Interspecies relations in peasant animal husbandry in the Orvietano, Italy: Exploring collaborative survival

Abstract                          

Based on a research journey with Orvietan peasants and farm-animals, this research paper delves into the interspecies relations of the Orvietan animal husbandry system. I investigate the fundamental role that farm-animals, wildlife, and peasants play in making Orvietan animal husbandry a process of collaborative survival. I argue that because of these collaborative interspecies relations, peasant farms are more resilient to the agricultural squeeze, alienation, and commodification. In the midst of a political, economic, social, ecological ‘general crisis’ which calls for new political proposals, Orvietan collaborative survival offers a valuable naturecultural rethink, regrounding agriculture and humans in ‘nature’ and de-essentializing our relations with earth others. While vegan worlds are stuck in the human/nature divide and endorse a Eurocentric, capitalocentric, and anthropocentric food future, collaborative survival in the Orvietano is a situated glocal response which challenges narratives of progress and modernization. Through interspecies work relations and entanglements-contaminations with the broader ecosystem, peasant farms remind us about our ecological ontology and our collaborative interspecies history.

Keywords

Interspecies relations, animal husbandry, peasant agriculture, collaborative survival, industrial agriculture, food and ecological futures, cellular agriculture, animal ethics, wildlife, political ecology

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