Many Portuguese Returning to the Land
April 22nd, 2012Via: RTE:
Disillusioned by the unfulfilled promise of the cities and feeling stifled by tough austerity measures aimed at coping with an economic downturn, some Portuguese are opting out and returning to the land.
Jose Diogo, who spent two years in Lisbon working as a technical advisor at a meat company, was one who fled at the beginning of Portugal’s debt crisis in 2009, and has no regrets.
“I lived in Lisbon and decided to go back home to the interior to grab the opportunity of exploring the land my father owned,” Mr Diogo said on the porch at his stone farm house, looking out over apple orchards and grazing fields for his 30 cows.
Far from discouraging people like Mr Diogo, the government is trying to get others to follow in his footsteps.
In February it launched an initiative to map the country’s unused land and terrain that does not have a known owner, with the aim of making it available to be rented to those who want to work it.
The government has also approved a land exchange scheme by which private owners of unused land will win tax benefits if they make their properties available to be rented by farmers.
Around 1.5 million hectares are expected to be made available through the scheme.
Research Credit: Timbooch
Around 1.5 million hectares are expected to be made available through the scheme.
That’s very progressive of the government considering the US, Poland & various African countries simply make that land available to whichever multinational expresses interest.
Between this and their legalized drug policy, Portugal seems to be moving counter to all the popular trends.
..and so are the Greeks..
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/world/europe/amid-economic-strife-greeks-look-to-farming-past.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FB3HfXgamg
It feels so ODD to read about a government body of ANY kind doing things that might actually HELP people, that it’s difficult to turn down my inner cynic. But in this case I’m really making an effort.
I have a serious beef with the semantic abortion that is the term “austerity measures”, you see.
Much like “conspiracy theory”, it is an intellectually stunted conflation of concepts carefully engineered to roll nicely off the tongues of media wags, talking heads and those dominant members of the publican class who tend to dominate pub and party conversations with their know-it-all attitudes gleaned from the pages of Newsweek and Forbes.
In reality, it is economic carpet bombing. Think Dresden or Tokyo or St. Vith in the 1940’s, only in financial terms. In the case of Argentina and perhaps Greece, think Hiroshima or Bikini Atoll.
Waging war by other means is still waging war.
So, cornered by the international financial community, what choices do the Portuguese really have?
That said, my inner cynic has been sitting patiently by with his hand in the air, surely to remind me that those 1.5 million hectare are not being “rented”. That is, owners will benefit from streams of revenue flowing uphill.
Not that this is entirely a bad thing.
But let’s not lose sight of the fact that while it will increase self-sufficiency in terms of food production, decrease traditional unemployment figures and bolster entrepreneurial independent farmers, it will also VERY likely benefit large industrial aggro concerns.
And where exactly will the rents flow that are administered by the state and not paid directly to an existing owner?
So, Portugal appears to be responding to the IMF carpet bombing in a rather “Cuban” fashion, albeit with a strong slant towards “civilized” western norms like making sure that land-based revenues consistently flow uphill.
The king will have his due, after all.
Being in a hurry always causes typos — sorry. Of course, what was *supposed* to read…
“…surely to remind me that those 1.5 million hectare ARE being “rented”.”