Paper short abstract:

How discourses promoting small-scale organic agriculture in an endangered urban fringe contribute to the construction and defense of cultural landscapes. Farmer self-realization through cultivation and landscape safeguarding,responding to certain demands of conscious consumer citizens.

Paper long abstract:

My paper is based on a fieldwork conducted in the Huerta de Valencia in Spain. I found that small scale organic farms integrate certain discourse themes and identify them as added-value to their production. Self-realization of these farmers is manifested through selecting cultivation modes that are in line with their believes. By this the contribute to the preservation of the traditional living cultural landscapes of the peri-urban fringe surrounding the city of Valencia, endangered by rapid territorial transformation.

Ecological entrepreneurship has the potential to contribute to the sustainability and the economic viability of these fields. The research aims to address how the discourse themes of such ecological entrepreneurs reflect on the spatial and social embeddedness of their production system. The interaction with conscious consumer and citizen groups is key in valuing the efforts of the farmers in the protection of the Huerta, both anxious to keep these agrarian fields alive. Many initiatives promote the direct engagement of city dwellers with these lands through directly buying its products. One of the most important elements discovered is that the social embeddedness of organic production is eventually position it as a kind of local fair trade. Cultivating the land for many of these ecological entrepreneurs is a way of life, a way of self-realization, manifestation of their identity. Through engaging in organic production this self-realization is recognized by many as a form of added-value, contributing to the self-esteem of these producers.