Peri-Urban Matters. Changing Olive Growing Patterns in Central Italy

Abstract

For centuries, olive growing has played a major role in the central regions of Italy, with hectares of olive groves surrounding hill towns and hamlets as part of a strong deep-rooted farming tradition. With reference to Lazio and Abruzzo, this article makes use of historical documentation, geographical surveys and in-depth interviews with professionals and experts, in order to provide evidence of how olive growing, once of the mixed type, now with specialized cultivations, has somehow challenged the structural features of traditional landscapes. In some cases, this ancient farming tradition has been awarded the 'Protected Designation of Origin Brand' according to strict technical production policies. Besides intensive crops, today also practiced on flat ground, for some years now, olive trees have been cultivated by 'hobby farmers'. This is frequent in fringe areas, threatened by urban sprawl, within small plots belonging to detached family homes conferring a sense of rural 'revival'. Whether all these diverse settlement patterns are socially and economically sustainable is debatable. Definitely, such persistence in land use, which now and again can be read even as a material survival of certain tree specimens, allows for olive farming as an enduring cultural practice in the face of increasing urbanization.

Fallow Land, Recession and Socio-Demographic Local Contexts: Recent Dynamics in a Mediterranean Urban Fringe

“…These findings are in line with more general transformations of rural landscapes recently observed in Attica and in other Mediterranean urban regions [62][63][64][65], including local-scale processes of agricultural intensification (increase in vineyards and garden crops and consequent decrease in arable land) or extensivation (expansion of tree crops, mainly olive groves). For instance, it was demonstrated how olive groves may buffer human pressure in peri-urban areas, contributing to ecological stability through soil protection and high-quality water conservation [42,50,[66][67][68][69][70]. Urban growth, rural development, new attitudes of farmers through irrigation, intensification, and mechanization, as well as more latent effects linked with the disappearance of full-time farmers and large-size farms, have contributed to shape the rural landscape around cities, with marginal land being more influenced by sequential cycles of economic expansion and recession [71].…”

Soil Degradation and Socioeconomic Systems’ Complexity: Uncovering the Latent Nexus

“…However, while a land take is certainly a very important element that increases soil degradation, multiple factors are needed to trigger a desertification process. Additional issues hampering soil conservation are considered prominent in such a case and include (i) the intrinsic mismatch between positive and normative targets in affected regions, (ii) a partial (or complete) lack of context-specific solutions to soil degradation, and (iii) incomplete communication of local levels with upper levels of governance [32][33][34]. These issues paralleled a latent weakness in development planning and programs, not only in emerging countries but also in some advanced economies, together with the partial lack of extensive exercises of soil vulnerability assessment over continents or ecological regions [35][36][37][38].…”

The Role of Knowledge in Constructing the Quality of Olive Oil in Spain

“…This logic gives priority to the territory and to the production of "culturally intense" food [13], due to its dimension of symbolism and identity. Understanding of the post-productivist model in the olive oil sector is evident in the development of olive oil protected designations of origin (PDOs), oleotourism experiences and museums on olive groves and olive oil [16,17].…”

“…This model is deeply engrained in certain areas that highlight the value of "terroir" oil [17]. Nevertheless, the dimensions of this subjectivating quality have also been submitted to objectifiable and standardising processes as a protection against unfair competition [35].…”