Mot ei framtid for utmarksbeite – om beiting, sjølvkjensle og forståing mellom folk

The once-proud graziers have begun to have doubts. They have begun to doubt whether everything they used to believe, everything that gave meaning to what they have been doing, still makes sense. This essay takes the reader home to the graziers and out into the Norwegian countryside: the mountains, forests and deep fertile valleys, the terrain the Norwegians call outfields (utmark). Based on conversations with graziers in different parts of Norway, this essay discusses the future of grazing in the outfields against the backdrop of the big, as well as the small, political and social issues that both the graziers and we as a society are facing. For the graziers are struggling with many questions today. Is it no longer ecologically sustainable to use the outfields resources for food production? Shouldn’t the outfields be a resource for the production of food and fibre anymore? Is there no place for grazing animals in the Norwegian mountains in the future? Grazing farmers are currently asking themselves these questions and more. They feel degraded and exposed in the public debate, and the feeling tears at their self-image and makes every day grey; it becomes increasingly difficult to find motivation for each day that passes. But what can be done to reverse this trend? What can the grazing farmers do themselves, and what do we others need to do for them, politically as well as socially? This chapter discusses the emergence of a new concept of outfields and how it has affected grazing in the outfields. The essay raises a number of important questions that we as a society need to address in the debate about the future role of traditional upland grazing areas in our landscape.