The Concept of Family Farming in the Portuguese Political Discourse

Although several countries have outlined national and multi-criteria definitions, family farming is not well defined in most countries including Portugal, making it difficult to assess its real importance as well as the reasons underlying the design and the success/failure of particular policies. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the framing of family farming in the Portuguese political discourse by applying content analysis to a range of national policies and planning documents. The results show little reference to family farming in political documents and a conceptualization of family farming made in antagonism to professional or entrepreneurial farmers.