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Accepted Paper:
Reconfiguring hay meadow practices and local landscape in the Romanian Highlands under the agricultural subsidy regime
Bogdan Iancu
(National School of Political Studies and Public Administration Bucharest Museum of Romanian Peasant)
Monica Stroe
(SNSPA Bucharest)
Based on ethnographic vignettes covering research conducted over the last ten years, we will illustrate how a number of environmental elements embedded in the local hayscape are become factors of disturbance under the subsidy regime, thus reconfiguring the local landscape.
Paper long abstract:
Over the last decade the centrality of haymaking in semi-subsistence highland farming in Romania has been witnessing a comeback, as EU agricultural subsidies meant to stimulate sustainable land management are an increasingly attractive source of income for marginal rural communities. Abandoned or temporarily unused land ("left to breathe" or "to rest") is rediscovered, reconfigured and included in the dynamics of an assisted pastoral landscape. Semi-subsistence peasants along with farmers who practice extensive agriculture in highland Romania are struggling to adjust to the system of agro-environmental subsidies promoted by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Under the subsidy provisions of EU’s CAP, hay practices become subject to standards and eligibility criteria. The legitimacy and sustainability of certain traditional uses of land and natural resources are challenged by the hegemonic normative discourse of “ecosystem services”, imposed through agro-environmental subsidies. Based on ethnographic vignettes covering research conducted over the last ten years, we will illustrate how a number of environmental elements embedded in the local hayscape are become factors of disturbance under the subsidy regime, thus reconfiguring the local landscape.