The percentage of Catalan products sold at Mercabarna was 53% in 1988, while in 2023 it was only 15%. This figure, which appears in a study presented this Thursday by the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, perfectly summarizes the difficulty that the metropolitan population of Barcelona has in finding fresh, quality products close to home. In fact, the vast majority of the inhabitants of this large urban conurbation (88.65%) live in areas where the main food offering is ultra-processed products, with few fresh or healthy options.

Joan Anton Solans, once the General Plan for Barcelona (1976) was drawn up, which is still in force today, carried out an intense urban management action in the City Council, which incorporated so much public land that the subsequent democratic city council received a fabulous inheritance. And two years before the plan, in 1974, the Metropolitan Corporation of Barcelona had been created, the predecessor of the current Area (AMB). He then repeated the move as General Director of Urban Planning of the Generalitat, with the creation of Incasòl, which operates throughout Catalonia. There has never been a similar action on the Trinitarian front of planning, management and institutionality. And that was half a century ago.