Introduction

This chapter aims to establish the agriculture policy of developed countries and introduce the idea of farm families taking off-farm jobs to supplement their income. It explores how the off-farm jobs are taken by spouses and children, and the farmers who take extra jobs are those who own small- to medium-sized farms, while large farm owners make enough from farm operations to turn a profit. The public policies were designed to reduce income risk and support rural populations that were heavily involved in production agriculture—where the main source of income was farming and the majority of the population resided in the rural areas. Most farms were organized such that family members ran the farm, supplied most of the inputs, and earned most of the income from farming. The relative importance of off-farm income varies from farm to farm, and declines as farm commodity sales increase. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.