Unseen food: The importance of extra-market small farm's production for rural households in Europe

Abstract

Small farms are a key part of the system of food flows that happen outside of marketing channels, and which is a crucial source of food for to the most vulnerable part of the world population living in the rural or connected to the rural through family and other social links. Food Self-Provisioning (FSP) is the largest share of these informal flows. For Europe and European small farms today, the role of FSP is relatively un-known. In this paper we address the relative weight and relevance of extra-market arrangements in small farms in Europe, thus contributing to the understanding of the multi-dimensional role of small farms in the regional food system they are part of, and also in the wellbeing of their own household. The analysis is based on 739 face-to-face interviews to small farms, in 24 regions of Europe across a North-South and East-West gradient. We show evidence that FSP is important in all types of small farms, and even if all small farms are in some way linked to the market, they continue producing food which circulates outside the market and may be quite relevant for the farm household, as well as for strengthening social ties in the rural communities and rural-urban interactions.