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Paper short abstract:

This paper is about how intersecting social and climate changes are affecting the agricultural practices and emotional well-being of small-scale farmers in the Lombardy region of the central Italian Alps.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is about how intersecting social and climate changes are affecting the agricultural practices and emotional well-being of small-scale farmers in the Lombardy region of the central Italian Alps. Alpine areas are particularly susceptible to climate change. Small-scale mountain farmers, dependent on Alpine ecosystems and weather patterns for their livelihoods, find themselves on the frontlines of change. Semi-structured interviews and participant observation were conducted with 40 farmers over the course of 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the Val Camonica. The paper presents four case studies to demonstrate that the impact of climate change on mountain farms varies – across even short distances – depending on the microenvironment and microclimate of the farm, farmer histories on the land, the farm’s degree of market integration, and the type of agricultural activities practiced. The paper also provides a window onto small-scale farming in the Alps today under conditions of uncertainty linked to climate, ecosystem, and social changes. As farmers respond to climate change, they do so in a context where they are also facing myriad other challenges, often more pressing than climate change. Government climate policies and programs should recognize these simultaneous challenges, be flexible to hyperlocal differences in the impact of and farmer responses to change, and seek to promote farmer well-being.