Farming as it is practised in market industrialized countries is predominantly a family business. This book argues that the nature of the farm business cannot be properly understood without reference to the family that operates it. The authors focus not so much on the farm family or the farm business separately, but on the interaction between the two. While many of their illustrations relate to the United Kingdom, examples are also drawn from North America, European Community countries, Scandinavia, New Zealand and Australia. The general approach is a multidisciplinary one, and the book is aimed at senior students, researchers and policy-makers concerned with agricultural economics, policy and management, as well as rural sociology, geography and other rural studies.