Welcome

Since 2004 we started to meet in workshops and inspiring meetings. The first two years we organized our meetings in The Netherlands since the initiative was started by Stichting Omslag, Steunpunt Landbouw & Zorg and the Wageningen University. In 2006 Norway took over and we got together in Stavanger. Last year (2007) we had a meeting in Ghent, Belgium. The results of these meetings have been put in the archive of this website. Within two years we will meet again. Until that meeting we try to stay in contact with each other via our mailing list, forum discussions and other interactive actions. If you want to stay updated, please join this Community of Practice (see below).

The Community is already joined by members from sixteen European countries and Canada, the USA and China. We hope to grow further in the coming years.

Photograph: Massimo Vollaro

We are working, researching and meeting yearly to enhance to scientific and practical knowledge of Care Farming in general and special themes in particular. For example comparing education programmes for farmers or making guidelines for working on Care Farms. The interdisciplinary approach works and teaches us to be specific about our research (outcomes) and using the knowledge of the practice. We also inspire each other to keep working in our own countries and make others as enthusiastic as we are.

One of the community actions was to publish an overview of the state of art in farming for Health. You can see this book Farming for Health. Green-Care Farming Across Europe and the United States of America online by visiting http://library.wur.nl/frontis/farming_for_health.

This Community of Practice is growing and is working together on several 'actions'. If you want to join this community, please contact Yvon D. Schuler. Email: info [AT] orgyd.nl.

NEWS:

• Invitation for core group members
  
  Dear members of the Community of Practice (CoP) Farming for Health (FfH),
  
  As you know, every CoP need some steering. We need some people to set an agenda and plan some activities to keep things alive. Such a core team will help the community to plan the years to come and prepare the next meeting. So, hereby we invite you to nominate yourself or any other candidate to fulfill this task. We are hoping for five more people to participate in the core group: one from Italy, being the host of the next international workshop (if that still stands) and four other members.
  
  Please sign up and we will set up an (online) meeting to discuss details. Send your email to: yvon.schuler AT planet DOT nl. 
  
  Best regards,
  Yvon D. Schuler (ORGYD)
   
• Farming for Health workshop in Ghent (Article)
  
  Hans Wydler, one of our fellow community members from Switzerland, recently published an article about the Farming for Health workshop in Gent (Nov 2007) in the Swiss journal UFA-Revue, issue of February 2008. The article (in German and French) can be downloaded from the Swiss FfH homepage (under 'Countries' in the top navigation bar, for members only). More information about the magazine can be found at http://www.landi.ch/deu/06_ufarevue.asp