Unfolding farm practices: Working toward sustainablefood production in the Netherlands and Spain

摘要

The modernization of agriculture has caused andcontinues to cause an increasing disconnectionbetween farming, nature, and society, which hasalso created a series of social, economic, andecological crises in the food chain. Case studyresearch of farmers responding to this situation canshow us what changes are required to encourage areconnection between farming, nature, and society.This paper provides ethnographic case studyresearch of two farms: one situated in a productivepolder in the Netherlands, and the other in adisadvantaged mountainous area in Galicia, Spain.They both employ “novelty production,” farmerdriven adaptations to the farm, seen as a socioecological system. These novelties change theinput-output relations on farms and result inadaptations in different farming domains (technical, economic, and socio-organizational), whichwe see as “unfolding” farming practices. Thispaper examines how these farmers have sustainedand improved the socio-ecological performance oftheir farms and how these changes have led to ashift in the farm as a socio-ecological system andchanged the configuration and boundaries of thefarms. In conclusion we look at prospects for thisapproach being supported at a wider level.