Abstract
The path to sustainable development involves creating coherence and synergies in the complex relationships between economic and ecological systems. In sustaining their farm businesses farmers’ differing values influence their decisions about agroecosystem management, leading them to adopt diverging farming practices. This study explores the values of dairy and beef cattle farmers, the assumptions that underpin them, and the various ways that these lead farmers to combine food production with the provision of other ecosystem services, such as landscape conservation and biodiversity preservation. This paper draws on empirical research from Galicia (Spain), a marginal and mountainous European region whose livestock production system has undergone modernization in recent decades, exposing strategic economic, social and ecological vulnerabilities. It applies a Q-methodology to develop a values-based approach to farming. Based on a sample of 24 livestock farmers, whose practices promote landscape conservation and/or biodiversity preservation, the Q-methodology allowed us to identify four ‘farming styles’. Further analysis of the practices of the farmers in these groups, based on additional farm data and interview material, suggests that all 24 farmers valorize landscape and nature and consider cattle production and nature conservation to be compatible within their own farm practices. However, the groups differed in the extent to which they have developed synergies between livestock farming and landscape conservation. We conclude by discussing how rural development policy in Galicia could strengthen such practices by providing incentives to farmers and institutionally embedding a shift towards more diversified farming and product development.
Highlights
The globalization of food supply chains has brought benefits for consumers, such as year-round availability of food at relatively low prices [1,2], this has come at considerable, albeit hidden, costs which include an acceleration in climate change, increased risks to public health and the depletion of scarce resources [3], challenges that are especially marked with livestock farming
These negative impacts have led to calls for a territorially-rooted approach, which is better suited to addressing environmental, resource, and economic vulnerabilities [4,5,6,7], and for dairy and beef cattle farming practices that are more effective in sustaining and strengthening the provision of multiple ecosystem services
In this article we explore Galician farmers’ perceptions on optimizing the balance between landscape conservation and biodiversity preservation on the one hand and productive farming, on the other, in order to show how the transition towards agricultural sustainability is anchored in farm practices
Summary
The globalization of food supply chains has brought benefits for consumers, such as year-round availability of food at relatively low prices [1,2], this has come at considerable, albeit hidden, costs which include an acceleration in climate change, increased risks to public health and the depletion of scarce resources [3], challenges that are especially marked with livestock farming These negative impacts have led to calls for a territorially-rooted approach, which is better suited to addressing environmental, resource, and economic vulnerabilities [4,5,6,7], and for dairy and beef cattle farming practices that are more effective in sustaining and strengthening the provision of multiple ecosystem services. The optimization (and sustainability) of farm practices needs to be based on the values, principles, and goals held by farmers and other rural stakeholders [15]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
