Nature-agriculture and culture-cultivation in Europe

by Andrea Segré

This paper is part of the 'Europe and the Balkans' Occasional Papers Series, published by the Istituto per l'Europa Centro-Orientale e Balcanica of the University of Bologna. 

This work discusses the intertwining between the “pairs” nature-agriculture and culture-cultivation in the (recent and controversial) dynamics of European history. In a semantic game, the links between the two “pairs” are analyzed, connecting them to the two paths – one economic and the other genetic – that have marked the construction and integration process of Europe, including the next enlargement and external relations. On one side, the economic construction-constriction that refers to the Common Agricultural Policy, much criticized by much of the European public opinion, because it alters the mechanisms of natural production and the natural characteristics of agricultural and food production. On the other, the as much-opposed biotechnological agriculture, which is the result of the artificial construction of genetically modified organisms (whose products nobody in Europe wants to consume). The analysis is conducted considering the two antithesis to the reference systems that we have studied: the result is surprising and goes against all expectations, bringing into light the necessity of a disciplinary contamination among different fields of study.