'We're European Farmers Now': Transitions and Transformations In

'We're European Farmers Now': Transitions and Transformations in Basque Agricultural Practices Author(s): MEREDITH WELCH-DEVINE and SETH MURRAY Source: Anthropological Journal of European Cultures , 2011, Vol. 20, No. 1, Thematic Focus: Politicking the Farm: Transitions and Transformations in European Agriculture (2011), pp. 69-88 Published by: Berghahn Books Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/43234535

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This content downloaded from 213.160.118.146 on Mon, 24 Aug 2020 19:01:10 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 'We're European Farmers Now': Transitions and Transformations in Basque Agricultural Practices

MEREDITH WELCH-DEVINE AND SETH MURRAY

Abstract In this essay, we discuss the economic constraints and opportunities that Basque farmers in two neighbouring valleys in France faced before the 2003 reforms of the Common Agri- cultural Policy (CAP). In the last decade, constraints and opportunities have shifted, and farmers have diversified their economic strategies in order to cope with a rise in rural tourism and second home ownership, an expansion of leisure activities into what has historically been an agricultural ter- ritory, and the implications that the uncertain future of the European Union's CAP has for small family farmers in this area. We examine this diversification of household economic strategies to include non-agricultural activities and the implications it has for economic health and rural livelihoods in the Basque region.

Keywords agrotourism, AOC, Basque region, Common Agricultural Policy, direct sales

The foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains in southwest France are home to a long-standing tradition of Basque farming and herding. Agriculture in this area is characterised by small, family-operated farms engaged in pastoral transhumance and is primarily oriented towards dairy production. In recent years, however, the long-standing agricultural practices have undergone rapid change in the face of demographic pressures, economic forces and a changing international policy climate. As farmers cope with a dramatic rise in rural tourism and second home ownership, the expansion of leisure activities into pastoral lands, and the uncertain future of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy, rural Basque communities have been at the nexus of ten- sions between the maintenance of traditional pastoral activities and the de-

Anthropobgical Journal of European Cultures Volume 20(1), 2011: 69-88 © Berghahn Journals doi: 10. 3167/ajec. 2011. 200105 ISSN 1755-2923 (Print)

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mands of productivist agriculture. The progressive shift, most notably since 2003, from a state-assisted and highly regulated model of agriculture that significantly shielded farmers from market fluctuations to a multifunctional Common Agricultural Policy, has generated apprehension and unease in the agricultural sector. This trepidation was exacerbated by Mariann Fischer Boel, the European Commissioner responsible for Agriculture and Rural Development between 2004 and late 2009, who argued during in her term of office that all farmers would eventually need off-farm income to survive in the future configuration that agriculture would occupy in the European Union (Bounds 2006; Latruffe and Mann 2009). This assertion suggests that a profound, perhaps inexorable transformation of the agricultural sector is either already underway or looming in the near future of European Union (EU) member states. The two research sites discussed in this article are both located in the Pyré- nées-Atlantiques department in southwest France: the Baigorri valley in the Basque province of Lower-Navarre, and the southern portion of the province of Soule (see Figure 1). Lower-Navarre and Soule are two of the three provinces of the northern Basque region located within France, the third being

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the province of Labourd. These three provinces only represent 15 per cent of the 20,000 km2 of the overall surface area of the Basque region, and are the smallest of the seven provinces that historically constituted the Basque region, which is today situated within the nations of France and Spain. Although there is no formal political entity that links the seven provinces, three of these combine to form the Autonomous Basque Community, a mostly urban, highly industrialised and wealthy part of northern Spain, whereas the Foral Community of Navarre is administratively separate. The three Basque provinces located in France constitute no formal political unit but are nevertheless historically and culturally distinct from the Béarn region to the east, with which they are grouped together into the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department. Though Labourd is densely populated along the Atlantic coast, Lower-Navarre and Soule are predominantly rural and agricultural. In spite of the Basque region of France's smaller demographic and economic weight compared to the four Basque provinces located in Spain, its agricultural sector remains quite vibrant. The long-term persistence of agriculture in part accounts for the authors' interest in this particular region, but these historical practices are also seen by certain groups, both Basque and non-Basque, as emblematic of Lower-Navarre and Soule's more 'traditional' character (Murray 2003, 2009; Duvert 2004). From this perspective, certain strands of Basque nationalist political discourse over the past two decades have occa- sionally portrayed the agricultural sector and the farmers of Lower-Navarre and Soule as the most prone to feel the impact of external political and social influences (Letamendia 1987; Jacob 1994; Conseil de développement du Pays Basque 2000). Although our focus here does not immediately speak to the veracity of these claims, nor do we develop in this paper an analysis of the overtly political dynamics which intermittently link farmers to nationalist movements in the Basque region, it is nevertheless a weighty backdrop in the transition and transformations of agricultural practices. The study site is a predominantly rural area characterised by small farms of ovine, bovine or mixed production. Farm sizes average approximately 25 hectares, whereas the average for France is 46 hectares (Ministère de l'Agriculture et de la Pêche 2000; AND International 2007). In the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, the specific agricultural system and practices employed vary significantly as a function of the terrain. In the plains of the northeast portion of the department grain culture is dominant, while in the piedmont and the mountains farming of livestock is more prevalent. The

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department ranks second in the nation in sheep rearing and first in production of cheese on the farm. Between the two agricultural censuses of 1988 and 1996, the department lost 32 per cent of its ovine farms, but at the same time increased the head per farm by almost 77 per cent (Ministère de l'Agriculture et de la Pêche 2000). The agricultural sector represents 38 per cent of the economic activity in the study area (compared to merely 8 per cent for the three Basque provinces in France overall) and accounts for 50 per cent of direct and indirect employment in the province of Lower Navarre and Soule (Conseil de développement du Pays Basque 2004; Euskal Herriko Laborantza Ganbara 2006). The farming populations of Soule and Baigorri are aging, though less so than elsewhere in France (Conseil de développement du Pays Basque 2000; Chambre d'Agriculture des Pyrénées Atlantiques 2006). Men significantly outnumber women in age categories above 30 years, and the birth rate, as in many rural areas, has steadily declined (INSEE 1982, 1990, 1999, 2000). In fact, the Pyré- nées-Atlantiques department has one of the lowest birth rates in the country; in 2010, the fertility rate for women in the department was estimated at 1.75 children, as opposed to 2.0 for France as a whole (INSEE 2010). In this article, we discuss the strategies of Basque farmers in two neighbouring areas by focusing on the diversification of household economic strategies over the past decade. Our work is based on ethnographic research carried out in Soule from the beginning of February 2006 until the end of May 2007 and in Baigorri from 2002 to 2005. Though we had separate individual research projects, each with their own specific questions and objectives, we both spent the majority of our time participating in the daily lives of sheep and cattle raisers in the province and interviewing them regarding on-farm practices, and we both addressed the topics of changing strategies and European policy. The parallels in our methodologies, the proximity of our two field sites, and the complementarity in our thematic foci lend themselves to the integrative and comparative effort that we present in this article. The farmers we spoke with report that over the past 20 years overall prices for agricultural products, such as meat and cheese, have held steady while the expenses that farmers incur have steadily climbed, cutting sharply into revenue (see also Swinnen et al. 2010). European Union norms and subsidies have enabled and encouraged costly improvements in farm facilities, management schemes and equipment over the past half-century (Greer 2005; Garzon 2006). At the same time, land and home prices in the Basque region have

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risen dramatically as second-home purchases and speculation have pushed inland from the coast (Etchebest 2007).1 In this article, we will specifically examine how Basque farmers have sought to cope with these pressures by ini- tiating rural tourism activities, finding employment off-farm and engaging in direct sale of their products to the consumer. Although these three are not the only strategies employed over the past decade by Basque farmers in Lower- Navarre and Soule, our research findings suggest that they represent some of the most common outlets available to small-scale family farmers seeking to contend with profound socio-economic transformations of the agricultural sector.

Role of the Common Agricultural Policy until 2003

The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) generated a profound reconfiguration of the political economy of agriculture. Created in 1958, the CAP is a subsidy programme that was originally designed to en- sure European self-sufficiency in food provisioning, and provide farmers with a reasonable standard of living by guaranteeing adequate revenue in spite of fluctuations in commodity prices (Ludlow 2005). Although the fundamental principles and objectives of the CAP did not change significantly over the first 35 years of its existence, some important alterations have occurred in the past three decades. The CAP today purports to keep rural economies afloat and to preserve 'traditional' landscapes, which essentially means that the CAP supports farmers who provide a valuable service to the social collective in maintaining the integrity of rural ecosystems (Gray 2000; IDEMA 2007). In addition to these general direct-payment farm subsidies, farmers in the Basque region who raise sheep have received supplemental subsidies since 1982, and because they work in a mountainous area they have been eligible for yet another subsidy since the 1992 reforms to the CAP (Daugb- jerg 2003). The sum of these European Union (EU) subsidies can represent up to 66 per cent of a farmer's annual income (Euskal Herriko Laborantza Ganbara 2006). Thus, economic viability depends in no small amount on CAP monies. Subsidies also allowed farmers in the mountainous areas of the Basque region to significantly increase their number of livestock. In the canton of Tardets-Sorholus in southern Soule, sheep herd sizes increased by 36 per cent between the last two agricultural censuses, from 91 ewes/flock in 1988 to 124 ewes/flock in 2000. In the canton of Mauléon-Licharre in northern Soule,

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the increase was 44 per cent (108 ewes/flock to 156 ewes/flock) (Ministère de l'Agriculture et de la Pêche 1988, 2000). Similarly, livestock data for the Baigorri valley indicate that herd sizes doubled over the last 35 years of last century, and more recent data indicate that this trend has continued (Cham- bre Départementale d'Agriculture de Basses-Pyrénées 1964; Conseil de dével- oppement du Pays Basque 2004; Syndicat de la Vallée de Baigorri 2000). We suggest that this occurred in part because individual farmers seek to maxi- mise the total amount of subsidies they receive by simply increasing their herd size, regardless of the potential cost to the wider farming community. Indeed, CAP subsidies were mostly linked to production quotas until the Luxembourg agreement in 2003 (Burrell 2003; Garzon 2006). Coupled with the relatively high price of milk through the 1980s and 1990s, the original structure of CAP subsidies abetted the overall intensification of agricultural production (European Communities Court of Auditors 2000; Greer 2005). Under these conditions, success in farming in Soule and the Baigorri valley, just as in many other rural areas of Europe, became largely predicated by the agricultural policies of the EU. However, in recent years, CAP subsidies have progressively been decou- pled from production amounts, particularly since EU policies now promote a multifunctional agriculture that not only produces food, but that is also intended to manage rural landscapes (Fouilleux 2003). Furthermore, EU funds for agriculture have been increasingly redirected towards new member states of Eastern Europe since 2004, which has further complicated and even polar- ised decision-making about agriculture within the EU (Dinan 2010). With the CAP quota system for dairy production slated to end later this decade, farmers in the Basque region and across the EU face looming and possibly radical changes to their overall agricultural operations. These systemic changes come from pressures originating within the EU, as well as from broader, multilat- eral dialogues taking place within bodies such as the World Trade Organiza- tion (Frandsen and Walter-Jörgensen 2006), both of which will increasingly lead European farmers to seek out new sources of income and diversify their economic activities.

Although it is still too early to ascertain the long-term effects that decoupling farm subsidies from productivity will have on European farmers, there is nonetheless a pronounced sense among farmers and researchers alike that the reduction or elimination of direct farm payments encourages the trend towards off-farm employment (Chatellier et al. 2007; Gorton et al. 2008;

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Latruffe and Mann 2009). However, while this policy shift at the European Union level is ineluctable, it does not adequately address whether direct-marketing and sales from farms can be fully integrated into a 'multifunctional' model of farming in the EU where agricultural activities must be now recon- ciled with environmental regulations (Battershill and Gilg 1998; Buller and Morris 2004).

Current Challenges to the CAP and Economic Diversification among Farmers

Traditional agricultural activities persist in the Basque region, but the overall profile of farms and farmers has substantially changed over the past three decades, and has further accentuated the challenges facing small-scale, family farmers who attempt to make a living from agricultural activities alone. In Soule and Baigorri, the aggregate changes to the CAP - whether already materialised or merely anticipated - have prompted farmers to diversify their economic strategies. Among the approaches taken are a return to traditional practices such as selling products directly from the farm, and newer endeav- ours such as identifying products with labels of origin or quality and capitalis- ing on new tourism markets. In Soule, 438 of the total 867 farms produced milk or meat under a sign of quality in 2000 (Conseil de développement du Pays Basque 2000). Similarly, direct sales of farm products have increased in popularity over the past dozen years to the point of invalidating Gilg and Bat- tershill's (1998) evaluation that neither supply nor demand were high enough for direct sales to be meaningful in France's agriculture. The diversification of economic strategies in farming households is also linked to a fundamental demographic shift that has characterised many post-industrial nations across Europe. In recent years, the rapid decline in population in Soule and the Baigorri valley (see Table 1) has exacerbated economic difficulties and policy pressures and occasioned rapid change in farming practices. Although these data were not yet available from the IN- SEE at the time of publication, these demographic trends are projected to continue when the next census is completed in these areas between 2010 and 2012. Perhaps even more tellingly, Soule has lost 50 per cent of its population since 1836, while the Baigorri valley lost 38 per cent of its inhabitants in the same time span (Sacx 1980; Bidart 1994).

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Table 1 Evolution of population (INSEE 1982, 1990, 1999)

Soule 15,404 13,471 - 12.5% Baigorri valley 3,083 2,661 - 13.7%

The projected consequence of these demographic trends is a steady de- crease in the number of farmsteads in the northern Basque region over the past three decades, although the average farm size there has substantially increased (see Table 2). This evolution also correlates with an aging of the agricultural population, although this trend is somewhat less perceptible in the Basque region than in other rural areas of France and Europe.

Table 2 Evolution in farm count and farm size (Conseil de développement du Pays Basque 2000; AND 2007)

Total farms in 3 Basque provinces of France 7,043 5,939 5,400 Average farm size 16.72 hectares 23.06 25.36

While the preceding table indicates that the overall number of farms has decreased in the Basque region of France, the increase in the average size of farms reflects the relatively common occurrence where failing farms, that is farms that have no one to assume responsibility for their operation, are ab- sorbed by other existing farms. This progressive consolidation of these farms may keep agricultural fields and pastures intact and in productive use, but the homes linked to the defunct farms are either abandoned or put up for sale. This phenomenon can make it somewhat difficult for younger individuals or families to establish homes in rural areas unless they are directly inheriting or taking over a family farm (Salvi 2005; Euskal Herriko Laborantza Gan- bara 2006). This problem has been exacerbated by real estate investors from elsewhere in France and Europe who seek to purchase country homes in the Basque region, often at a fraction of the cost of a similar home in the Neth- erlands or Great Britain (Conseil de développement du Pays Basque 2004; Euskal Herriko Laborantza Ganbara 2006). Although this pressure seems to have attenuated somewhat since the global economic crisis began in earnest in 2009, the long-term trend is unlikely to dissipate.

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Economic Diversification via Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC)

In the past two decades, the diversification of household economic strategies has been reflected in two competing modes of agricultural production in the Basque region. Most of the dairy production in the Basque region of France today is sold to large milk collectors and industrial cheese producers, like the locally owned and operated Onetik, or Chaumes, which is owned by a large multinational corporation (Chambre d'Agriculture des Pyrénées Atlantiques 2006). This mode of agricultural production in the region began in the early twentieth century with the arrival of milk collectors seeking to supply Roque- fort cheese manufacturers, and since then a majority of farmers continue to sell to large corporations (Petoteguy 1972). Over the course of the twentieth century, dairy production for cheese manufacturing became the primary and sometimes exclusive source of revenue for farmers in Lower-Navarre and

Soule who, through increased links to national and international markets, ac- celerated the intensification of their mode of production whenever possible. A smaller portion of the dairy production is processed into higher quality, value-added craft cheeses and is more oriented towards local markets. Included in this mode of production are cheeses labelled Appellation d'Origine Controllée, which have had various degrees of success in France (Ricard 2007). This second mode of production represents approximately 29 per cent of the total volume of milk produced in the northern Basque region in 2005, and involves 37 per cent of area farmers (Chambre d'Agriculture des Pyrénées Atlantiques 2006). These are primarily small, family farmers owning less than 30 hectares of property and for whom value-added agricultural products such as cheeses are important means for diversifying their sources of income (AGRI64 2006). This turn to 'quality products' as a distinguishing factor seeks to link small-scale cheese production to the individual herds from which the cheese is produced, the lands on which these herds are pas- tured, and the skill of the cheese maker. Quality thus becomes an important marketing tool, and as argued by Murdoch, Marsden and Banks (2000), it is a way for marginal areas to reinvent themselves. The linkage of small-scale craft production to ideas of locality and 'the natural' reinforces the link with local ecologies (Murdoch et al. 2000). Although large-scale industrial dairy production and smaller-scale craft- cheese production are dissimilar, they are also complementary since they ap- peal to different clientele bases, thereby increasing the overall marketability of agricultural products from the region into different niches. The Appellation

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d'Origine Controllée, or AOC, was originally developed in Europe to identify a product by its geographical point of origin. Essentially, the intent is to link product, producer and place - a connection often referred to through the concept of terroir. The emphasis connoted in terroir is on quality production for the purpose of quality consumption, which makes agricultural products particularly fitting since they can be linked to an individual animal herd, to a particular farmer, or to a single village (Bérard and Marchenay 2004). A small- scale mode of production is well suited to iconic foods such as sheep cheese, which can be associated with a place such as the Basque region to conjure up a potent image of quality and authenticity. The emphasis on a product's place of origin has become a powerful rural development tool (Barham 2003), and the AOC label has certainly aided the marketing of Basque cheeses by establishing a more visible connection between place and product. The first AOC designation for cheeses in the Basque region was Ossau-Iraty, established in 1980. This AOC label tightly circumscribes the production, transformation and marketing of cheese as an agricultural commodity, and allows small-scale Basque cheese producers to easily identify their commodi- ties as adhering to more stringent standards of production. These standards mean that, for example, farmers only raise indigenous sheep breeds such as the Manex , rather than non-native species like the Lacaune that may produce higher volumes of milk. Under AOC criteria, farmers also categorically avoid the use of genetically modified feed, and herd management practices rely on traditional techniques such as transhumance. AOC products are also more likely to be sold directly to the public from the farm, thereby bypassing many of the costs of distribution. But, arguably, the most important consequence of following these stricter standards of production is that Ossau-Iraty cheeses are frequently sold at a 30 per cent mark-up in comparison to their industrial, mass-produced counterparts. As Paxkal, an astute 40-year-old sheep farmer in the Baigorri valley noted:

Je mise plus sur une bonne production artisanale que sur la quantité. Mais je pense que les labels tel qu'Ossau-Iraty doivent surveiller de près la production artisanale et industrielle, sinon les fromages artisanaux Basques vont se faire bouffer par des fromages industriels de qualité nettement inférieur. [I'm betting on quality, craft production rather than mass production. But I believe that labels like Ossau-Iraty need to closely monitor the production of craft and industrial cheeses; otherwise craft Basque cheeses run the risk of being over- whelmed by low-quality, industrial cheeses.] (April 2004)

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In this light, value-added AOC products are an effective means for farmers to diversify their sources of income by pursuing alternative on-farm strategies, instead of only being able to turn to off-farm opportunities.

Economic Diversification via Direct Sales

Like crafting value-added AOC products, selling transformed cheeses and meat products directly from the farm can offer an escape from the difficulties of finding and maintaining the off-farm employment that is often necessary to make a farming lifestyle viable today. Of the 36 married heads-of-farms interviewed in Soule, only 17 lived solely from farm-related income. More often, the spouse has an off-farm job. Men can usually find work locally as masons or at the Chaumes creamery, but women have a much harder time, and many must look outside Soule for jobs. Louise, for example, drives 45 minutes each way every day to work at a large store that sells everything from home wares to sporting goods. Elisabeth, a teacher, has a 75 minute commute to her school, while Monique, who was able to find work in Soule, was so de- moralised by her unchallenging position as a sales clerk at the local farming cooperative that in the summer of 2009 she quit her job and returned to work on the farm with her husband. ' Maintenant , tandis ques toutes les autres femmes de Soule essaient de quitter l'exploitation, moi j'y retourne. J'espère avoir fait le bon choix ' [Now, while every other woman in Soule is trying to get off the farm, I'm go- ing back. I hope I've made the right choice] (Monique, June 2009) It was a risky gamble as they have two young children, but they calculate that by mov- ing entirely into direct sales - they had previously sold about one third to a half of their production directly to consumers - they can recoup the earnings they are losing from her position at the co-op.2 Selling directly to the consumer certainly is not easy; it requires a different skill set than farming, and for many the thought of marketing a product can be daunting or seen as a distraction from their true occupations. For instance, Jean-Paul, a sheep farmer in Soule indicated: 'Ce [la vente directe] n'est pas pour moi. Mon travail ce n'est pas être un commercial, c'est de m'occuper de mes bêtes et de fabriquer un produit de la meilleur qualité que je puisse' [It [direct sales] is not for me. My job isn't to be a salesman, it's to take care of my animals and produce the highest quality product I can] (April 2006). However, other farmers who do transform and sell their products directly, are often strong proponents of such a system, arguing that it not only augments income but also increases job satisfaction. André, for instance, insisted that: 'Il y a vraiment de très bons

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aspects. Lorsque je vends à quelqu'un, ils ont toujours quelque chose de positif à dire. Et donc lorsque je travaille, je sais que je suis en train de bien faire. C'est produit ici et consommé icî [There axe really good aspects to it. When I sell to someone, they always have something nice to say. So when I work, I know something good will come of it. It's produced here and consumed here] (November 2006). This personal ethic or notion that André presents here of 'produced here and consumed here', or more colloquially referred to lnourir les gens du coin ' [feeding local folk] is embraced by two very different groups of persons: (1) older farmers who tend to see direct sales either as a simple way to increase revenue or as a way to avoid some of the regulation and mechanisation foisted upon them; and (2) the young, progressive Basques who equate preservation of traditional ways of life with cultural and environmental preservation. In Soule, these tend to be the same people who are considering organic agriculture, who participate in Basque associations for song and dance, and whose children speak Basque fluently. So, while for the first group, vente directe, or direct sales, are a pragmatic means to an end, for the second it is a symbolic way of solidifying cultural traditions and returning to historic roots. Because orchestrating direct sales from the farm requires time and expertise for both making cheese (or packaging cuts of meat) and marketing it, in addition to all of the other necessary farm work, several shepherds in Soule sought a creative way to engage in direct sales while alleviating some of the need for transforming and marketing products from the farm. After seven years of reflection and planning, in 2006, they opened Azkorria, which brings together 17 local shepherds to pool their efforts at cheese making and marketing. Dorothée, a 40-year-old shepherd who joined the cooperative after its inception, finds that it brings value to her product that she could not achieve at the farm: 'Je ne suis pas assez rigoureuse pour faire des fromages de bonne qualité à domicile. De cette manière, on me paie un meilleur prix pour mon lait sans que j'ai besoin de produire du fromage toute seule ' [I'm not rigorous enough to make high-quality cheese at the house. This way I get a better price for my milk without having to make the cheese on my own] (January 2007). At the same time, her herd management and animal well-being practices are recognised and rewarded, making it well worth the three half-days she spends working for the cooperative each week. During the course of the week, each shepherd must participate in milk collection, cheese aging, marketing of the product, and the general management of the cooperative. Additionally, the collective employs two cheese makers and a secretary. The shepherds of Azkorria fol-

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low a strict cahier des charges that specifies the dates they may milk, what the sheep may eat, that the herds must be transhumant, and that the herds must be allowed access to pasture every day.

Economic Diversification via Agrotourism Recreational activities in the Pyrénées Mountains, such as hiking, mountain biking, bird watching or parasailing, have increased dramatically in the last three decades. The proliferation of different stakeholders vying for various, sometimes discordant, uses of the same mountain spaces underlines a profound shift in the multifunctionality of what has until recently been an ex- clusively agricultural landscape. The explosion in popularity and number of outdoor recreational activities has engendered conflicts between recreational and traditional users of these mountains, particularly during the summer transhumance period. Robert, a 40-year-old shepherd who pastures his sheep in a highly touristic area in Soule, pointed out that sometimes pastoral and recreational activities can be incompatible. 'Nous sommes dans la seule cayolar où il y a des touristes juste à côté. Les chalets d'Iraty sont juste à côté de nous. C'est tout un village là-haut. Les touristes eux-mêmes ne nous dérangent pas, mais leurs chiens, oui. Ils courent derrière les brebis, et le propriétaire nous « ah, mais il n'est pas méchant », mais les brebis s'en moquent ! Elles courent partout et sont traumatisées. Et ensuite il y a le ça produit moins de lait et ça donne des brebis malades' [We're in the only cayolar [mountain farm cabin] where tourists are right there. The chalets of Iraty are just next to us. It's a whole village up there. We don't have a problem with the tourists themselves, but with their dogs. They chase the sheep, and the owner will say 'oh he's not mean,' but the sheep don't care! They still run everywhere and get traumatised. Then you're dealing with reduced milk output and sheep that get sick] (January 2007). The increasing frequency of encounters such as this have forced local officials and inhabitants to consider that farmers are no longer the only actors to use this rural space and to take steps to promote peaceful coexistence and shared utilisation of these areas. The creation of a Mountain Charter in 2004 by the federation of Syndicats of Soule, Oztibarre, Garazi and Baigorri under the auspices of the Conseil de développement du Pays Basque, was an important step which intended to reconcile agricultural activities in a mountain setting with those of other people who utilise mountain areas (Conseil de développement du Pays Basque 2003). This charter followed on the heels of a wider project to evaluate the situation of agriculture in the Basque region of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques de-

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partment in France, and to determine the direction that agriculture could take in the twenty-first century (Conseil de développement du Pays Basque 2000). Farming in mountain regions such as Lower-Navarre and Soule is an inherently challenging activity because of the logistical obstacles to pursuing intensive production strategies. However, the actors involved in creating a Charter saw that this same mountain setting did confer an attractive image of a 'pristine and unspoiled environment' which could be utilised to accen- tuate or market the quality of its agricultural products. In other words, the mountains themselves could become marketing tools for distinguishing the products of mountain farming from those from other areas. One of the first objectives in establishing a Mountain Charter was to evaluate the range of activities occurring in the mountains, to ascertain what new forms of use have developed in recent years and to determine what constituted 'best-practices' for all parties utilising these spaces. The first conclusion was, not surprisingly, that farming constituted the primary economic activity in the area and should be emphasised and protected. Another finding was that leisure activities such as hiking, fishing, hunting or motor biking had ex- perienced a rapid growth in popularity. The Mountain Charter promoted the coexistence between the different communities of users by emphasising the complementarity of their usage. The Charter also laid out a ten-year evaluation period (2005-2015) across the mountain areas to collect data on diverse activities in the mountains. Though the process was led by local, elected officials and involved con- sultation with approximately 200 individuals who utilise the mountains in some fashion - including shepherds, foresters, hunters, hikers, naturalists, and tourism professionals - the Charter was not universally embraced. For example, the mayor of the village of Larrau in the province of Soule publi- cally stated his strong rejection the Charter. He argued that it did little more than shift control over the mountain from its traditional users, for example from farmers to environmentalists: ' Sous prétexte de vouloir valoriser ou renforcer l'agriculture de montagne, cette Charte ne fait que donner davantage de pouvoir aux as- sorìations naturalistes pour mieux sacrifier les habitants et éleveurs vivant toute l'année en haute montagne (...) c'est toujours un véritable désastre pour nous lorsque les « bonnes solutions »pour gérer la montagne viennent de la plaine ou du littoral P [Under the pre- text of wanting to strengthen or to increase the value of mountain farming, this Charter only cedes additional power to environmental associations to the detriment of the inhabitants and sheep farmers who live in these mountains

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year-round (. . .) it is an unmitigated disaster for us when 'good solutions' for managing the mountains emanate from those living in the plains or along the coast] (Journal du Pays Basque 2007). This statement brings into sharp focus the difficultly that many traditional actors have had in accepting the idea that non-pastoral activities could or should have a place in the mountains they see as 'theirs'. Indeed, the Charter that the mayor and many inhabitants of Lar- rau so intensely rejected was intended as a sign that traditional agriculture must coexist along with an array of activities, and that the Basque region's economic vitality fundamentally depends on these tertiary sectors to foster new possibilities for off-farm employment. The presence of recreational users in mountain communities has also opened rural tourism services as another strategy for Basque farmers seeking to diversify their on-farm sources of income. The past decade has seen the slow but steady growth in number of farms that have remodelled or built new accommodations for over-night guests. These gito ruraux provide lodging and often, though not always, food to tourists, which can become an important ancillary source of income for farmers. For instance, when Maider and her husband Ximun, a couple in their mid-30s with one young daughter, took over the family farm in 2004, they first tried to produce craft cheeses that would meet the rigorous AOC standards. However, after two years, they realised that they did not possess the technical expertise to produce a value- added product that could be sold directly from the farm, nor did they wish to invest in the expensive equipment that would facilitate cheese production. So instead, Maider and Ximun opted to remodel the ground floor of their mas- sive, double-storey 300-year-old farmhouse to create a semi-independent living space that could be rented out to the avid hikers and weekend mountain bike warriors who flock to the mountains, particularly during the warm summer months. The household's objective was: ''d'avoir des activités économiques complémentaires qui, en fonction de la période de l'année, nous permettraient d'avoir des revenus complémentaires et qui nous donneraient un peu plus de souplesse ' [have complementary activities which, depending on the season, will allow us to have a revolving source of revenue and make us a little bit more flexible] (July 2005). Maider frankly admitted that they had to plan on ways to offset impending changes to the CAP since they were afraid of the future when they would lose their farm subsidies. Her apprehension suggests that transformations in the agricultural sector continue to weigh heavily in the choice and range of activities that households engage in, and that individual farmers are

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quite mindful of longer-term issues when considering whether to adopt new economic strategies.

Future Direction of Agriculture in the Basque Region

When Benat, a 44-year-old farmer from Soule, reflected on all the factors in- fluencing agricultural practices today, he ruefully surmised: 4 Nous sommes des agriculteurs européens maintenant ' [We're European farmers now] (August 2006). Although the contrast he drew between traditional systems of production that help constitute Basque identity in this region and a system dictated 'from Brussels' may be a bit of an oversimplified dichotomy, it does nevertheless contain elements of truth. Gone are the days when shepherds took 40 head of sheep and spent six months of transhumance in the mountain pastures. Today's shepherd works longer and harder with more animals and more ma- chinery to cover his or her ever-increasing expenses. The new direction of the CAP aims to move farmers from an outright model of overproduction towards an agriculture that is more efficient, environmentally responsible and, ultimately, more market-oriented. This has been, in the words of Franz Fischler, a former member of the European Commission for Agriculture and Rural Development, 'if not exactly a green revolution, at least a green evolution in agricultural policy' and practice (Fischler 2004: 1, emphasis added). Agriculture in the Basque region will remain precarious because of the in- herent challenges to production in this mountainous setting. Since the future of the CAP includes rebalancing or eliminating all direct payments for income support to farmers after 2014, an important income safety net may soon be removed, which only further increases the pressure on farmers to seek out additional means of revenue. The multiplication of non-agricultural activities around this mountain landscape adds an additional layer of complexity to the management of traditional agricultural resources. But for individuals in the Basque region that have historically only had sources of income from agriculture, these new activities offer one means to contend with times fraught with economic uncertainty as the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy is at the cusp of radical transformation.

♦

Meredith Welch-Devine is a Temporary Assistant Profes- sor of Anthropology at the University of Georgia. Dr Welch-

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Devine began working in the Basque Country in 2006, where she studies the management of common-pool lands, particularly how national and international policies affect management practices. To date, she has focused on the Hab- itats Directive and the Common Agricultural Policy. When not conducting research in the Basque Country, Dr Welch- Devine engages in collaborative research with conservation NGOs to examine emerging approaches to conservation and the role of the social sciences in their work.

Seth Murray is Teaching Assistant Professor of Interdisci- plinary Studies at North Carolina State University for the Programme in International Studies, and is Associate Mem- ber of the Graduate Faculty for the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Since 1999, Dr Murray has maintained an active ethnographic research project in the Basque region of southwestern France and northern Spain, where he exam- ines the socio-ecological changes associated with mountain pastoralism, particularly as pertains to the management and use of common-pool resources. His oral history research also investigates the evolution of environmental risk-mitigation strategies among beef cattle farmers in Burgundy, France, especially as they relate to water management.

Acknowledgements

Seth Murray wishes to thank the French Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Af- fairs, the Council for European Studies at Columbia University, and the Center for European Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for their generous financial support of this research. Meredith Welch-Devine would like to thank the National Science Foundation of the United States, the Université de Pau et des Pays de L'Adour and the University of Geor- gia for their support of her research. Eta bereziki esker haundi bat Iparraldeko artzain guzieri.

Notes

1. More generally, average farm sale price in France nearly doubled between 1994 and 2005 (Swinnen et al. 2010).

2. Cheese makers who participated in our ethnographic interviews estimate that they earn 1.53 euros per litre, rather than the 98 cents earned by those who sell their milk to the cream-

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ery. Fidelle (2006) estimates that those who make and sell cheese are paid twice as much per litre as their counterparts who sell the milk.

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