Yet that revolution based not only on the mechanising of agricultural work, but also on land consolidation, the use of herbicides and chemical fertilizers, etc., was a model spurred on by the expansion of cities and contingent upon the economies of scale (concentration of resources, investments, workforce and means of production, etc.). Rural areas, which had been self-sufficient, became the primary focus for supplying labour and basic food at low prices, which led to rural depopulation and the transformation of the agricultural holdings.
En dos o tres décadas el panorama The rural se modificó sustancialmentelandscape changed substantially over two or three decades. Desapareció o cambió la sociedad campesina que conocieron y practicaron nuestros progenitores, la generación nacida en la primera mitad del siglo XXThe rural society disappeared or changed that our ancestors – the generation born in the first half of the 20th century – had known and practiced. Estos campesinos crecieronThose country-folk grew up, se casaron y formaron una familia que era indispensable para el mantenimiento del medio basado en la tradiciónmarried and formed a family that was essential to keep up traditional ways. Sin embargoHowever, los hijos de esta generación han sido testigos de la desaparición del ganadothe children of that generation witnessed the disappearance of the livestock, de la llegada de tractores y máquinas sofisticadas y del abandono de las prácticas tradicionales heredadas de un saber acumulado durante siglosthe arrival of the sophisticated tractors and machines and the turning away from the traditional practices inherited from know-how accumulated down through the centuries. Por si eso fuera pocoAnd if that were not enough, los agricultores que han superado esta transformación y a los que por edad les ha llegado la hora de ceder su explotaciónthe framers who had come through that transformation and who had reached an age that they wanted to pass on their holding, se encuentran con que sus hijos no quieren continuar la labor porque su trabajo y forma de vida depende de la ciudadfound that their children did not want to continue with farm-work as their ways of life and jobs were in the city, cuando no se han ubicado definitivamente en ellaeven when they had not yet moved there, y además no están dispuestos a dedicarse a una actividad laboral tan sacrificada e inciertaand they were also not willing to embark on such hard and uncertain work.
=== La situación actual ===