Paz, Poetas e Pombas

A Paz viajou em busca da silêncio
Sitiou Berlim
Abdicou em Londres
A Paz saltou dos olhos do poeta
Atacada de psicose
maniaco-depressiva

Foi nessa altura que as pombas
Solicitaram nas agências as tarifas
Mas não viram mais o poeta
Que gozava na Suiça
Duma licença graciosa

A Paz saiu aos saltos para a rua
Comeu mostarda
Bebeu sangria
A Paz sentou-se em cima duma grua
Atacada de astenia

Foi nessa altura que as pombas
Solicitaram nas agências as tarifas
Mas não viram mais o poeta
Que gozava na Suiça
Duma licença graciosa

Zeca Afonos (again) http://www.aja.pt/

Canção do Desterro

Vieram cedo,
Mortos de cansaço
Adeus amigos
Não voltamos cá
O mar é tao grande
E o mundo é tão largo
Maria Bonita,
Onde vamos morar?

Na barcarola
Canta a Marujada-
O mar que eu vi
Nao é como o de lá
E a roda do leme
E a proa molhada
Maria Bonita,
Onde vamos parar?

Nem uma nuvem
Sobre a maré cheia
O sete-estrelo
Sabe bem onde ir
E a velha teimava
E a velha dizia
Maria Bonita,
Onde vamos cair?

A beira de àgua
Me criei um dia-
Remos e velas
Lá deixei a arder
Ao sol e ao vento
Na areia da praia
Maria Bonita,
Onde vamos viver?

Ganho a camisa
Tenho uma fortuna
Em terra alheia
Sei onde ficar
Eu sou como o vento
Que foi e não veio
Maria Bonita,
Onde vamos morar?

Sino de bronze
Lá na minha aldeia
Toca por mim
Que estou para abalar
E a fala da velha
Da velha matreira
Maria Bonita
Onde vamos penar?

Vinham de longe
Todos o sabiam
Não se importavam
Quem os vinha ver
E a velha teimava
E a velha dizia
Maria Bonita,
Onde vamos morrer?

by Zeca Afonso

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do something ecologically sound"

This is a story of a man who had to sell his first self-built house and couldn't find another affordable house (one nice house for sale was sold only together with the healthy grandmother of the owner). So the man bought a meadow to self-built his second house. However, to get the licence to built on agricultural land he had to pretend he was going to practice intensive farming, as ecologically minded self-sufficient agriculture without the aim of maximizing profits would not be an acceptable excuse to build an house on farm land.

"Mein zweites Haus im Selbstbau

Familiäres Mißgeschick hatte mich gezwungen, ein 1970/72 eigenhändig gebautes Haus verkaufen zu müssen. Die Suche nach einem geeigneten Ersatz war erfolglos: Eine alte Mühle im dichten Wald neben dem viel zu laut rauschenden Bach, eine durchfeuchtete Ruine knapp neben einem pompösen Neubau, eine Steilhang-Keusche, die nur zeitweise Wasser hat und mit der man die rüstige Oma gleich mitkaufen muß, und all das jeweils nicht unter 70.000 DM; diese Angebote schlug ich mir aus dem Sinn. Und wo ich eine brauchbare, still und sonnig gelegene Hütte entdeckte, war sie bereits in festen Händen. So hielt ich nach einer geeigneten und käuflichen Wiese Ausschau. Jahrelang, mit dem Auto und vor allem zu Fuß und mit dem Fernglas. Geeignete Plätze fand ich einige, aber verpachten oder verkaufen wollte niemand; eine neue Schwierigkeit aufgrund des heutigen allgemeinen Reichtums der Grundbesitzer. Schließlich aber hat es doch geklappt, auch mit der Baubewilligung im Grünland, um die mich schon viele beneideten. Die bekommt man fast nur für landwirtschaftliche Zwecke. Es gilt also sehr glaubhaft zu machen, daß man wirklich Landwirtschaft treiben wird. Auch die Größe der Fläche, in meinem Fall 1,2 ha zuzüglich Pachtzusage für 1,5 ha, muß dementsprechend sein. Wer nur eine Selbstversorger-Landwirtschaft - etwa im Sinne von Seymour vorhat, das ist die natürlichste, gesündeste und weltweit verbreitetste Form der Landwirtschaft -, der kann kaum mit dem Verständnis unserer engstirnigen Behörden rechnen. Denn wer nicht zum Hauptziel hat, möglichst viel Geld zu machen, wird als spinniger, unerwünschter Außenseiter abgetan. Wer aber von seinen Sonderkulturen wie Spargel, Erdbeeren und Freilandhühnern schwärmt und lauthals vom vielen Geld träumt, ist angepaßtes Mitglied der Konsumtrottel und Steuerzahler-Gesellschaft und wird geachtet und gefördert ..."

Auszug aus: http://www.tierversuchsgegner.org/texte/aussteiger-2.html#38

Comments:
"Der Text klingt mir so aggressiv, dass mir die Haare zu Berge stehen.
Warum ist der Typ so hochnäsig, negativ und destruktiv?" (not mine)

This opens up new ground for the development of new blaming words/Schimpfworte. Adding to the very offensive "Urbanite" we can now list "Taxpayer!"... and, don't forget the ego shaking powers of calling someone "Listmaker". The radical ecological movement will benefit so much from internalizing these prejudices!... Unfortunately I don't know how to translate "Konsumtrottel" that's the only truly meaningfull label...

Why this way

There are a multitude of paths to “fight” environmental degradation and social injustice. The feeling of powerlessness created by my superficial involvement in political activism and the realization of a space of manoeuvre for citizens to create more sustainable lifestyles (despite of existing policies) that can be used simultaneously as a tool for empowerment through action, made me opt for a more inspirational path of action than hitting with the head against the wall of wested economic-political interests that I am not equipped to significantly contribute to dismantle.

Economic incentives and regulatory policies can change certain practices but are unlikely to change attitudes, therefore bad practices are back as soon as the incentives against them stop.

The way how we construct understanding/realization, (Erkentniss) might be key to define new paths of ecological-social interaction. Scientific understanding abstracts knowledge from personal experience, as understanding has become mainly attributed to the intellect. Now, a respectful interaction with people and nature cannot stand alone on a rational, intellectual basis, but requires a whole person involvement. That is why reductionist scientific understanding can not be the sole way, if it is a way at all, to promote lifestyle changes to shift to a more sustainable path.

"E mais ou menos por ai" diria o Claudio.

P.S. - On the space for maenouvre...

Gato fedorento illustrate the limits of the space of manouevre for citizens action:
"XY is forbidden."
"Can I do XY?"
"Yes."
"What happens if I do XY?"
"Nothing."
"But it is fobridden, right?"
"Yes, it is forbidden".

We should not complain too much about this lack of enforcement, as long as it does not result in killings, harassments and livelihood insecurity, but rather be happy that the state does not manage to control all areas of our lives, even if it sometimes seems to wish to do so (the "state" doesn't even have an interest in it, as long as we are quiet and consume enough).

Nevertheless, civil disobidience for the sake of not bowing to the state alone is not adequate either! Remember the organic farmer I hate most: for the sake of doing civil disobidience he promotes invasive species!!! Just because it is forbidden to plant them he offers seedlings to all gardeners he knows (because he doesn't understand the real ecological impact they can have). The gardeners don't even know what plants they are and care for them lovingly...

Portugal at its very best

The satirical goup Gato fedorento gives an accurate portray of Portuguse society and current affairs.

Watch Gato fedorento on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Gato+Fedorento

Organic Agriculture: EU wants to throw out the child with the bathwater!

Reforma do Regulamento da Agricultura Biológica
UE quer deitar fora o bebé com a água da primeira lavagem!

No dia 29 de Março no Parlamento Europeu será votado um novo regulamento relativo à Agricultura Biológica (AB), que alterara o Regulamento (CEE) nº 2092/91 que define as normas do modo de produção biológico na União Europeia. O novo Regulamento está previsto entrar em vigor, após um período de transição, a 1 de Janeiro 2009. A actual proposta não irá colmatar as lacunas em termos de sustantabilidade ecológica do modo de produção biológico do actual regulamento e foca essencialmente no desenvolvimento do mercado de produtos biológicos, com base numa concorrência a um nível de menor exigência e menor qualidade do que a exigida até agora.

A Agricultura Biológica deixa de ser um empreendimento ambicioso

Com o novo Regulamento, o ênfase do que a Agricultura Biológica deve ser, limita-se a uma produção agrícola com um impacte ambiental minimizado e não abarca a promoção de sistemas produtivos que de facto tenham consequências ambientais benéficas no panorama dos agro-ecossistemas actuais.

Os princípios gerais aplicáveis à Agricultura Biológica continuam vagamente definidos e difíceis de implementar, tal como o “impedir e combater” a erosão do solo e “ter em conta o equilíbrio ecológico”, sem que sejam apresentadas medidas concretas.

Nivelamento ao nível mais baixo de qualidade e exigência

Um dos principais objectivos da reforma do quadro regulamentar da produção biológica é “reduzir o impacto prejudicial da multiplicidade de certificações públicas e privadas” de produtos biológicos no mercado Europeu. Por isso o novo Regulamento define que “não podem ser utilizadas, nos rótulos ou na publicidade, alegações gerais segundo as quais um dado conjunto de normas, privadas ou nacionais, em matéria de produção biológico é mais estrito, mais biológico ou de qualquer outro modo superior às regras estabelecidas no presente regulamento”. Com outras palavras: os órgãos de certificação passam a ter que se limitar a certificar a aplicação do Regulamento e não podem mais ter as suas especificidades, que até ao momento, consistiam numa diversidade de regras mais rígidas de protecção ambiental e bem-estar animal do que as fixadas pelo Regulamento 2092/91. Quem vai beneficiar com isto são as empresas agrícolas que menos têm feito para a protecção do ambiente, pois vão ser postos em pé de igualdade com os produtores que realmente têm contribuído para manter a fertilidade e o equilíbrio ecológico das suas terras. Isto obviamente vai favorecer a produção biológica industrializada e em larga escala, que até agora tem sido claramente identificada como um modo de produção que, apesar de oficialmente ser aceite como biológico, tem significativas consequências negativas sobre o ambiente.

Até agora os consumidores podiam reconhecer, através da rotulagem, se um produto ia para além das normas mínimas da UE, agora todas as diferenças de qualidade e toda a diversidade existente no mercado biológico deve ser uniformizada. Isto significa que o modo de produção biológico vai ser nivelado e definido pelas práticas menos sustentáveis.

Em termos do mercado de produtos biológicos isto será certamente prejudicial, pois produtos biológicos produzidos em explorações industrializadas, têm uma qualidade claramente inferior aos produzidos em explorações mais diversificadas. Como os produtos oriundos de explorações industrializadas dominarão o mercado de produtos biológicos, a diferença qualitativa entre produtos biológicos e convencionais será minimizada. Se os produtos biológicos não têm óbvias vantagens qualitativas e em termos de preservação do meio ambiente, os consumidores não terão mais incentivos em os adquirir.

De modo a permitir o desenvolvimento do mercado da agricultura biológica em países com estados muito diferentes do estabelecimento de fileiras de produtos biológicos, o Regulamento permitirá agora que os Estados–membros possam “aplicar regras de produção menos rigorosas” do que as estabelecidas no presente Regulamento. No entanto, o logótipo de AB será uniforme em toda a UE, pelo que os consumidores não poderão distinguir facilmente quais foram as regras de facto aplicadas à produção de um determinado produto biológico.

Relaxamento das regras de produção

No novo Regulamento, produtos de síntese química já não são completamente proibidos no modo de produção biológico, mas é dada apenas preferência a substâncias naturais. “Substâncias sintetizadas quimicamente (…) só podem ser utilizadas quando não estejam comercialmente disponíveis substâncias naturais”. De acordo com a Proposta de Regulamento, este uso de produtos de síntese química terá que ser claramente regulamentado de produto para produto. Mas, claro está que não existe um Roundup natural, qual será o critério real que permitirá a substituição de produtos naturais por produtos de síntese química?

Relativamente ao bem-estar animal as regras também são vagas e focam no impacto negativo mínimo e não no efeito benéfico máximo. Em termos exemplificativos, no regulamento consta que “qualquer sofrimento, incluindo a mutilação, deve ser mantido a um nível mínimo”.

Também a rejeição de Organismos Geneticamente Modificados (OGMs) em geral na Agricultura Biológica é enfraquecida pelo novo regulamento. A proibição do uso de OGMs é agora submetida à presença de informação no rótulo ou documento acompanhante do produto em questão, submetendo a rejeição de produtos transgénicos às regras de informação e rotulagem de OGMs. Os OGMs com usos veterinários continuam aceites. Os limiares de contaminação com OGMs permitidos para a Agricultura Biológica passarão a ser os mesmo que para a agricultura convencional. Isto também significa a aceitação da coexistência de produtos biológicos com produtos geneticamente modificados, apesar de esta coexistência levar incontornavelmente à contaminação dos produtos biológicos e, com isso, um ponto fulcral da distinctividade da Agricultura Biológica cai por terra.

A Proposta de Regulamento está disponível em:
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/qual/organic/index_en.htm
com o heading:
"Organic Food: new Regulation will improve clarity for consumers and farmers"
Atenção, pois o documento está escrito em Doublespeak.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak

http://www.mst.org.br/mst/index.html

Pina-Cabral says:

“There are eyes observing the unsuspecting stranger in the most apparently deserted places.”

"Alternational time is a time of the present which tends to produce a mute past and an irrelevant future. This is the time of the relation between seasons, between the genders, between day and night, the sun and the moon, life and death.”

“ ... the constant use of watches, diaries, timetables and calendars – all these are means to ablolish the diversity of time.”

In: Pina-Cabral, J. (1987). Paved roads and Enchanted mooresses: The perception of the Past among the Peasant Population of the Alto Minho. Man (22) p. 715-735

Eu na terra fui nascido

The following popular poem is about recognizing that everything we need for life comes from the Earth and that we ourselves are made of earth and will return to it.

Eu na terra fui nascido
E eu na terra fui criado,
A terra me há-de comer
Depois de ser sepultado.

A terra é a minha mãe,
Não no posso duvidar,
E para esta me criar
Tudo da terra me vem,
Eu à terra quero bem,
A terra bem me tem querido,
Eu na terra tenho vivido
E na terra é que hei-de ter fim,
Sei que a terra que é assim,
Eu na terra fui nascido.

Eu na terra é que semeio
De todo o meu alimento,
Da terra tiro o sustento
E eu na terra é que passeio;
Da própria terra me veio
Agua p'ra ser baptizado,
A mesma terra me tem dado
Tudo quanto me é preciso,
Tenho pena, se a terra piso
E eu na terra fui criado.

Deus à terra me mandou
Com o uso da razão,
A terra me deu o pão
E o pão é que me criou;
Ao dispor da terra estou,
visto na terra viver;
A terra me há-de valer
Enquanto nela for vivendo
E, depois, quando morrendo,
A terra me há-de comer.

O corpo da criatura
É só terra e nada mais,
Os nossos restos mortais
Estão sujeitos à sepultura;
Isto é a verdade pura.
Tudo na terra é criado,
Depois torna ao mesmo estado,
Visto na terra viver,
E a terra me há-de comer
Depois de ser sepultado.

Manuel da Silva Varojota, sítio dos Funchais, f. de Querença, c. de Loulé. Colector: Manuel Viegas Guerreiro

This poem was stolen from the site: http://www.folclore-online.com/index.html

The dark side of the countryside

Here is a collection of little stories that show that romanticising the Portuguese countryside is slightly inadequate...


The grumbling shepherd:

There was a shepherd who used to bring his herd to the meadows on my parents farm. The shepherd seemed to have a special language that only he could speak and only his sheep could understand. He was constantly grumbling something and seemingly communicating with his sheep. My sister and I were very impressed by this sort of communication. We believed the intimate contact between the shepherd and his sheep had made them develop a beautiful language of their own. As my sister wanted to become a shepherd by that time, we both gave much attention to the behaviour of the shepherd and his flock, in order to learn for our professional future. My sister and I decided to loiter around the shrubs, to be closer to the shepherd to try to learn about his special language. After a while we were astonished! We managed to understand what the shepherd was saying! What he was continuously telling his sheep, and to what the sheep tended to obey. It was not a special language. It was ordinary words. And how vulgar they were!...


Mr B. and his lovely grandson

I don’t dare to say his name; he might want to shoot me. Yes, he is an important knot in the web of illegal weapon dealers in the Beira alta. And he was also our neighbour. He spent one year in prison for shooting a man who was not willing to lend him money. The man died of the consequences of the shooting. And still, Mr B. spent only one year in prison, where his business might have gained more ground. Because, when he came back to the village, he started to rebuild his house, and instead of the little village house, soon there was a little robber palace.

His grandson was an especially lovely child: as large as tall. My mother once wanted to kindle his head to show her sympathy to his mother. And the little 3 years old, hung up on the arm of my mother and started to hit her with his little feet with all his might. My mother had to struggle to get rid of him. He also believed that my bike would one day be his, because my mother had offered an old bike we didn’t need anymore to his cousin. So my actual bike was seen by his whole family as his future bike. Each time I passed on my way to school, the little boy pointed at my bike and shout out “There’s my bike! Look, that’s my bike!” and his mother asked impatiently when we would finally give that bike to her son.


Fire starters

The 15th of August is a day to fear in my home village. It’s the village festival and all people are in the village celebrating and no one is in the fields and woods. Temperatures sore up to 40ºC, and the landscape is yellow and dry as it hasn’t been raining for months. The hot remains of a cigarette are enough to start a fire now, or any glass reflecting the burning sun. Still, these rather accidental conditions which might start a fire are enormously aided by the always willing pyromaniacs loitering around and expecting the 15th of August with excitement. Any other day does as well, but mid summer, the hottest days…no one in the fields…

In 1987 we were coming from Lisbon when we saw the fire circumventing our farm. Still, our farm escaped.
In 1996 we were coming from a friend’s house, this time our wood, around 10 ha, burned completely. This fire was started very ingeniously under a young oak tree, using green Portuguese cabbage stems, in order to keep the fire evolving slowly at the start, so to allow the fire starter to be far away before the fire was noticed. After some very superficial examinations by the police my father was made to sign a paper saying that there was no reason to believe that the fire was started for purpose and further investigations were unnecessary. Although, I’m sure I know who it was that started that fire.

In 2002: a fire again. This time only the houses escaped from the flames. “What was left to burn from the 1996 fire?” you may ask. Well, some shrubs and leafy trees had regenerated pretty well and were now reduced to ashes again. Also the orchard had not been affected by the fire of the 15th August 1996. This time even the Hedera that was climbing on our house burned.

Once Farinheiro, the intellectually-humoured fool, started a fire to clean his wood on the southbound of our farm, burning the remains of the shrubs underneath the trees. The fire passed on to our farm, but it was very small and easily controlled. Another day Farinheiro started another fire at the northernmost part of our land, again to burn the remains of the shrubs. Now it was July, and even so he was at and about to go home when my brother in law interposed his way and asked him to first stop the fire before going for lunch. He said, there was no problem and he would stop the flames before going. Of course he didn’t, and my brother in law had to fight the flames before they would get bigger.

One day I looked out of the window and thought “oh, the sunset is very nice today” when I suddenly got on my heels: sunset: in the north facing window? Ok, a fire again! Quick we called the fire brigade and were there to help combat on the frontier lines.

One of the most intriguing fires occurred in February on the marsh close to the river. Phragmites, Juncus and colleagues were grey and dry from the winter, although they were standing in the water. We fought the flames by simply stemming the burning leafy stuff in the water near our feet.

By now you can imagine that on summer days you can always spot the smoke spiral of a fire ascending to the sky. Sometimes you can see fumes in every direction: North, South, East, West… Once a fire in Travanca was so big that the whole sun was covered with smoke and it became really dark at 5pm (when it should become dark at 10pm). Ashes flying around and this grey, hot, smoky air…


Emigration when you don't know how to read...

There was this fine lady, the face shining and painted, loads of golden accessories... She heard that I was German and started to talk to me. She had been emigrated to Germany for 30 years she told me. There she worked in a factory with other Portuguese people. She started proudly that she had managed to learn some German words, but when I tried to talk with her in German it proved to be impossible. She was very kind, although the way she talked, very insecure and simple, did not combine at all with her "noble" appearance. I started to ask her about her life in Germany and found out that she was analphabetic and therefore never managed to learn German by her own and tried to pass unnoticed everywhere she went throughout her life, not to be immediately stamped with prejudice as “analphabetic!.”

It is very common to hear villagers talking about emigration. Someone went "abroad", para o estrangeiro, to a place where people speak estrangeiro (foreign). Maybe it is France. What city? You may ask. The annoyed answer is: "France! I told you!". In their imagination, it seems, abroad is homogeneous, everything the same: not home.


Village clans

In every village I know a little bit in detail, there is at least one numerous poor family with distinctive characteristics. Everywhere you go you find someone who belongs to that particular family, you can tell the family of belonging by looking at the face and at the behaviour. These families form outright clans.

In our village I can recall the existence of at least two clans. They were both newcomer families who initally moved to social housing. Expulsed from there, for their anti-social behaviour, they moved to a rented house (one of the families) and the other family occupied a granit ruined house in the southbounds of the village. The family in the rented village house had 5 boy childs, all of them resembled their father in different stages of development. The smallest very cute and shiny, the second smallest a bit more serious, the following serious and sad, the next a teenage gangster, the oldest: almost as horrible as the father!... Yes, as horrible as the father, whom I saw sometimes running with his belt behind his little sons to hit them. To see him drunk was just normal. Their mother once told me very proudly that, despite of having so many sons, she had managed to find a beautiful and distinctive name for each of them. The names were more or less as follows: António José, José Martinho, Martinho Tiago, Tiago Fransisco and José António!

The other clan had a fat, drunken mother. The father was almost never seen, for his drunkeness must have kept him in the house where they lived. The children were numerous, very small and thin and pale and the hair never combed. They looked fearful and full of mistrust into the world... Somehow similar, somehow different from the Grimilde clan. The Grimilde clan from the neighobouring village was a long established well respected family and even if the children were recognizable by their mistrusting eyes and the one thick eyebrow hiding them, they had their internal social bonds that provided them with a sort of security that the pale children from our village did not have. The youngest son of the Grimilde clan...

O Zé da Grimilde… That’s a hero to follow! He spent his youth in primary school. He was in school until he was 14. Almost a well educated villager you could think. But in fact, he was in my class and in the class of my sisters. And he left school without having completed successfully 4 years of schooling. But, he was the youngest son of a woman with many, many children and she was very proud of him. Especially when he entered the fire brigade. And it must be said that he was a very good and hard worker.

What will happen to the children of those clans? Will they be able to escape the circle of violence, drunkeness, ignorance and msitrust? What will happen to their own children? Will they be hit with their parents belts as well?...


The lady of Gondramaz

Once I went for a little walk to the mountain village of Gondramaz. It is a traditional “aldeia de xisto” of the Lousa mountain range. Very nice indeed, with a beautiful patch of sweet chestnut forest around it. When I was walking around the village I saw that many houses are being rebuild (with EU funds) and are becoming very pretty again. But I was shocked when I saw that backyard garden filled with plastic bags and garbage! My view of the village idyll was under threat. Later, when I came back, close to that yard, I saw an old lady who was carrying a plastic bag on her head. She had 2 sticks to help her walking. Her legs were swollen, she had difficulties in moving. I pitied the lady and was at and about helping her, carrying that bag, which I imagined to be vegetables she had collected from her garden to prepare lunch. But, oh, what a strange and sad thing to see. The woman came close to that particular yard full of garbage, moved her head and let the plastic bag fall into the backyard! And moved on!...

This is how my project looks like right now...

Preocupações sobre o Desenvolvimento Rural e Política Agrícola em Portugal

As intenções estratégicas do Plano de Desenvolvimento Rural 2007-2013 podem ser as melhores, no entanto, se a orientação normativa se continuar a guiar por indicadores de desenvolvimento sócio-económico convencionais, a probabilidade de a sua implementação fracassar é extremamente elevada e preocupante.

De facto, a questão fulcral é se é adequado continuar a envisionar o desenvolvimento económico numa perspectiva de crescimento e aumento da competitividade, do sector agrícola e de áreas rurais, através da industrialização.

O crescimento económico exige um continuado aumento do uso de recursos naturais, pois uma desacoplação do crescimento da exploração de recursos é apenas possível dentro de certos limites, e uma desacoplação do consumo de energia nunca foi conseguida. O crescimento económico exige um aumento continuado do consumo, pelo que o fomento do crescimento económico, per se, representa uma ameaça à sustentabilidade.

Defendemos um desenvolvimento rural assente no desenvolvimento de sustentabilidade. O fortalecimento de economias e comunidades locais através da sua crescente autonomia do mercado mundial, apesar de constituir uma tendência claramente oposta aos processos de liberalização de mercados a nível global, tem revelado um potencial altamente promissor para um desenvolvimento rural sadio. Veja-se o caso de sistemas monetários alternativos, por exemplo na Alemanha (Regiogeld).

Em termos mais específicos, os apoios financeiros estatais que distorcem os preços de mercado de produtos agrícolas e favorecem a produção industrializada em detrimento da produção em pequena escala, (geralmente mais respeitadora e integrada no ecossistema local), têm que ser desmantelados, de modo a que os valores reais dos bens e serviços do meio rural sejam reconhecidos e possam recuperar o seu papel fundamental no mercado e na sustentação da sociedade. Esta estratégia teria que ser acompanhada por uma descriminação negativa de bens e serviços nacionais e importados que beneficiam de subsídios que permitem a sua transacção no mercado a preços não consonantes com os seus custos de produção.

Simultaneamente, e como estratégia prioritária, devia investir-se na organização de fileiras de mercado, baseadas não na produção em grande escala, mas na formação de cooperativas de produtores e alianças entre produtores e consumidores.

O abandono agrícola e rural em Portugal não é historicamente recente, no entanto, actualmente já possuímos conhecimentos sociais e ecológicos sólidos que permitiriam o estabelecimento de populações, com relações sadias com o meio natural, nos territótios marginais de Portugal.