Promoting Development of Family-Sized Farms

38. The social teaching of the Church condemns both latifundia as the expression of a socially irresponsible use of the right to property and as a serious obstacle to social mobility, and also State ownership of land as leading to a depersonalization of civil society. While it is aware that "it is not possible to determine a priori what the structure of farm life should be,"(⁴⁰) it suggests that family-owned and farmed enterprises should be actively promoted.(⁴¹)

Farm units of the size intended here use family labour for the most part, but can tap into the external labour market by taking on paid workers.

Such farms should be large enough to allow the family sufficient earning, to retain possession of the farm, to have access to the land credit market, and to ensure sustainability of the rural environment also through appropriate use of inputs.

The efficiency of its management and the social wealth thus produced mean that such a farm can create new opportunities for work and the human growth of all.

It can make a very positive contribution not only to development of an efficient agrarian structure, but also to the implementation of the very principle that material goods should be used for all.