Page 45 - Fall2013
P. 45

EXISTING PROBLEMS                         culture, and their importance should be honored,   An ideal
              Although around thirty percent of the Ro-  their agricultural sovereignty protected.   solution would
          manian population is rural (five times more than     Unlike most European countries, Romanian
          the average in the European Union), almost sixty  farmers are split in two categories: peasants and  be to bring
          percent of agricultural landowners are between  industrial farmers, without many other categories   the population
          sixty and seventy years of age, and this aging  in between. Romania has 2.6 million farmers   back to the
          population is one of the major problems of Ro-  each owning under 2.5 acres of land and only
          manian agricultural politics.             ninety-six hundred farmers which own more  old, traditional
              Some other problems include the lack  than two hundred fifty acres. Despite this fact,   way of eating
          of vision regarding agricultural politics, poor  those ninety-six hundred farms receive most of   and renew a
          implementation of laws, lack of political stabil-  the agricultural subsidies.
          ity, big differences in the treatment of small and     Agriculture was for a very long time the big- high demand
          large farmers, poverty, bureaucracy, and lack of  gest force in Romania, with an impressive num-  for local,
          access to funds. Some policies favor food bioen-  ber of peasant-farmers, and it will depend upon   unprocessed,
          gineering companies, and inequalities exist in the  political and national decisions to ensure that the
          imports and exports between Romania and other  situation continues in the future. But overall, an  healthy food.
          European countries. Environmental problems  ideal solution would be to bring the population
          also exist.                               back to the old, traditional way of eating and
              The Common Agricultural Policy Reform.  renew the high demand for local, unprocessed,
          which will be finalized in 2013, represents an  healthy food. Educated consumers will eventu-
          opportunity for the European Union and for the  ally help in the process of reducing the number
          Romanian authorities to take a step forward to  of fake “traditional” and “ecological” producers,
          protect small-scale traditional farming.   who make their way into the Romanian markets
              Healthy, traditional Romania desires a future  these days, by choosing the real producers instead
          where peasants play an important, integral role by  and also staying away from industrial food.
          providing most of the food for the country. Peas-     The newly opened WAPF chapter in Ro-
          ants are the cornerstone of Romanian history and  mania has set a goal of contributing as much as



                                  BEAUTIFUL FACIAL STRUCTURE IN ROMANIAN PEASANT GIRLS


































 Wise Traditions   FALL 2013  FALL 2013              Wise Traditions                                           43





   123816_text.indd   43                                                                                       9/20/13   1:00 AM
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