Lisätäkseen omaa ymmärrystään Wageningenin yliopiston maisteriopiskelija Mathilde Basson vietti kuukauden tutkijavierailussa Helsingin yliopiston Ruralia-instituutissa, työskentelemällä ja asumalla luomumaitotilalla Juvalla. Lue hänen mietteitään englanninkielisestä blogista.
Reporting back from MuuMaa
Mathilde Basson
How does an English/French person, studying in the Netherlands, end up on a dairy farm in Juva? I have been asked variations of that question a lot over the past few weeks and honestly, I am also quite surprised that I have ended up here. However, the past month I have spent at MuuMaa with Heli, Heikki and the rest of the team has taught me so much, and I am very grateful to have had the chance to live and work on a Finnish organic dairy farm.
I am currently studying a master’s degree in Resilient Farming and Food Systems at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Fundamentally, I am interested in the interactions between people, nature and farming that shape rural landscapes, which led me to Wageningen, and now pursue a thesis in Finland.
I came to the thesis research with three objectives:
- 1. work on a project involving livestock
- 2. combine biophysical and social topics
- 3. spend time working on a farm
That last point is particularly important to me as I didn’t grow up on a farm, and I know I can’t understand everything from behind my laptop.
This led me to the topics supervised by Kari and Jana linked to research on Biodistricts, which would allow me to meet all of my objectives, and as a bonus learn about a new country by coming to Finland. Thus, I was headed to MuuMaa for a month. The research question I am exploring is: How can the foodscape be defined by integrating the social network and bioeconomic flows of biomass, energy and nutrients in the context of Nordic livestock agriculture? (one that is still evolving).
The objective of this research is to weave the biophysical, economic and social layers together into a ‘foodscape map’, a way of seeing the farm as a living system where social relationships, economics and nutrient flows all shape each other. I’m hoping my thesis can test how the foodscape concept can be applied in practice at the farm scale. To do this, I have collected data on the economic and biophysical flows on the farm and conducted an interview to identify the actors connected to biomass, nutrient and energy components of the system. Now I have gathered most of the data, I am moving toward unpacking these different dimensions to figure out how they will fit together.
Throughout my time at MuuMaa I have had the opportunity to experience real farm work, helping with jobs across the farm, watching how the team works on a day-to-day basis and meeting all the people involved in successfully running a farm. I have gained an insight into livestock systems and enjoyed spending a lot of my time around the cows, two of which, Trambo and Sabrina became familiar faces. I also got to watch the farm dogs at work, an important part of MuuMaa’s daily operations.
For my thesis, I am interested in using my research methodologies to explore circularity from different angles. In this system, several biophysical flows are maintained at the local scale: most of the feed is produced on-site, bedding materials are sourced from nearby farms, and the slurry is delivered to the local biogas plant, closing nutrient and energy loops within the region. The main instances where flows extend beyond the local scale relate to structural constraints rather than management choices; for example, organic dairy processing facilities are located outside the region, and energy for farm operations is still sourced internationally. Going forward, one of my research objectives will be to explore how the foodscape can be used to approach circularity.
Alongside the research, my favourite insights from this fieldwork period come from meeting the farmers and hearing their stories. MuuMaa is a cooperative of three farms working together and was one of the first organic farms in Juva. This allowed the farmers to focus on their strengths and divide responsibilities across cows, field work and bookkeeping. As a result, this farm is productive, not reliant on external inputs and prioritises animal welfare. When it came to becoming organic in the early 90s, it was due to the financial and institutional support available to farmers that the transition felt possible. In this case, MuuMaa’s system has always been relatively extensive, so the transition to organic was simple with these tools.
I have drawn from this that collaboration between different actors is a central component to keeping rural communities alive, and that if supportive structures exist in the farmer’s network, they can provide the security needed to move away from conventional systems.
If you ever have the chance to spend time working on a farm as a part of your research, I would wholeheartedly recommend that you do it. I can’t think of a better way to understand a system from the inside out. Even with my non-existent Finnish, everyone at MuuMaa welcomed me and showed me how they worked. And by taking the time to build relationships with the people in my study, this not only made the data collection easier as they were happy to help and curious as to why I was there, but it also gave me time not to rush any steps and process what I learned each day.
I am beyond grateful for the welcome I got here at MuuMaa and will look back on my time in Juva fondly. Now, I am excited to turn my notes into something concrete and meaningful that I can share back with the farmers who made this experience possible.
Mathilden vierailu liittyy meneillään olevaan hankkeeseen: Kohti ekoalueita – Ekoaluetiekartan kokoaminen Etelä-Savoon | Ruralia-instituutti | Helsingin yliopisto