Small farms, small food businesses and sustainable food security (SALSA) Policy Brief: Northern Europe

Small farms in Northern Europe are found alongside some of the largest - and in some cases, most industrialised - farms in the whole of Europe. 
The SALSA project conducted research in four regions (at the so-called NUTS3 level) of three countries in Northern Europe – UK, France and Norway. As a proportion of the total number of agricultural holdings, small farms range from 10% in Norway and 19% in Northern France to 45% in the west of Scotland. In the regions of Hedmark (NO), Ile-et-Vilaine (FR), East and West Scotland (UK) that were studied by SALSA, small farms only contribute to a limited extent to regional food availability since they produce only a small portion of the total food produced in the region. 
Nevertheless, they do still play an important role in these regional food systems regarding those products (e.g. from horticulture) of which a large proportion grown in the region is also consumed in the region. 
In the case of these specific products, small farms tend to connect directly with consumers and provide a range of “alternative pathways” for local consumers to buy more locally-produced food.