Ethical Mapping of Agricultural Arenas: Wellbeing, Equity, and Sustainability in the Ebro Lands

This paper explores the agricultural landscapes of the Ebro Lands (Catalonia, Spain) through the framework of ethical mapping in anthropology, which connects moral reasoning, embodied values, and ecological relations. This study aims to understand how ethical considerations, market dynamics, and ecological care intersect in shaping agricultural practices and the wellbeing of rural communities. It seeks to empirically trace how ethics operates within multispecies and socio-ecological contexts.
The research adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews with farmers, agronomists, and cooperatives, and survey data collected across the region. This integration of qualitative and quantitative sources allows for a nuanced understanding of how decisions concerning pesticide use, biopesticide innovation, or the preservation of ancient olive groves are negotiated across social, ecological, and institutional scales.
Findings show that agricultural choices are not merely technical or economic but also ethical gestures shaping both environmental and human wellbeing. Elder farmers associate moral value with continuity and discipline, while younger generations prioritize biodiversity and ecological care. Migrant workers, essential yet marginalized, reveal how inequalities affect collective health. Cooperatives and local institutions navigate between solidarity and market logics, mediating tensions that reverberate throughout the agroecosystem.
These dynamics generate what we conceptualize as a “perspectival carousel,” in which subjectivities, moral economies, and health practices continuously shift, collide, and realign. By mapping these ethical entanglements, this study highlights the interdependence of ecological, human, and social dimensions in imagining just and sustainable rural futures.