Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the role of European, national and regional policies regarding the viticulture sector of El Penedès and what are their effects on the sustainability of small agriculture farming. In this region, three large enterprises control and establish the rules and values of exchange.

Paper long abstract:

The paper discusses the role of policies at several scales regarding the viticulture sector of El Penedès (Spain) and what are their effects on the sustainability of small agriculture farming.

El Penedès is a historically viticulture area and this activity has been essential both in its economic development as in its identity construction. Throughout the twentieth century, family and subsistence farming, with a certain diversification of crops, became a market-oriented economy, with a strong degree of mechanization, grape monoculture and the dependence on chemical inputs. Thus, viticulture shifted from being the center of households' economy to being a job or an economic complement for few family members.

This last summer, grape prices dropped to levels that jeopardize the sustainability of many of the farms that see as the final prices do not even cover production costs.

In this context, the sector suffers a new violent penetration of agribusiness which places farmers at the crossroads between the market economy marked by the monopoly of three large companies that prioritize quantity to quality and the export market, the regulation at different scales that have been proved as inefficient to ensure the continuity of agricultural practices embedded in local livelihood strategies and a territorial model that points to a conversion of agricultural land into industrial and logistics. For example, with the future passage of the Mediterranean corridor through the area.

In this context, farmers sustainability is threatened and farmers demand a just price that ensures economic viability as well as rural livelihood sustainability.