Working Group II

The rural environment, at least as far as this has been understood in the European tradition, is neither a wild space in which nomadic encampments are scattered, nor an ephemeral aggregate of highly industrialised agricultural practices and wandering families It harbours long-standing human settlements spanning the generations, whose survival and development cannot be assured by market-oriented policies driven by a few giants of the agro-industry. The actual agro-food policy, which is cast in a neo-liberal mould, is inimical to the conservation of precious cultural practices, cultural achievements and forms of common life.