Aspects of Ecological Marginalization and Alternative Local Responses in Rural Greece

Abstract

The conditions under which people live in rural areas, the ways in which resources are utilized and the prospects for conservation in the future are all in part influenced by the fundamental characteristics of national governments, European Union policies for economic and sectoral development, as well as processes such as globalization. Using an ecological marginalization perspective, this paper illustrates the consequences of proliferating intensive agriculture ‘alliances’ among European Union policies, the Greek state, and Greek domestic producers. Since many natural resources – soil, water, biodiversity – are already entrenched in industrial agricultural production systems, the author extrapolates from the patterns of production that make use of these natural resources to bolster the argument that Greek state policies, the timing of the country’s accession to the European Community in 1981, and local land use practices will particularly affect the potential consequences of future agricultural development. Even though the impacts of intensive agriculture vary by region and some rural areas have benefited from this development, the analysis suggests that rural people, communities and citizens of peri-urban territories all bear the costs of the industrial agriculture production system both in terms of social, health and environmental impacts. A core reason, this paper argues, is that the ‘alliances’ of intensive industrial agriculture are reinforcing processes and structures that increase pressure on the ecological integrity of rural areas leading to environmental degradation and the marginalization-abandonment of agriculture.