Sardinian Shepherds Facing To The Global Market, Between Resilience Strategies and Struggles for a Fair Sheep-milk Price.

This paper is based on an ethnographic research (with also in depth interviews) on the change in contemporary Sardinian pastoralism (Italy). The Sardinian pastoralism is a privileged setting to observe how the marginal areas rural resist to the pressure of the global agri-food chains and to the agricultural squeeze. The Sardinian sheep-dairy chain is focused on the industrial production of the “Pecorino Romano”, a low-cost cheese for export to the US, where the Romano is used by food industry as grated cheese. I analyse the change in the traditional model of Mediterranean pastoralism (based on natural graze and extensive breeding) facing to the global market and the high volatility of the sheep-milk price, focusing on the resilient strategies to survive and resist to the marginalization (e.g. the role of informality, family, immigrant work, traditional way to manage environment).