ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the changing size of the farm, as measured by the area of improved land in use, in the more important urban fringes of Scotland. It focuses on the detailed interaction of public policy and agricultural retreat in one of the most dynamic of them, that around Glenrothes New Town. The literature on agriculture in the urban fringe lists a wide variety of problems which farmers face including dogs, arson, dumping, the fragmentation of holdings, rising land taxes, thefts, trespass and vandalism, and also some advantages, but no general statement has been made about them. The theoretical analysis suggests that farmers on or close to the edge of the built-up area will probably be operating smaller than average holdings on a marginal-cost basis, and it is these hypotheses which have been tested in the case of Scotland.
