ABSTRACT
The last few centuries have seen dramatic changes in how agriculture is practised in large parts of the world. Non-mechanised, mostly self-providing farms have been replaced by high-technology, high-input, high-yielding, and global-market-integrated farming. To be a farmer has changed from being a family farmer with many types of produce, where the family was involved in the work on the farm. Now farms are capital-intensive enterprises producing for the international markets. Farms have often become amalgamated into larger units and specialise in a single type of produce. This has been possible through technique development and use of labour-efficient farming methods and because of the reduction in relative costs for long distance transportation. Even though global market integration decreases societal dependence on local farming, agriculture is still dependent on fixed locations in the production processes and is highly dependent on markets and a common subsidy system. This chapter gives examples of farm praxis changes in Sweden and policy changes in Europe.
