Deep Roots

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Image: Zornitsa Zdravkova

Image: Angel Benito Zapata

Fruit harvesting in the family garden, Bulgaria

Family farming in Spain

strategic importance, both now and in the future of the two

continents. But it is under threat. While its presence, role

and dynamics were once self-evident, we can no longer be

certain that family farming will be with us in the decades

to come. There is a widespread feeling that the disappear-

ance of family farming would be an immense loss. Thus,

new responses are needed that address both the external

and the internal threats.

There is growing awareness of the need to construct, at the

level of single or cooperating countries, new sovereign forms

of food and nutritional security. This will be a far from easy

task and it will surely take many years (although sudden and

unexpected crises might speed up the process). However, it

is equally certain that family farms are to be at the basis of

this new food model – simply because they are and remain

the most productive, most sustainable, most resilient and

most socially appropriate land-labour institutions.

The transitional processes that we need will require

extending our definition of the family farm. What will

remain constant in the definition is that the family retains

control over the farm’s main resources (notably, but not

only, the land) and provides all or most of the required

labour. However, the definition also needs to include an

upper limit to farm size coupled with an exclusion of spec-

ulative (or predatory) use of agricultural land. This is also

echoed in the proposal of the European Commission that

‘active farmers’ should be the sole beneficiaries of agricul-

tural and rural subsidies, while the possibility to use up

to 30 per cent of the budgets for ‘redistributive payments’

clearly points to the willingness to support smaller farms

(instead of favouring especially the megafarms). To

rephrase these proposals in positive terms: the operation of

the family farm needs to be aligned with the major societal

demands, needs and requirements of Europe and Central

Asia. New policies are definitely needed to institutionalize

such a realignment.

The problems and challenges of the twenty-first century

cannot be faced and resolved using theories and policies

that date to the previous century. A drastic and far-reaching

redesign of the policies that affect rural areas is needed.

egional

erspectives