Deep Roots

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to meet a range of new societal demands that are being

articulated from the cities towards the countryside. Family

farmers are also building new intermediary organizations

(such as territorial cooperatives that take care of the land-

scape, biodiversity and sustainability) in order to respond

to rigid regulatory schemes. Self-regulation is the key

method of operation of these organizations. The capacity

to meet new needs (while simultaneously strengthening

farming and food production) and to respond to new prob-

lems is a reflection of the strength and resilience of family

farms. When it comes to meeting new challenges (such as

reducing energy use, mitigating climate change, enlarging

biodiversity and water retention) this capacity will prob-

ably once again turn out to be decisive. However, there are

reasons for doubting whether the ‘lines of defence’ that

family farmers are constructing will be sufficient – espe-

cially given the turbulence generated by the world market

for food and agricultural products.

Alongside these external threats there are also internal ones.

The biggest one of these is probably the recent tendency of a

small segment of family farms to engage in accelerated expan-

sion that results in the creation of megafarms: very large units

of production that formally maintain their status as family

farms but whose dimensions are disproportionate to those of

regular family farms. These megafarms increasingly monop-

olize market opportunities; they represent an accentuated

concentration of land, and they take away chances for further

development from the remaining family farms. In short, their

operation negatively impacts upon on the large majority of

other family farms (wherever they are located).

Megafarms also produce a range of social ills. Their

elevated scale of production means that they almost inevita-

bly use industrialized farming methods. These methods are

increasingly criticized by citizens and consumers as debas-

ing product quality, harming animal welfare, increasing

environmental pressures, harming the landscape, reducing

the quality of life in rural areas and being disproportion-

ately high energy users, among other things.

The panorama of family farming in Europe and Central

Asia is complex. Family farming is omnipresent and is of

‘Agricultural workers between the Byzantyne walls’, Turkey (IYFF photo competition - Europe regional winner)

Image: Hakan Yayla

egional

erspectives