Episode 4: Land & Democracy
Fields of Power
In the final episode of Fields of Power, we step back from the land grabbing cases we’ve traced across Hungary and ask a deeper question: what does land have to do with democracy? Episode 4: Land & Democracy Péter and Ian begin on a small farm outside Budapest, where Katalin, an agroecological farmer, is experimenting with another way of living and growing food. Her garden is not just about vegetables, but about community, care, and reimagining what farming and life might look like beyond profit, fear, and extraction. From community-supported agriculture to seed saving and open gates,...
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Episode 2: The Land Grab Chronicles
Fields of Power
Episode 2 of Fields of Power moves from the aisles of a Hungarian supermarket into the hidden machinery of a political-economic system where land, food, and power are tightly intertwined. Péter and Ian begin by tracing the products of powerful political-economic elites – Hungary’s oligarchs – whose companies dominate everything from dairy to wine. But the question they pursue is bigger: how did land become the key to their power, and why does it matter for Hungary’s future? Episode 2: The Land Grab Chronicles Episode 2 shows how oligarchs and their allies used...
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Episode 3: Fear and Loathing in Hungary
Fields of Power
In Episode 3 of Fields of Power, we head out onto Hungary’s great plains in search of people living through the country’s land battles. What we find is a landscape marked not just by farmers without land, but by fear. Episode 3: Fear and Loathing in Hungary We meet István, a shepherd in his seventies whose life was upended when his grazing land was handed to a politically connected newcomer – setting off a chain of intimidation and violence that still haunts him. His story leads us to others: the farmers of Kishantos, like Ferenc and Éva, who faced threats, assaults, and the...
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Episode 1: Of Farms & Fortune
Fields of Power
What looks like a dispute over farmland turns out to be something much larger. Episode 1 of Fields of Power begins with the story of Kishantos, an organic farm south of Budapest and opens into a wider investigation of land grabbing, power, and the rise of authoritarian politics in Hungary. Episode 1: Farms & Fortune Fields of Power begins at Kishantos, a once-celebrated organic demonstration farm and folk school in rural Hungary. In this episode, we follow the story of Éva Ácsné, who spent decades building a model of ecological farming, education, and community, only to see the land...
info_outlineIn the final episode of Fields of Power, we step back from the land grabbing cases we’ve traced across Hungary and ask a deeper question: what does land have to do with democracy?
Episode 4: Land & Democracy
Péter and Ian begin on a small farm outside Budapest, where Katalin, an agroecological farmer, is experimenting with another way of living and growing food. Her garden is not just about vegetables, but about community, care, and reimagining what farming and life might look like beyond profit, fear, and extraction. From community-supported agriculture to seed saving and open gates, her story offers a glimpse of an alternative future rooted in local cooperation rather than control.
From there, a bigger picture emerges. Drawing together voices from across the series – Éva and Logan, organic farmers, Noémi the researcher – we explore how land grabbing, EU agricultural subsidies, and the concentration of land in the hands of politically connected elites undermine democratic life. Democracy, which is not just about elections or institutions, but about relationships: to land, to food, to one another, and to the possibility of living without fear.
This episode challenges the idea that Hungary is an exception. Instead, it asks what its story reveals about Europe as a whole and about the fragile ties between land, power, and democracy… everywhere.
This is not an ending wrapped in easy optimism. It is a call to pay attention, to question systems that concentrate power, and to recognise that the struggles over agriculture fields are also struggles over our collective future.