Natural Resources and their Units

Abstract

Dating back to medieval times, fruit cultivation in Hardanger in western Norway is rooted in what is portrayed as a perfect microclimate naturally yielding the best apples in the world. However, the viability of the comparatively minute Norwegian fruit trade is continuously threatened by competition from outside, spurring all kinds of initiatives and policies to make it sustainable. The Norwegian fruit landscape, in other words, is both the natural and perfect home of world-class fruit and a site for continuous, often state-driven interventions to make it so; indeed, the perfection of the place accentuates the need to do what it takes to make it thrive. The necessary means to accomplish such viability, however, make up a complex terrain, as the resourcefulness of the Norwegian fruit landscape is ‘measured’ according to very different units.