The Way You Do, It Matters : a Case Study: Farming
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The way you do, it matters A case study: farming economically in Galician dairy agroecosystems in the context of a Cooperative María Dolores Domínguez García Promotor: Prof.dr.ir. J.D. van der Ploeg, hoogleraar transitieprocessen in Europa, Wageningen Universiteit Co-promotor: Dr. Xavier Simón Fernández, universitair hoofddocent, Universidad de Vigo (Spanje) Samenstelling promotiecommissie: Prof.dr.ir. G. van Dijk, Wageningen Universiteit Prof.dr. F. Ventura, Universiteit van Perugia (Italië) Dr. E. Aguilar, Universidad de Sevilla (Spanje) Dr. David Soto Fernández, Universidad de Pablo de Olavide in Sevilla (Spanje) Dit onderzoek is uitgevoerd binnen de onderzoekschool Mansholt Graduate School The way you do, it matters A case study: farming economically in Galician dairy agroecosystems in the context of a Cooperative María Dolores Domínguez García Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor op gezag van de rector magnificus van Wageningen Universiteit, prof.dr. M.J. Kropff, in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 30 november 2007 des namiddags om 13.30 uur in de Aula ISBN nr 978-90-8504-796-4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements VII 1 General introduction 1 Part I: The de-structuring process of Galician farming sector: the 21 dismantling of the traditional agroecosystem and the recent process of modernisation (1960-2005) 2 The dismantling of the Traditional Agroecosystem 23 3 Changes in land use patterns during the last process of modernisation 36 (1962-2005). The role of land (de)mobilisation 4 The Why and How of the recession of the Galician farming sector 50 (1962-2005) Part II: Case study: looking for heterogeneity in dairy farming 75 within the context of the Cooperative Os Irmandiños (Lugo, Spain) 5 Os Irmandiños: Dairy production in the context of a Cooperative. 77 Strategies of management throughout the period 1993-2004 6 From strategies of management to styles of farming through Principal 101 Component and Cluster Analysis 7 Quantitative and qualitative assessment of the socio-economic and 133 environmental impact of styles of farming within the Cooperative 8 Discussion and conclusions 164 References 181 Glossary 188 Summary 189 Samenvatting 191 Resumo 193 Currículum Vitae 195 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing a thesis is a challenging exercise of reading, thinking, research, reviewing, reflection, and writing, which can take longer than expected, but it always leads to new experiences and a deeper level of knowledge. As far as I know and have experienced, PhD students are confronted with different frames of mind during the process, where ups and downs alternate. But in the end, it is a worthy process of academic and personal learning. Having completed this thesis it is a pleasure, but also but also an opportunity, to thank all those who have trusted and supported me along this way. First and foremost, I wish to thank my promoters Dr. Xavier Simón and Prof. Dr. Ir. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg. Xavier, you are the one who initiated this process and gave me the opportunity to work on something I believe in. But more importantly, you instilled into me the courage to look for different intellectual ways to understand the world. Thanks, Jan Douwe, for giving me the opportunity to work at Wageningen University and at the Rural Sociology Group. Moreover, much more important than that, I thank you for your support during the last four years. You aroused my curiosity and interest for new areas of knowledge and your challenging questions, remarks and ideas have been not only a source of inspiration, but also of big help to restrain my sometimes incoherent ambition, driving me moreover into a hard but didactic process of learning to focus. I especially want to thank Han and Bettina. Among other innumerable things, I am grateful to Han to suggest to me to apply for a Marie Curie fellowship; a fellowship that I would never have got without Bettina’s valuable review of the proposal. I am also greatly indebted to Bettina for the patient review of this thesis and for your comments and discussions to improve it. I am extremely grateful to the farmers I interviewed for my study case. Thanks to Tomás, Henar, Maria Jose, Javier, Narciso, Galan, Alvaro, Manuel, Cavadas, A Costa, Chinelo, Pumarega, Casa Peto, Pablo, Llendorozos, Alejandro, Hermes. Without you this study would have been as many others: pure statistics. Sen a vosa paciencia e xenerosidade para comparti-lo voso conhecemento, esta tese non sería tal. Thanks also to the staff of the Cooperative Os Irmandiños; especially to Ruben for travelling with me so many times to interview the farmers, for sharing your knowledge and time. Gracias Rubén. My deep appreciation goes as well to Dr. Gustavo Bergantiños from the Department of Statistics and Operational Research of Vigo University, and to Dr. Hilde Tobi from the Environmental Policy Group at the University of Wageningen for explaining and discussing the outcomes of Principal Component Analysis and the Cluster Analysis. My gratitude also goes out to Dr. Antonio Alonso and Prof. Eduardo Sevilla for sharing patiently with me their knowledge on agroecology and peasantry. Last but not VIII THE WAY YOU DO, IT MATTERS least, thanks to Dr. Marta Soler, for her support and good advice as well as for her friendship. I do not want to forget my colleagues and friends from Vigo University, where I initiated my PhD adventure. Thanks Fidel and Miguel, for sharing your PhD experiences with me, for your good advice, support and the coffee breaks; also thanks to M. Jesus Facal and Maria Montero, for always encouraging me to continue. Jas and Dani, apart from our shared intellectual interest (non queda nada despois de Georgescu e Morin), thanks for sharing your friendship “in and out” of our luxurious office at the subsoil in Vigo. Thanks also to Armando for helping with the cover design. The last three years I have shared also with the members of the Rural Sociology Group, who have always created a friendly environment. Thanks Sabine, Henk O., Henk R., Dirk, Don, Jan, Rudolf, Corinne (thanks for your smile every morning when I entered the corridor and for your help with the layout), Nick, Hugo, Frank, and the others already mentioned in the text. Also to the friends from the Rural Sociology Development Group: Laura, Alberto, Paul, Gerhard, Gustavo and Jos for providing intellectual and mental support. My first period in Wageningen brought to my life a very important person. Paul, without you, Wageningen and my life would have been a different story. Gracias cari, for your patience and for your support in the most difficult moments, when I wanted to give up; as well as for the nicest moments that always make me forget the bad ones. I must not forget your family, who have accepted me as one more member since the very beginning, making me feel comfortable so far away from my own family. My life in The Netherlands has brought also friends that are like family. My gratitude goes especially to Ans and Cees, Willemien and Bert, Bettina, Hielke, Lucia and Sofia, for your immense and unconditional support. Thanks for your generosity and hospitality, for being the ones and the place where I can always go. Moreover, thanks Ans, for doing the layout of the book. Living abroad has given me the opportunity to make new friends. A special kiss to Raymond and Marije; to Mark and Linda; to James (thanks also for reviewing my English); to Anneke and Linda; to Toos (among many other things, for teaching me Dutch); to Kei and Petra, who also share this hard process of doing a PhD but always had time for sharing the shiny part of life as well. Special thanks and all my love to my dear friends and Wageningen sisters, Elena and Costanza; thanks for showing me there is life out there, despite the work. Beside you, girls, grey is turning to blue. We have shared so many things, that I would need another book. My life would never be in balance without the support of my ever-lasting friends and our never-ending and almost daily phone conferences: Marian, you have been with me and standing by me for the last 19 years. Nowhere, I am sure, could I find a more loyal friend. Lola, we share much more than the name; thanks for helping me to rediscover the freshness of life and the revisiting of the mountains. Thanks Montse, for always ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IX being there, and for your practical sense of life. You are my sisters. And you, Adolf, you are my brother. Last, but not least, my thesis and gratitude is dedicated Especially to my parents (Lolita e Santos), my brother (Miguel) and my aunt (Estrella). My deepest thanks to my aunt, for your love and support and for giving me a brother. Thanks Miguel for teaching me to share and to understand how different people are, and just for being my brother. My parents gave me the opportunity of being, of growing, of developing, of studying. They believed in me and gave to me all they could not reach, all they missed, all they wished: Gracias por se-los mellores pais do mundo. 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION In 1975, I visited the village of my parents for the first time. Galicia was then deeply rural. The aldea (tiny village) where my grandparents lived still had the taste of oldness, of the primitive, of the hidden, of the unspoken. There were many old people, their faces covered with wrinkles, tanned by the work in the fields, by the reaping in July, by doing the mallas in August (see Glossary). It was the land of the rubias, and the ratinas, with no Frisian cows at all.