| Description: |
Sample survey data from Russia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Poland provides empirical evidence about who grows food in the stressful conditions of the transition from a non-market economy. A majority of urban as well as rural residents grow food; farmers and rural residents are actually a minority of all food producers. Since every household needs secure food supplies, which are problematic in a shortage economy, access to land rather than occupational specialization is the critical determinant of who grows food. Command economies have produced "de-differentiation", with urban residents behaving like rural, and "de-modernization", with most people producing food for household consumption rather than sale in the market.
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