ABSTRACT
Europe's rural areas bear the footprint of a multi-secular history that is still distinctly expressed through the various cultural landscapes or local habitats. Current products from agriculture are often the legacy of old systems of crop and livestock production with very specific characteristics displaying, therefore, a great diversity across Europe. The principle of agriculture revolution, shortly before the industrial revolution, was the integration of crops and livestock into a complex production system. In the twentieth century, the widespread industrialization of Western European cities increased both rural out-migration and the mono-functionality of the countryside. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was intended to ensure food self-sufficiency in Europe, a priority inspired by the period of shortage that followed the Second World War. Agricultural collectivism of the communist era led to major changes in both rural areas and rural societies in Central and Eastern Europe, and the USSR. Currently, significant differences in the types of rurality prevailing in East and West still remain.
