Rural Communities and Changing Farm Businesses

This report examines the socio-economic impacts of changing farm business structures in five case study communities. It highlights the positive and negative impacts of changing farm business structures, and makes a number of recommendations about how to maximise the benefits and minimise the potential problems. One of the key conclusions of the report is that family farming is likely to remain the dominant form of farm business throughout most of Australia. It also points out that corporate and contract farming have very different impacts depending on the location, scale of operation, and ethics of the firms involved.