Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rural Development And Sustainable Agriculture In The European Union Mediterranean: A Case Study On Olive Oil Production In Kefalonia, Greece, Amaris Lunde

WWU Graduate School Collection

Rural depopulation is a post-war phenomenon in Western Europe, strongly associated with agricultural abandonment to which isolated and poorer areas are most vulnerable. Such agricultural communities have remained marginalized due to a lack of resources to restore them, but also due to market and governmental forces which have encouraged industrial agriculture, thereby rewarding large-scale agricultural operations and rendering the small traditional agricultural practices nonviable because of their inability to compete. The Greek Ioanian island of Kefalonia was once home to a hillside subsistence community known as Farsa, which was emblematic of traditional agricultural practices. The effects of World War II …