Revealed: the growing income gap between Europe’s biggest and smallest farms

The income gap between the biggest and smallest farms in Europe has doubled in the past 15 years and hit record levels at the same time as the number of small farms has collapsed, a Guardian analysis of agricultural income data has found.

Figures from the European Commission’s Farming Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and Eurostat suggest farmers across the continent raked in record profits when the war in Ukraine sent food prices soaring, boosting a long-running trend of rising average incomes that has outstripped inflation.

But big farms continue to reap the bulk of the rewards, while razor-thin margins on small farms have put some farmers through financial hell and forced others out of business.

The analysis comes as a radical new set of proposals to support struggling farmers and cut pollution has been put forward by a coalition of farmers, retailers and environmentalists, convened by Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. The shared vision calls for urgent change, including an overhaul of controversial subsidies.

But it also comes as Europe shifts politically to the right, with some populist governments attacking environment rules and drawing significant support from depressed rural regions – where in many cases small farms have closed down or been bought up, and from which young people are moving to cities, leaving behind societies that the historian Geert Mak describes as “more traditional, conservative and anxious”.

The number of farms smaller than 30 hectares (75 acres) fell by a quarter in the 2010s, figures from Eurostat show.

Thomas Waitz, a Green MEP and farmer from Austria, said the findings “resonate deeply” with struggling communities. “It’s no surprise that farming families are increasingly voicing their frustration and protesting against an unfair competitive environment dominated by big agribusiness.”

Explainer: a short history of the Electoral College and how it subverts the will of voters

For a fleeting moment in early October, it looked like the US presidential electoral system might become an issue in this year’s election. The Democratic vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz, told two audiences that the Electoral College should be abolished and replaced by a direct national popular vote.

Walz was shut down quickly by Kamala Harris’ campaign with a brief statement that abolishing the Electoral College is not its official position. Walz duly walked back his comments and the story had a shelf-life of fewer than 24 hours.

But the Electoral College issue may well come back to haunt the Harris campaign should this year’s election produce yet another “runner-up” president – when the loser of the popular vote wins the electoral vote and therefore the election.

If the race is as close as most polls are indicating, this is a possible outcome. And Republican former President Donald Trump is more likely than Harris to be the beneficiary of this archaic, undemocratic voting system.