Abstract
Spain is a global hotspot of transformations of agri-food land systems due to changing production intensity, diets, urbanization, market integration, and climate change. Characteristic of the Mediterranean, these expanding intersections with the migration, livelihoods, and food security strategies of immigrant farm workers urge new research into the “who,” “how,” and “why” questions of the transformation of agri-food land systems. Addressing this gap, we communicate preliminary results from field research in the Granada and Madrid areas. We use a novel conceptual framework of linkages among distinct agri-food land systems and the roles and agency of immigrant farm workers. Preliminary results integrating a combined land- and labor-centric approach address: (1) how the recent and ongoing transformations of specific agri-food land systems are indicative of close links to inexpensive, flexible labor of immigrant farm workers; (2) how the connectivity among transformations of multiple distinct agri-food land systems can be related to the geographic mobility of immigrant farm workers and livelihoods (non-farm work, gendered employment, peri-urban residential location, labor recruitment); and (3) how the struggles for food and nutrition security among immigrant farm workers are indicative of links to local sites and networked agrobiodiversity. This study can help advance the nexus of migration-land research with expanding ethical, justice, and policy concerns of land system sciences in relation to the new suite of agri-food interest and initiatives.
Highlights
The transformation of land systems is characteristic of Spain and the Mediterranean region [1,2].Multiple processes are being transformed in these land systems, which encompass both land use and the related sets of the socioeconomic, technological, and organizational dynamics and, the social and ecological interactions [3]
2), we focus geographic of peri-urban that are widespread sites of dynamic of dynamic agri-food systems in Spain and the Mediterranean with potential linkages involving agri-food land systems land in Spain and the Mediterranean with potential linkages involving immigrant farm immigrant farm workers’
The framework guided our empirical focus on immigrant farm workers in principal agri-food land systems of Spain and the Mediterranean that include intensive vegetable growing for national and export markets, disintensification of “traditional” rural production, and key functions of peri-urban geographic spaces [5,16,18,84]
Summary
The transformation of land systems is characteristic of Spain and the Mediterranean region [1,2].Multiple processes are being transformed in these land systems, which encompass both land use and the related sets of the socioeconomic, technological, and organizational dynamics and, the social and ecological interactions [3]. Intensity changes in agriculture and food systems ( agri-food systems) combine with urbanization and climate change as the major drivers of land system transformations in Spain and the Mediterranean [1,2,5]. The concept of transformation in the approaches of social-ecological systems (SES) and political ecology (PE) is well-suited to characterizing major changes in agri-food land systems [6,7]. “transformation” refers to changing societal relations to nature, especially markets and labor in agri-food systems [8,9]. This combined SES and PE concept of transformation is considered necessary to address interconnected analytical, normative, and political-strategic dimensions
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