Hu Ren, Gill Nicholas J
Australian Centre for Culture, Environment, Society and Space, School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia.
Present Address: School of Commerce, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhangjiagang Campus, Zhangjiagang, 215600 People's Republic of China.
Agric Human Values. 2023;40(2):599-617. doi: 10.1007/s10460-022-10372-9. Epub 2022 Oct 29.
Rural Australia has been experiencing dramatic agricultural restructuring. A major contributor to this in some areas is peri-urban and rural residential developments, and amenity/lifestyle developments, including those associated with the inflow of urban middle-class groups into rural areas. These processes are intertwined with neoliberal trends in agri-food governance, and have complex effects on farming. However, there is a lack of farm-level studies that explore how professional farmers have been interacting and co-existing with urban/suburban development while also undertaking agricultural intensification and innovation. This study aims to examine how residential and amenity/lifestyle developments have unfolded in the Illawarra region, New South Wales, and come to influence and interact with local dairy farmers who are also managing the consequences of industry restructuring particularly from 2000. Based on semi-structured interviews, this study shows that with their proximity to Sydney, Illawarra dairy farms are influenced by deregulated planning systems, large-scale residential development, amenity driven demand for rural land, and the amenity/lifestyle economy. These processes bring farmers commercial opportunities and drive farmers to form new social and economic relationships with land buyers and investors. However, it has been increasingly difficult for farmers to acquire land for farming locally. They are also subjected to the expectations and demands of new landholders, including in relation to farm externalities and animal welfare. Farmers have to transform their production systems to fit into this context. The above factors together generate a form of multifunctional rural space.
澳大利亚农村地区一直在经历剧烈的农业结构调整。在一些地区，造成这种情况的一个主要因素是城郊和农村住宅开发以及休闲/生活方式开发，包括那些与城市中产阶级群体流入农村地区相关的开发项目。这些过程与农业食品治理中的新自由主义趋势相互交织，对农业产生了复杂的影响。然而，缺乏农场层面的研究来探讨专业农民在进行农业集约化和创新的同时，是如何与城市/郊区发展相互作用并共存的。本研究旨在考察新南威尔士州伊拉瓦拉地区的住宅和休闲/生活方式开发是如何展开的，以及它们如何影响当地奶农并与之相互作用，这些奶农尤其自2000年以来也在应对行业结构调整带来的后果。基于半结构化访谈，本研究表明，由于靠近悉尼，伊拉瓦拉的奶牛场受到规划制度放松管制、大规模住宅开发、休闲需求驱动的农村土地需求以及休闲/生活方式经济的影响。这些过程为农民带来了商业机会，并促使农民与土地买家和投资者建立新的社会和经济关系。然而，农民在当地获取农业用地变得越来越困难。他们还受到新土地所有者的期望和要求的影响，包括与农场外部性和动物福利相关的期望和要求。农民不得不改变他们的生产系统以适应这种情况。上述因素共同催生了一种多功能农村空间形式。
