ABSTRACT
In the United States there are indications that attitudes favoring the continuation of farming for non-economic reasons exist among small farm family members and that these attitudes are perhaps more wide spread than in Italy. The issue of the persistence of small farms in the United States and Italy reveals a dual and overlapping feature. The availability of off-farm jobs and farm income are often of a rather precarious nature. The reverse, however, is only partially true, as farmers whose operations recorded a faster rate of growth value both economic and non-economic factors as their principal motivations for remaining in farming. For Calza-Bini the persistence of small farms in marginal regions of Italy is linked to the proletarianization of farm labor and the parallel process of industrial decentralization. Decentralized industrial units, which require labor for low-paying jobs, can count for their expansion on the displaced farm-laborer who lacks alternatives.
