Historical Transformations of a Mediterranean Agroecosystem: from Art to Industry. Solving puzzles and learning for the future.

with Lucía Díez Sanjuán, PhD student in Economic History Program at the University of Barcelona

IN ENGLISH

Traditional farm systems are an important source of knowledge for the design of sustainable agricultural systems; however, most of them were greatly affected by the spread of the green revolution in the second half of the 20th century.

Studying the historical transformation of the agroecosystem of Les Oluges (Catalonia) from a sociometabolic perspective, important insights of the sustainability and unsustainability of farming systems and practices were obtained

One of the key elements found was the silvoarable cropping system consisting of the intercropping of cereals with vines, olives and/or almonds. Trying to disentangle the rationality behind this polycultural practice lead to acknowledge the art of farming.