The price of paradise

With the addition of ten new member states, Europe acquired a vast new countryside. Not the kind of countryside we have in Western Europe, but an immense void of broad farmland, forest, mountains and steppes. Many new Europeans are small farmers living in a world that no longer exists in the west. What does the arrival of Europe mean for them? What changes will it bring to their way of life, the landscape, agriculture and the natural environment? Can the new Europeans learn from our mistakes? Or does their way of life have something in store for us?In his quest for answers to these questions, author Herman Vuijsje took a walking tour through Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Latvia. A trek that took him to the most remote places, bringing him in contact with the most extraordinary people. He crosses the Hungarian puszta, the marsh areas of Poland and the forests of Latvia. He talked with Slovenian 'mountain farmers', scenic entrepreneurs in Poland, illegal woodcutters and farmers with three cows, that had never heard of the EU.