Lifestyle farming: countryside consumption and transition towards new farming models - Transition Pathways towards Sustainability in Agriculture: Case Studies from Europe - page 67

Chapter 5

Lifestyle farming: countryside consumption
and transition towards new farming models

T. Pinto-Correia 1 , C. Gonzalez 1 , L-A.Sutherland 2 , M. Peneva 3

1 University of Évora ([e-mail]); 2 James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen; 3 University of
National and World Economy, Sofia

Introduction

This chapter deals with the role of 'countryside consumption' as a driver of change in
agricultural and land-based activities in Europe. It analyses how increasing utilization of the
countryside as a space of consumption (such as for amenity, living space, and leisure
activities) has led to a shift in the role of production in relation to other land management
activities, particularly in areas where production has become marginal. The chapter also
assesses how countryside consumption manifests in the self-concept of farmers and the
agricultural sector, how practical and social changes resulting from the transition inherent
in increased levels of lifestyle farming are acknowledged by the agricultural sector, and
how the agricultural sector, in this context, interacts with other players in rural areas.
The concept of countryside consumption has been constructed as part of a transition to
a differentiated countryside, for instance in England, whereby productivist industry
operates alongside post-productivist activities such as nature conservation and amenity
(Murdoch et al. , 2003). In his Australian research, John Holmes (2006) introduced the
concept of functional trajectories in rural areas where the relative weight of production,
consumption and protection functions are being altered, as consumption and protection
contest the former dominance of production values. These changes in the relative weight of
the three main functions result in new and complex modes of rural occupancy (e.g. new
modes of human use of the rural space) (Holmes, 2006, 2012; van der Ploeg and Marsden,
2008; van Berkel and Verburg, 2011).
In the transitional trajectories defined by van der Ploeg (2009), consumption is
currently associated with 'deactivation', characterized by a reduction of agricultural
activities in rural areas, and a shift towards leisure, nature reserves, rural dwellings, and
bioenergy production. These are most often the result of contradicting and complex
dynamics formed by the interaction of diverging processes. These processes include
'industrialization', which is less relevant in the areas where consumption is taking the lead.
There is also 're-peasantization', characterized by the active construction of new degrees of
autonomy on commodity markets (in other words major farm resources are produced within
the farm itself) and the presence of new actors in farming. Re-peasantization is shown to be
highly relevant in areas where consumption trends increase. Along the lines of these trends,