Rural Europe on the move English_E_version_all | Page 105

Tasting independence PE OP LE ! Sjoerd Wartena had a successful career in the library of the University of Amsterdam before dropping it all in 1972 to move to the wilderness of a relatively deserted mountain village in la Drome. With his wife Elisabeth, he jumped into farming in an area no one else wanted. “No doubt, it was a permanent uphill struggle,” Elisabeth says. “We had to rebuild the abandoned houses, reopen and cultivate the meadows and fields. And we had to create our own markets. We were young but there was no path without permanent struggle.” Terre de Liens is a grassroots network set up by Sjoerd to make this journey a little easier. “We need a strong movement in France and in Europe to transform agricultural land into a common good and collective responsibility”, he explains. “This land could be perfectly managed in a very sustainable way, if we would have more ‘land of connections’ between people who want to live and work in the rural areas and people who are ready to invest into an agroecological, organic or peasant future. Access to land and its sustainable use is one of the key challenges in our times.” NCE THE BEAUFORTAIN EXPERIE T IN A NUTSHELL he example of the Beaufortain community has organisations across the continent. In such cases, shown us that close cooperation for a specific local initiatives are forced to be flexible and quality product like Beaufort cheese is essential for stay motivated so that new local initiatives and the survival of peasant farming. Mutual support and cooperatives can sprout up again. expertise in milk and cheese production offer the What’s exciting for Beaufortain at the moment is necessary independence from external financial that young families are moving into the area. They support and have preserved an attractive landscape are needed to keep the area dynamic and lively and services for rural tourism. With its European but young farmers and especially new entrants Rural Sustainability Gathering, Forum Synergies has into farming face some serious challenges. Among highlighted the strong principles which associations the trickiest is access to land. The French support in Beaufortain represent: human relations, projects, structure Terre de liens and its European Access the economy and partnership based on the needs to land network, as well as many other solidarity of the local population so that they can stay in the savings and investment systems, now play an territory. important role to help these people get access However, Beaufortain is also an example for how to land. Such initiatives are vital to combat rural major, top-down, structural administrative changes depopulation, an aging population in the farming can seriously destabilise grassroots movements. sector and to bolster a transition toward new, This is a serious threat for rural development sustainable peasant farming systems. 101