From people to people In the 1960s, New York had Andy Warhol’s Factory, of which John Cale said “every day something new”. This description applies perfectly to the LX Factory in Lisbon, which is similar in every way to a living organism. In the 43,000m² of this “Creative Island”, there are more than 200 companies where some 1,500 people work. One of the places that best represents the spirit of the LX Factory is CoWork, a working space shared by independent professionals. But it is practically impossible not to visit every corner of the place, driven in equal measure by …

Shaded by trees, the river Mira meanders lazily from Odemira to Vila Nova de Milfontes. For people wanting to spend their autumn holidays here with children and canoes, www.ecotrails.info offer a weekend tour in a leisurely paddling area. As the tide goes out, you paddle towards the mouth of the river, and you paddle back as the tide comes in. Each stretch of just over 30 km of paddling in one direction can easily be covered in two days. You can also add an overnight stop in Casas Brancas.

To tell the story of SolarImpulse – the first solar aero plane project – we have to begin seven years ago in Switzerland. Here the idea was born. This summer the initiators and pilots André Borschberg and Bernard Piccard flew with it across the USA covering more than 5.600 km despite being confronted with heavy weather challenges. SolarImpulse, the first airplane ever to fly day and night on solar energy only, proved the reliability and efficiency of clean technologies and renewable energies. SolarImpulse took advantage of Switzerland’s long tradition of technological innovation, research and entrepreneurial excellence. Over the centuries this …

Organic agriculture is not a recent phenomenon and proof of this is that Agrobio, the Portuguese Organic Agriculture Association, has been running for 28 years. According to its president, Jaime Ferreira, the number of people involved in this field has increased, but the total is small. More and more consumers are interested but they have difficulty finding the products easily. The Algarve has some 3,000 hectares of land certificated for organic farming, with vegetables, fruit and some vineyards close to the coast accounting for quite a small share as compared with pasture and olive groves in the uplands of the …

Many companies come into being to fill a need in the market, but there are others that emerge, quite literally, as a matter of health. This is what happened with Próvida, which started as a way of curing anaemia through nutrition. Founded in 1984 by Alcino and Cesaltina Sousa, this company produces and sells natural foodstuffs, and its philosophy is concern with the quality of life. Apart from its 1800 distribution points, Próvida also has a unit for producing fresh items. There you can find more than ten sorts of sugar-free biscuits, different types of wholemeal bread and a range …