On the one hand, agriculture itself is restructuring and slowly taking a lower share of total employment in the EU – as new knowledge and smart techniques make farm workers more productive, and as older farmers retire. On the other hand, almost 11 million farms still provide work for roughly 22 million people and this source of employment has been a vital refuge for many during the recent economic crisis. Furthermore, together with food processing, food retail and food services, agriculture makes up a sector providing nearly 44 million jobs in the EU. This sector is a world-beater, achieving annual exports worth over EUR 120 billion and constantly cementing the EU’s reputation as the home of the world’s finest food and drink. Agriculture is also the sole or main buyer of products from important upstream sectors (in 2011 the EU farm machinery sector alone employed roughly 135 000 people directly) and has a strong and positive economic imprint on various other, local rural businesses.