Small Farms Sector - what is a small-scale farm ? How might some boundaries be defined in order to best capture this important sector.

Im investigating the small farms sector - however there are no clear definitions of 'small farms'

Potentially easier to differentiate simply from "large scale"

Independent from profitability, sometimes land scale is not a valuable term of reference, nor is staff numbers : as some very small farms are more profitable than large operations and have many more employees.

In some regions through the US and Europe - small-scale farming is often described in similar terms to 'sustainable farming';   low impact, manual rather than highly mechanised, local food systems, mixed farm operations.

Some are highly enterprising and commercial, others lifestyle ventures and often contributing to household food security - yet not simply subsistance.