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

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.