Paper short abstract:

Self-sufficiency is at the heart of the self-perception of high-altitude farmers in the Eastern Alps. Political institutions have their own reasons for subsidising farmers. How do they deal with the contrasting factors: the local situation of their farmsteads and the monetary influx from outside?

Paper long abstract:

High-altitude farmers in South-Tyrol (Italy) live and work in the mountain belt of the Eastern Alps, on the upper limit of rye and wheat cultivation. Being located between 1200 and 1900 m above sea level, some of their farmsteads are among the highest and their meadows among the steepest in Western Europe.

Since the late 1970s, the regional government had heavily subsidised these farmers, facilitated the modernisation of cowsheds and milking installations and thus developing the necessary infrastructure to ensure that the farmers could remain on their farms and would be able to market their produce. Keeping the mountain sides cultivated is not only crucial for ecological reasons but also for the tourist industry on which the region depends heavily. It is as "landscape conservationists" that farmers receive subsidies from the EU. Self-sufficiency is fundamental for their self-image and even more so, since they live on isolated farmsteads, far away from villages, urban centres and transit zones.

An ethnographic research project recently started by the University of Bolzano (Italy) brings high-altitude farmers into focus. In this paper, I will discuss

how they deal with the constraints, chances and obstacles that EU policies and subsidies present how they deal with the constraints and obstacles that EU policies and subsidies present - as well as with the challenges and chances.

How do they approach the seeming contradiction between the self-sufficiency that is at the centre of their work and the resources that they receive - and need - from outside agencies?