Abstract
This paper explores dramatic shifts in Bulgaria’s industrial vs. green agricultural practices from 1960 to 2025. By combining data and metadata analysis, historical methods, and policy studies approaches, we offer a periodization of food system transformation, driven by shifts in political culture, geopolitics, energy dependency, trade relations, and, most recently, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This research has profound implications for understanding the evolution of green agricultural policies on the margins of Europe (in the shadow of the Soviet Union and later Russia), where during the communist era “green revolution” meant the rise of chemical and energy-dependent industrialized agriculture. Under late communism, a new kind of “green” revolution pushed back against such practices, as the environmental impact of fertilizer and pesticide use in Bulgaria became abundantly clear. Indeed, the Bulgarian green movement played a critical role in the collapse of communism in 1989. In the post-communist era, green agriculture has considerable support and EU subsidies, but a green revolution is slow in coming as it faces new constraints–such as poverty, the rise of Eurosceptic far-right politics, local pushback and the interests of the local petrochemical industry. Given the 2024 farmer protests in Bulgaria (and the EU), this research has profound implications for understanding regional attitudes towards green agriculture, the future of CAP 2023-27’s Green Deal alignment, and whether the CAP will be able to earnestly implement green agriculture while supporting rural prosperity in EU margins.
Presenters
Mary NeuburgerProfessor, History, University of Texas, Texas, United States Evan Samsky
Student, Dual-master's of Global Policy Analysis and Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Texas, Texas, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Food Production and Sustainability
KEYWORDS
Bulgaria, EU, CAP, Communism, Post-Communism, Fertilizer, Organic Farming, Energy Dependency
