THE MYTH OF THE FAMILY FARM - DEFINING THE FAMILY FARM AND ASSESSING ITS IMPORTANCE IN THE EUROPEAN-COMMUNITY

Family farming is a central but inadequately defined concept in the European Community's agricultural policy. An investigation into the importance of family farming is reported, using data from the European Community's Farm Accountancy Data Network that covers some 59,000 farms in the 12 Member States. A definition is adopted, based on the share of the labour provided by the family, to group farms into family, intermediate or non-family types. Almost three-quarters of Community farms were classed as family farms in 1989, but they produced only just over half of the total agricultural output and 62% of the total income. The incidence of family farming varied between countries and was lowest in the United Kingdom, where less than half fell into the family group. In all countries family farms tended to be smaller and to have lower incomes per person than non-family farms. However, the non-family group did not consist solely of larger farms operated by family labour supplemented by hired labour; at least in some countries the group contained smaller farms operated on a part-time basis and where there is substitution by hired labour for family labour. These subgroups point to alternative ways of structural adjustment to achieve higher incomes from farming.