Paper short abstract:

Based on a long term fieldwork in rural Latvia in 2010 and 2011 this paper provides a rich empirical reflection on the diverse approaches to environmental and developmental issues as seen by farmers, by policy makers and by anthropologists.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to challenge the notion of development in the context of organic farming and small holder economies in rural Latvia. The paper indicates that economic development guidelines set out to modernise peripheral EU rural areas, enhance productivity and introduce common standards for agricultural production have to deal with complex relationships embedded in local environmental knowledge and socio-cultural settings. However, more often than not the knowledge of local farmers and embeddedness of their practices are ignored by the development policy makers. Farmers' concerns for environment and biodiversity are seen as obstacles to rural development and economic efficiency. Local ecological knowledge is even perceived as backward by the policy makers.

By disclosing relationships and meanings in which local (agro)cultural economic practices are embedded in Latvian organic and small holder economies, this paper emphasizes the vital role of local ecological knowledge in planning and implementing rural development strategies. In Latvia several agro-activities (such as, for instance, bath-house services, home beer-brewing and organic farming) are not primarily guided by economic efficiency, but rather by culturally construed awareness of environmental issues, one's own identity and that of others, of certain values, of social and natural environment, of continuity, all amounting to a certain vision of a good life. But whose knowledge counts in the rural development and environmental issues after all?

Based on a long term fieldwork in rural Latvia in 2010 and 2011 this paper provides a rich empirical reflection on the diverse approaches to environmental and developmental issues as seen by farmers, by policy makers and by anthropologists.