A call to update our understanding of family farm persistence and reproduction through a focus on the farm household-farm operation interface

Rural social scientists have a long tradition of studying why, how, and which farm families stay on the land in the face of unrelenting change and instability of the agricultural sector. To theorize farm facilities’ ability to stay on the land, we must carefully examine the complex and fluid interface between farm household and farm operation - how resources are exchanged, risks are managed, and shocks are absorbed between the two. Born out of the 2022 ESRS Satellite Event @ Switzerland, our group argues in this paper that farm family scholars have largely treated the interface between the household and operation as a black box. By opening this black box, we can identify factors that have been under-appreciated but that are however essential in shaping farm families’ ability to continue farming and to their quality of life. Such an analysis will enable rural social scientists to contribute to designing and advocating interventions necessary to support family farms. To make our argument, we draw on insights from our individual research and collective discussions during the 2022 ESRS Satellite Event using three lenses (i.e. gender, life course and farm business cycle, formal and informal support systems). In particular, our argumentation through these three lenses is centered around what our research has uncovered about the interactions between the farm household-farm operation. As an invitation for scholars to join us in opening a new line of research, we will propose a research agenda and discuss considerations around research designs, data, and funding to tackle this research agenda.