Cultivar bajo las bombas: La agricultura urbana y periurbana en Barcelona durante la Guerra Civil, 1936-1939

Abstract

Urban agriculture is key when food security is threatened, as in the cases of wars, which disrupt food production, conservation, transportation, and distribution systems. During the two World Wars of the 20th century, governments mobilized civilians to participate in food production and to increase morale by contributing to the war effort from the rearguard. Unlike these cases, food production in Spanish cities during the civil war of 1936-1939 has received little attention. Using documentation from different public and private archives, press clips, and personal testimonies, this article explores the socio-environmental history of agricultural production in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War. On the one hand, we analysed the collectivization of agriculture in the municipality of Barcelona, carried out by the Colectividad Agrícola de Barcelona y su Radio (CNT), involving at its peak some 3,500 workers managing 850 hectares of crops. On the other hand, this Collective coexisted with an expansion of home gardens for self-consumption in the city as food supplies became scarcer. Both initiatives contributed to maintaining a precarious food supply until the occupation of the city by Franco's troops in January 1939.