Agricultural entrepreneurs as entrepreneurial partners in land use management: a policy-based characterization

Abstract

An organizational economic analysis of the agricultural enterprise illustrates that agricultural entrepreneurs are not the independent capitalist entrepreneurs they are often assumed to be. This paper offers an alternative characterization of agricultural entrepreneurs as entrepreneurial land-use managers in an (uneasy) partnership with the state to provide food and fiber and additional non-food based environmental products and services. Analysis of European and North American agricultural policy on market liberalization and the environment support this characterization. The partnership characterization is important for understanding current agricultural policies and the relationships between agricultural entrepreneurs, the state and the general populace.