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Paper short abstract

Drawing onlfieldwork in southern Spain, in one of Europe’s most important berry production areas, I discuss how recentering manual labour and its physicality can open up new possibilities for theorising agricultural labour processes and their relationship with sustainable agricultural policy.

Paper long abstract

This paper addresses the role of manual labour in analysing and theorising contemporary agricultural production. Drawing on long-term fieldwork in the province of Huelva (Spain), which has been one of Europe’s most important berry production areas for several decades, I discuss how recentering manual labour and its physicality can open up new possibilities for theorising agricultural labour processes and their relation to sustainable agricultural policy. I argue that the contemporary analysis, theorising and policy planning of sustainable agriculture overwhelmingly ignore the role that control over manual labour plays in reproducing extractive forms of agriculture. The sidelining of manual labour has had lasting consequences, and, as the case of Huelva shows, it has also led to a deadlock in resolving agriculture-conservation conflicts.