This document discusses the process of structural change in the agricultural sectors of the western Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU). Conventional agro-political discourse and scientific theory (especially agricultural economics) generally understands structural change as being a uni-directional process that involves the gradual disappearance of small farms and an associated enlargement of large farms. This process is also understood as involving the continual replacement of labour by capital and technology. For decades the main focus of agricultural policies at both the national and supra-national levels has been to support and encourage structural change. At the same time structural change has generally been perceived to be an inevitable process and all the available statistical material from the Western MS seems to unambiguously support such an interpretation. This document challenges both the desirability and inevitability of structural change, as it is conventionally understood. It shows that agricultural development is, in reality, far more nuanced, and that policies that go beyond the dominant paradigm would help re-align the development of European agriculture so that it better meets societal needs.