Send message to Author

Short abstract

As the ecological crisis intensifies, farmers in Spain and the Netherlands define and take on new roles as managers of the environments in which they work. Examining ecologically minded practices and ideas of reciprocity and care for the environment, this talk explores an epistemic shift in farming.

Long abstract

Increasing droughts, desertification, tree dieback, soil depletion and other manifestations of the ecological crisis are destroying numerous habitats of more-than-human communities. Along with them, the foundations of agricultural production for (predominantly) human consumption are also under threat, urging farmers to adapt their practices to the rapid changes of ever more exhausted environments. In countries like Spain and the Netherlands, farmers no longer see themselves solely as livestock breeders or crop growers. Rather, they have defined and taken on new roles as stewards of the environments in which they work, for example, as landscape conservationists, water managers, soil remediators and foresters. These additional assignments reflect a broader and demanding shift towards the (self-)responsibilisation of farmers for protecting and restoring environments. They may also be understood as the manifestation of an epistemic frontier as farmers acquire and even prioritise knowledge and skills that help them to situate their own actions in ecological contexts and assess their impact, prompting varying degrees of contestation from the more conventionally minded agricultural lobby and food industry. Based on ethnographic field research in the two countries, this presentation explores examples of imaginaries and practices that farmers and landscape practitioners employ as they learn about water cycles and soil metabolisms to ensure sustainable production. These ecologically oriented approaches to farming are less an expression of professionalised agriculture than a strong interest in ecological interrelations and roles, manifested in forms of knowing and arts of noticing that work towards the realisation of ideas of co-production and reciprocity.