Agriculture in Portugal: Food, development and sustainability (1870-2010)
Agriculture in Portugal: Food, development and sustainability (1870-2010)
The project unfolds in three parts. The first part is instrumental and it aims at the creation of four databases, which will allow the systematization, analysis and dissemination of information that is crucial to the development of the Portuguese agriculture studies (1870-2010). One of the databases gathers the main economic and social indicators related to agricultural goods, divided by sectors, subsectors and productive regions. Another database organizes the laws and regulations on the various aspects of production, processing, trading and consumption of agricultural goods. The third database groups the institutions that frame all the agricultural activities throughout the studied period, comprising government agencies, corporative organisms and civil society organizations. Finally, the fourth database is an inventory of printed document sources (press, reports, feedbacks, etc.), most of which produced by several state departments, agencies, corporative and academic institutions. Many of these sources, containing original information, are dispersed throughout small libraries and documentation centres, and are still unknown by most researchers. The professional expertise of the team members, that bring together experts in different disciplines and historical periods, will allow to overcome existing gaps and to select the most relevant information. The diversity of the gathered data, combined with their wide chronological and spatial coverage, gives great value to these new working tools and qualifies them as a real breakthrough in contemporary Portuguese historiography. The four databases will be available in a website to both Portuguese and international scientific communities.
The second part of the project involves the analysis of these databases, together with other information collected by the team members through different methodologies. The goal of this analysis is to elucidate the national effects of three major issues, for whose international academic debates require renewed historical and geographical approaches. One of the issues relates to the conditions of production, supply and cost of the food goods. It is necessary to connect these conditions with the major guidelines of public policies (linked to food sovereignty and integration in the dynamics of international markets), with the proposals on the modernization of agriculture, with national agro-ecological specificities, as well as with the living standards and preferences of Portuguese consumers. The second issue makes it necessary to evaluate the contributions of the primary sector to the economic growth and overall development of the country. A country that was considered backward and peripheral, where, up until the sixties, the agriculture was the main contributor to the gross domestic product. The national data and performance are already known, but almost everything about regional differences is unidentified. It is also necessary to assess the historical impacts on Portugal when joining the European Economic Community (1986) and adopting the common agricultural policy. The final issue requires that it is taken in account how historicity of sustainable practices, from production to consumption of agricultural goods, is related to public policies and development.
The third part concerns the contributions of this project for the renewal of the Portuguese agriculture and rural society historiography. And also aims to deepen the comparative dimension with Europe and the world. First, through the creation of four databases loaded with crucial information which could be the base for future studies and whose lack is felt presently at different levels. The systematization of this information is particularly important, since in Portugal (unlike what happens in, for example, Spain, France, Italy and England) general works of synthesis or sub-sector studies related to agriculture are missing. And also, because an inventory or guidebook of manuscript sources does not exist, the whereabouts of the most important documentation for the contemporary period is unknown. Second through the recognition of the "Portuguese case" in national and international academic debates were agriculture has been acquiring more relevance. These connections are favoured by the different disciplinary backgrounds of the team members and by the involvement in national and international projects or scientific networks, which have been operating for decades (like the Portuguese Society of Rural Studies, Portuguese Association of Economic and Social History, European Society for Rural Sociology, International Economic History Association), or have been recently created (like the RuralRePort - Rural History Network in Portuguese, Rural History European Organization).
Agriculture, food, development, sustainability
The project unfolds in three parts. The first part is instrumental and it aims at the creation of four databases, which will allow the systematization, analysis and dissemination of information that is crucial to the development of the Portuguese agriculture studies (1870-2010). One of the databases gathers the main economic and social indicators related to agricultural goods, divided by sectors, subsectors and productive regions. Another database organizes the laws and regulations on the various aspects of production, processing, trading and consumption of agricultural goods. The third database groups the institutions that frame all the agricultural activities throughout the studied period, comprising government agencies, corporative organisms and civil society organizations. Finally, the fourth database is an inventory of printed document sources (press, reports, feedbacks, etc.), most of which produced by several state departments, agencies, corporative and academic institutions. Many of these sources, containing original information, are dispersed throughout small libraries and documentation centres, and are still unknown by most researchers. The professional expertise of the team members, that bring together experts in different disciplines and historical periods, will allow to overcome existing gaps and to select the most relevant information. The diversity of the gathered data, combined with their wide chronological and spatial coverage, gives great value to these new working tools and qualifies them as a real breakthrough in contemporary Portuguese historiography. The four databases will be available in a website to both Portuguese and international scientific communities.
The second part of the project involves the analysis of these databases, together with other information collected by the team members through different methodologies. The goal of this analysis is to elucidate the national effects of three major issues, for whose international academic debates require renewed historical and geographical approaches. One of the issues relates to the conditions of production, supply and cost of the food goods. It is necessary to connect these conditions with the major guidelines of public policies (linked to food sovereignty and integration in the dynamics of international markets), with the proposals on the modernization of agriculture, with national agro-ecological specificities, as well as with the living standards and preferences of Portuguese consumers. The second issue makes it necessary to evaluate the contributions of the primary sector to the economic growth and overall development of the country. A country that was considered backward and peripheral, where, up until the sixties, the agriculture was the main contributor to the gross domestic product. The national data and performance are already known, but almost everything about regional differences is unidentified. It is also necessary to assess the historical impacts on Portugal when joining the European Economic Community (1986) and adopting the common agricultural policy. The final issue requires that it is taken in account how historicity of sustainable practices, from production to consumption of agricultural goods, is related to public policies and development.
The third part concerns the contributions of this project for the renewal of the Portuguese agriculture and rural society historiography. And also aims to deepen the comparative dimension with Europe and the world. First, through the creation of four databases loaded with crucial information which could be the base for future studies and whose lack is felt presently at different levels. The systematization of this information is particularly important, since in Portugal (unlike what happens in, for example, Spain, France, Italy and England) general works of synthesis or sub-sector studies related to agriculture are missing. And also, because an inventory or guidebook of manuscript sources does not exist, the whereabouts of the most important documentation for the contemporary period is unknown. Second through the recognition of the "Portuguese case" in national and international academic debates were agriculture has been acquiring more relevance. These connections are favoured by the different disciplinary backgrounds of the team members and by the involvement in national and international projects or scientific networks, which have been operating for decades (like the Portuguese Society of Rural Studies, Portuguese Association of Economic and Social History, European Society for Rural Sociology, International Economic History Association), or have been recently created (like the RuralRePort - Rural History Network in Portuguese, Rural History European Organization).