Rural Europe on the move English_chapt1_6 | Page 75
“Key decision-making
about rural issues and
rural lives are often
made far from rural
areas.”
heavy machinery would struggle
to negotiate the rocky outcrops,
steep slopes and tricky access to
remote areas. This meant that the
ancient, abundant woodland and rich
biodiversity were kept largely intact.
The area is home to small-scale,
mixed agriculture focused on using
traditional practices. “Don’t have all
your eggs in one basket” is a concept
deeply rooted in the mentality of
the peasants. This careful cultivation
preserves both natural and cultural
heritage and maintains the delicate
harmony between humans and the
natural world.
Collectivists cultivated the land in
large teams. Individual incentive
was limited and so the quality of
the farming and care for the natural
Collectivism versus
self-sufficient
communities
In Romania, the harmony between
systems in which it operated was
limited.
The tight-knit, self-sufficient
communities in rural areas became
a problem for Nicolae Ceaușescu,
humans and nature has often been general secretary of the Romanian
disrupted by politics. Between 1940 Communist Party. In 1970, under
and 1962, the communist regime the ‘systematisation of the territory’
expropriated farmland ‘en masse’. programme he forced an aggressive
Private property was limited to industrialisation of the countryside,
household farms and collective including some parts of Transylvania.
and state farms became the That resulted in the destruction of
primary landowners. It was a forced villages, the demolition of houses and
collectivisation: my uncle was told the uprooting of people. Families were
that he would lose his teaching moved into towns and put into small
position unless his family gave up flats. Local oral histories tell us that
their land. He did not have a choice. elderly people began taking their own
As small farms disappeared, the lives, in their own homes, fearful of
way and quality of farming changed. the forced evictions.
1a. 1b. 1c. European Herb Gathering
2018 in Lupeni, Transylvania
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