'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 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 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 oppor- tunities 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 op- portunities 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) 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 Meredith Welch-Devine and Seth Murray 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 „ ATLANTIC OCEAN A LABOURD X AV BlZKAlA ( j f ' / NAVARRE J SOULE / j J GUIPUZKOA J Baioom ( alava J ) r NAVARRE $ Attentk^ ~ y' ^ (£> ESPAÑA J ' o i.° » » |ÇJ ESMŇA { y »Lt« Figure 1 Map of the research area 70 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' 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 histori- cal 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 71 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 Meredith Welch-Devine and Seth Murray 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 employ- ment 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 else- where 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.

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