Role Models and Farm Development Options: A Comparison of Seven Swiss Farm Families*

INTRODUCTIONWith the framework of agricultural policy that has changed dramatically since the 1990s including the introduction of direct payments and the enforcement of various agrarian reforms (Agricultural Policy 2002 and 2007), a high degree of flexibility has been required of Swiss farm families. The previous price- and sales-supported policy has been replaced by a policy aiming at economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable agriculture. On the one hand, this means ensuring more market proximity and competition in the agricultural sector; on the other, it entails environmentally sound production techniques that are compensated by direct payments (without the complete compensation of price decreases). This new framework has altered the room for manoeuvre of farming families considerably, thereby creating new challenges. Farming families must increasingly consider their family farms to be agricultural enterprises managed according to the principles of economic efficiency. Furthermore, they must fulfil certain ecological criteria. Because of these transformations, many farming families must reconsider their situations and farming practices and devise a new orientation to farming.Switzerland is characterised by grassland. About 62% of all farms carry out pasture farming with cows, sheeps, and goats. Only few of the farms are pure tillage (7%), fruit growing or viticultural farms (8%), or gardening (2%). The remaining farms are mixed farms (18%) with animals as well as cereals, fruits, or vegetables. Most of the farms are owned and operated by families. On a full-time farm, a farm family manages on average an agricultural area of 20 hectares. In the last years, however, agricultural change is proceeding. Between 1996 and 2002, 15% of the farms have been abandoned. There is a tendency for less intensive agriculture and especially organic farming has gained importance. Today about 10% of the farms are organic farms. Also the Swiss agriculture educational system is situated in a phase of reform. In the early 1990s, about 2500 young people made the agricultural basic training (two years); today there are less than 1400. About 4% of the Swiss population live in an agricultural household. In Switzerland, two fifth of the active surface is in mountain areas, but only one sixth of the population (Swiss Farmers' Union, 2002).This study concentrates on illustrating the action orientations of Swiss fanning families and farm development strategies. In particular, it focuses on the social structures within the family that lead to certain decision-making patterns and action structures. Moreover, it will attempt to analyse the effects of these developments with regard to options for economic development. From an economic point of view, a farming family might have different options for development. However, these choices do not always prove to be compatible with the individual's concept of family life. Therefore, the author also asks what "moral" laws, rules, and values the farming families adhere to and how these can affect the long-term orientation and development of a farm. Basically, the hope is to understand how farming families perceive and live their lives.METHODSIn order to illustrate the complex interrelation between families and farms, individual case studies were conducted. There are various scientific concepts concerning and approaches to individual case studies. For this study, a reconstructive approach based on the theory of social action, namely the method of case reconstruction (Hildenbrand, 1999), was employed. The method of case reconstruction is based on the dialectic of the general and the particular. The general represents the objective possibilities for action of a case (a family). The particular comprises the choices the family makes with regard to these possibilities (Oevermann, 1991).These choices are not random, but produce and reproduce the social order of the family, thereby forming a pattern specific to the individual case and the family's decision-making process. …