Pierluigi Milone

Theory and Practice of Multi‐Product Farms: Farm Butcheries in Umbria

This paper addresses the phenomenon of the on-farm butcher shops that have become increasingly important in the Central Italian region of Umbria over the last decade, Theoretically, farm butcheries are analyzed as multi-product farms that vertically integrate the primary production, processing and retailing of (mainly) beef and that considerably reduce the cost of each unit produced by jointly producing two or more interrelated goods or services. The practical value of farm butcheries lies in the preservation and valorization of the local Chianina cattle breed and of local resources in general, including social capital and landscape. Farm butcheries contribute to an endogenous type of rural development with major macroeconomic returns and the case exemplifies the central position of the multifunctional farm in the renewal of the European countryside. The economic success of farm butcheries is explained in terms of the reduction of economic transaction costs and the achievement of economies of scope. The main conclusion of the paper is that the specificity of assets results in substantial competitive advantages for the organizational form of the multi-product farm in processes of rural development

Is Multifunctionality the Road to Empowering Farmers

Abstract This chapter gives several explanations as to why peasant agriculture results in sturdy and sustainable growth – it also identifies the factors that undermine this capacity. Peasant agriculture entails a constructive capacity: it includes mechanisms that are used to make agriculture grow and to face adverse conditions. And when the ‘normal’ level of resilience does not suffice, the constructive capacity is employed to redesign and materially rebuild agriculture through the development of new products, services and markets. This capacity leads to a new farmer’s empowerment that have in the multifunctionality the key to go beyond the classical agricultural system where the farming capacity is completely expressed out of the farm leaving farmers to do only mechanical operation. The chapter illustrates several examples of how farmers are reclaiming control over their own resources by defining a new level of farm autonomy and by oriented their farm towards multifunctional activities and the concept of peasants agriculture. The ‘new peasantry’ is consolidating itself and becoming a highly effective alternative: a viable way of addressing the multifaceted crisis that beleaguers farmers, the increasing strictures they face and the ongoing challenges of sustainability.

Conclusion: Reproducing Future in Rural Area

Abstract Peasants play a key role in the processes of growth and development of rural areas. But the practices and the organizational forms or arrangements can be very different in relation to the context or territory of origin. This has resulted in a multiplicity of solutions unlikely to be repeated in other sectorial or scientific context. This heterogeneity of responses allows the peasants model to strengthen the resilience of rural areas and offer itself as an alternative model of agricultural modernization paths increasingly ineffective in managing the modern complexity. This is a common element that emerges in all experiences of rural development in Brazil, China, and Europe, which are compared in this book. In addition to this, this chapter highlights some commonalities that can be used to delineate the attributes of the new peasantry and its consolidation and dissemination in space and time.