**2. Australian farming systems**

#### **2.1. The family farm**

The family farm means, according to Tanewski, Romano and Smyrnios (2000),

ownership, place of residence, the family's contribution to labour, the family's responsibility for management, and the family's rural ethos or ideology (p. 15).

Reeve (2001) provides a somewhat more detailed definition:

at A\$96,400 (using 1996 dollars and farms with at least \$5000 gross income)" (p. 1). Considering that farm maintenance, seeds and crops, feed for animals and household as well as living

All of these figures demonstrate the importance of Australian agriculture and of the family farm, the contribution to the Australian economy and the high percentage of farm businesses that are family owned, i.e. 99% (National Farmers Federation). Unfortunately, as Alston point‐ ed already out in 1991, the family farm is under increasing stress from fluctuating markets and severe droughts in many parts of Australia. Since 2000, Australia has been subjected to severe droughts and since 2010 Australia has also been subjected to severe floods. Farming and min‐ ing will suffer reduced production because of the floods, commodities like wheat, sugar, horti‐ culture and coal are already increasing in price (ABC Rural, December 29, 2010). Between 1971 and 2006, the number of farming families has declined by 46% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006), from 190,466 to 102,606. Farm production in 2002/03 had a downward impact on GPD of 1%, which indicates a decline in chain volume terms of 28.5% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004). In comparison, the corporate farming sector (any agricultural business with an annual income greater than A\$2 million) is growing fast. Although overall corporate farms only pre‐ sented 1.5% of all farms in 2006, the number increased by 55% between 2001 and 2006 (Clark, 2008). Corporate farming businesses increased further: by 2011 the number was 2,601; an in‐ crease of 791 or of 44% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 29.6.2012, pp. 14-15). Corporate enter‐ prises now make up 1.8% of all farms. According to Clark (correspondence 2012),"in 2006 corporate farming generated an estimated A\$7.7 billion (20%) of farm production. In 2011 cor‐

The findings are important because they relate to rural sustainability and to the future of the Australian family farm. A report by Cara Waters (June 26, 2012) considers "The end of the family farm? 72% of family farms don't earn enough to support the family on them". Farming has always been associated with life style, it was never considered a business only. Could a common property resources system save the Australian family farm from its fate? Looking at the outcome of this research it seems that the individualistic and independent Australian farmers do not want to be 'saved' by such a scheme. However, it is argued here that such a

Australia's best known common property system, the *Tilbuster Commons*, failed after five years despite being economically and environmentally successful. Reasons for the failure could be related to interpersonal relationships. This chapter will look at Elinor Ostrom's philosophy of the commons and at lessons learned from the *Tilbuster Commons*. The purpose of the chapter is to establish the significance and usefulness or otherwise of different farming methods to

The family farm means, according to Tanewski, Romano and Smyrnios (2000),

expenses have to be paid, farming income is low.

276 Environmental Change and Sustainability

porate farming generated A\$18.9 billion (39%) of farm production".

system has some merit.

**2.1. The family farm**

create sustainable rural societies and economies.

**2. Australian farming systems**

Business ownership is combined with managerial control in the hands of business, these principles are related by kinship or marriage, family members provide capital of the business, family members include business principals, do farm work, business ownership and managerial control are transferred between the generational passage of time. the family lives on the farm (p. 1).

The definitions are similar, both stating that the place of residence has to be the farm, and that the owners and managers do farm work. The same meaning of a family farm was stressed in a study by Muenstermann (2010, 2011). Is it possible for Australian farming families to continue to exist in the present economic and environmental climate? Alston (1991, 2004) and Alston and Kent (2004) find that the small scale family farm has experienced growing pressure from fluctuating markets and severe droughts for ten years. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (cited in www.fatcow.com.au) claimed that the 2010/11 floods have reduced the agricultural production by at least A\$500 to A\$600 million. Alston (1991) also referred to the subsidy war between the European Economic Community and the United States that have had profound effects on Australian agricultural production. She argued that operating in a global economy with major competitors who are heavily subsidised has left Australian farming families facing an increasingly uncertain future. According to Alston (1995a, p. 1), the number of farms has decreased by 39% between 1953 and 1995 (from 204,350 to 125,615). The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2006) showed a decline of 46% between 1971 and 2006 (from 190,466 to 102,616). But, according to an Australian Bureau of Statistics Release (29.6.2012), in 2010/11, 121,000 businesses reported agriculture as their main activity which represented an increase of 1% compared with 2009/10. It is assumed that the latest figure includes family farms as well as corporate and co-operative farms operated by families.

Farming as a lifestyle identity is declining and market based farming is growing (Barr, Karnuarama & Wilkinson, 2005). The net farm income has decreased, especially for the smaller farmer, and many women seek off-farm income in order to sustain the farm (Alston, 1995a, 1995b; Alston & Kent, 2004; Muenstermann, 2010, 2011). Raven (1995, September 14) suggested that thirty years ago, costs took 50 to 60% of the gross income, they now take 80 to 85%. Adding to the problem farming families face is a younger generation that feels reluctant to enter the farming industry. The number of young men entering agriculture has declined by 40% over the last twenty-five years; the number of young women in their early twentieth entering the farming industry has declined by 80% since 1976 (Barr et al., 2005). The future of the family farm, as Australia knows it, seems unpromising unless restructuring will take place.

Restructuring is contemplated by Share, Campbell and Lawrence (1991) who looked at this issue, considering vertical restructuring of agricultural commodity chains, and horizontal or spatial restructuring of the labour markets and industries. Vertical integration is a process through which family farming could be integrated into areas of industrial capital. "It is most likely to be initiated in situations where available marketing or supply channels are being closed to the farmer or where pricing mechanisms are deteriorating" (Williamson, 1987, p. 4). Farm-based food and fibre production shifts from 'formal' to 'real' subsumption of capital: industrial capital takes over part of the production process (i.e. fertilizer, pesticide, herbicides, marketing of farm commodities), but the farmer is reduced from a relatively autonomous producer to a labourer (Davis cited in Share et al., 2005, p. 2). Vertical restructuring by industrial or transnational capital affects the integration of family farms into capitalist production and will change the nature of farm work, the marketing and distribution of agricultural products. It will change the autonomy and control of farmers.

Horizontal restructuring relates to changes in the spatial distribution of industry sectors and labour markets. Lash and Urry (cited in Share et al., 2005) found that within so called disor‐ ganised capitalism global capital has become "increasingly spatially footloose, while the global labour force is tied to specific localities" (p. 2). This means that global capital takes advantage of optimum production conditions. As a consequence, in a rural area farming may just be one area of development and a region may have several combinations of capital, for instance different industries may co-exist. Share et al. (2005) also discussed traditional primary industry incorporating newer tourist development. There could be relocation of manufacturing or service industries into the area. It is very possible that a region unable to attract mobile capital will decline. Help from the government is not forthcoming: Australia has, in response to global restructuring, removed protection barriers and exposed its economies to international market forces. Keynesian policies have been dismantled, meaning that government support for agriculture is now severely cut because of the introduction of user-pays principles and the withdrawal of subsidies, concessions and price underwriting.

Apart from the issues discussed, there are also personal perspectives of farming families. Gray (1991) explored the values of these families and looked at motivations which guide farm decision making, i.e. foster an understanding of farm responses to economic conditions. He concluded that the ideal of generational succession has persisted mainly among couples to whom the rural aspects of farming are very important. In other families, attitudes which constitute the ideological foundations of the family farming have weakened:

While the ideals traditionally associated with family farming appear increasingly unrealistic as the viability of small farms

diminishes, the traditionally valued features of farm life also appear less important as economic concerns become

overwhelming and the farm system moves toward fundamental change (Gray, 1991, p. 67).

Muenstermann (2010, 2011) could establish that young women were encouraged by their mothers to leave the farming tradition, get an education and seek employment opportunities elsewhere.

Overall the literature regarding the future of the Australian family farm paints a fairly negative picture. Therefore, explored in the following are, at first, co-operative and corporate farming methods, followed by an outline of the commons, how it found its way back into modern society and the Australian experience of it.
