"They are declining in some areas, but they are still a very prominent part of the agricultural scene," says Dr. Walden, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. "Now part of it depends on how you define family farm. But if you simply ask who owns a farm -- is it a corporation, or is it an individual family? -- what we find according to the federal government is that 98 percent are still family owned.

"Now, many of them are not run for profit. Some are run as a hobby. Many of them don't rely just on farm income; they rely on family members perhaps having other jobs -- non-farm income," Walden adds. "But they are still a very prominent part of the agricultural scene.

"Even among large farms, they are overwhelmingly family farms. Farms that sell over $1 million in output. Eighty-eight percent of them are still family-run operations."