Tomatoes and strawberries in the middle of Greenland

In the Arctic Circle, a "chef" is cultivating vegetables, vegetables and herbs-thyme, potato, tomato, chili-more consistent with a suburban garden in temperate zone with a land of northern lights, glaciers and bois muskoxen.
Some inuit hunters (ethnic group known as Eskimo, a term currently rejected by its members) are finding reindeer fatter than ever, thanks to the intensification of grazing in this frozen tundra, and, for some, is no longer need to walk hours to find wild herbs.
Welcome to climate change in Greenland, where the natives say that longer and warmer summers allow you to predict that the country will cultivate agricultural products unthinkable years ago.
"Things are simply growing faster," said Kim Ernst, the "chef" Danish Roklubben restaurant, situated on the edge of a frozen lake near a former American military base during the cold war.
"Every year we experience new things," said Ernst, who even managed to cultivate a handful of strawberries, served a few surprised members of the Scandinavian Royal House. "I came here for the first time in 1999, and no one would have dreamed of doing this. But now summer days seem hotter and longer. "
The temperature was 20 degrees below zero in March, but there was the Sun and the air were stopped, giving almost a feeling of spring. Ernst showed your greenhouse and outdoor winter garden where, within a few months, the plants can come back to sprout.
Hundreds of miles to the South, some farmers produce hay and sheep breeding farms increased in size. Some supermarkets in the capital, Nuuk, sell vegetables produced locally during the summer.
The weight commercial agricultural production is still crawling. But what attests to the change is the fact that the Government of Greenland have formed a Committee this year to study how climate change can help farmers to increase agricultural production and to replace expensive imported food.
The change is already under way. The production of potatoes grown commercially in southern Greenland has achieved more than 100 tons in 2012, double the crop of 2008. The production of vegetables in the region is expected to double this year from 2012, according to the Government.
Some politicians expect global warming allow the country, whose territory is equivalent to a quarter of the u.s. reduce its reliance on the former colonial metropolis, Denmark, for much of its food, at a time when the political parties pressing for full independence.
Greenland, which is self-managed, except in matters of defence and security, depends on an annual subsidy from Denmark about $ 600 million, or half of the annual budget of the island. But the melting of its huge ice boosted mining and oil exploration, in addition to the interest in agriculture.
"I see a lot of development on sheep farming and agriculture due to global warming," said the Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist, whose Government is responsible for the formation of the Commission. "These activities can become an important complement of our economy."
The natives love to count the first time the viking Erik the Red arrived here in the 10th century, and labeled the "ice-covered island Greenland" (in English "Greenland", "green earth") in order to attract other people to settle here. There is evidence that the climate was warmer back then, allowing the vikings should till agricultural products for five centuries, before mysteriously disappearing.
The scale of this new agricultural production is minuscule. There are only a few tens of farms of sheep farming in southern Greenland, where you can see most of the impact of climate change. The number of cows can reach less than a hundred. But with 57 000 inhabitants, mainly inuit, the number of mouths to feed is also small.
"You have to put it in perspective. We were of the High Arctic and now we are more subárticos, "said Kenneth Hoegh, agronomist and ex-alto Adviser to the Government. "But we are Arctic, anyway."
The symbolism is huge, however, and draws attention to a worldwide climate change that saw a high Arctic temperature equivalent to almost twice the world average-about 0.8° c since pre-industrial times. "There are currently huge areas in the South of Greenland where you can grow plants," said Josephine Nymand, scientist of the Institute of natural resources of Greenland in Nuuk. "The potato was the most benefited. The cabbage has also been very successful. "
Sten Erik Langstrup Pedersen, who runs an organic farm in a fjord near Nuuk, cultivated potatoes for the first time in 1976. Now he can plant crops with two weeks in advance in May and spoon with three weeks of delay in October, compared to more than a decade ago. He cultivates 23 types of vegetables, compared to ten years ago, 15 including beans, peas, herbs and strawberries. Says have sold strawberries to first-rate restaurants of Copenhagen. But Pedersen is skeptical about the degree of penetration of this practice. "The Greenlanders are impatient. If they see a seal, they want to hunt it immediately. Never be able to expect the Greens to grow. "
Even so, there is potential. Hoegh estimates that Greenland can meet half of its food needs with agricultural products grown in the country, which would have good condition to compete with products imported from Denmark, more expensive. But the global change brings not only benefits. Although the summers are warmer, it rains less. Some experts say that Greenland could soon need irrigation works-ironic thing for a country of ice and lakes. "We had dry summers in recent years," said Aqqalooraq Frederiksen, high agricultural Advisor of southern Greenland, who said that a late spring last year, hurt the potato crop.
In the Arctic Circle, a Flash flood occurred last summer, pulled out the only bridge that connected the Ernst restaurant at the airport. The suspected, the disaster was caused by water resulting from the melting of glaciers-assigned, by some places here to hot weather. The destruction occurred precisely in the middle of the tourist season, and the restaurant has lost thousands of dollars.
The incident was an unfortunate reminder that global warming will bring their problems. Even so, to Pedersen and its fjord in Nuuk, the future looks good. "The hotter the better. For me, "said Pedersen. (Translation of Warsaw Rachel)