A Call to Care:

The Emergence of the Care Farming Movement in the United States

Rebekah Ratcliff
Dr. Jessica Pickeilik
Southern Oregon University
Sociology | Global Environmental Movements
12 June 2017
BACKGROUND

Environmentalism in the United States has long been associated with preservation,

conservation, and the occasional whale saving brigade. Between the Sierra Club, Green

Peace, and the Green Belt Movement environmentalists have worked tirelessly to save the

rivers, save the whales, or save the trees through protests, marches, and petitions. Over time

though, environmentalism has taken many adaptations. The ways individuals and groups

interact with issues continue to change and evolve as they are influenced by current social,

cultural, and global issues. Through the course of environmental discourse, environmental

damage or degradation has been framed in different ways for different movements, what is

clear though, is that as these issues are becoming more and more visible different

movements, different regions, and different communities are finding new ways to raise their

voices and take action in innovative and adaptive ways.

Throughout various movements environmental activists are beginning to call into

question the very root of many issues such as drilling, deforestation, and even climate

change. The exploitative and dominant attitudes over nature are having long-term effects,

and while many movements work tirelessly to address the symptoms of these issues,

addressing the nearly globalized human alienation from its environment may effectively be

done by committed local communities. For this reason, new frameworks guiding

environmental movements are emerging and gaining ground as we continue to advocate for

a change in human relationship to its environment through various forms and perspectives.

Many of these movements, though they frame their work in different ways, are

addressing these same issues. The garbage movement in Oaxaca worked to reframe trash as

a critique of the movement toward modernity and urbanization (cite). The Kayapo

movements against the industrialization of waterways question the exploitation of our land
as natural resources as they reframe water (cite). French farmers have moved to reframe

their position and their opportunity by reclaiming peasant seeds and peasant agricultural

practices (cite). Even the Buddhist monks critique the framework we have supplied trees

through symbolic and ritual practice (cite). In each of these movements we see a change in

the way of imagining and acting upon the world around us. Changing the ways we think

about, see, or frame the environment and our place in it has been the first step toward

activating large scale or even community changes.

In an interview with environmental activist, Brook M, she told me it is going to

continue to be much easier to destroy something we dont know intimately. By moving away

from their natural environments Brook told me we are causing harm to our land, to other

peoples, and to ourselves. This is an issue that must be dealt with if we are to see any success

with other environmental movements. While there are many large organizations looking to

make globalized change, practices like those that Brook leads in Care Farming are focusing

on local alienation addressing this very large root issue and simultaneously creating tangible,

community successes in health and agriculture. Care Farming at Sanctuary One draws from

European Environmentalism to interact with health and agriculture at a community level in

the United States addressing social and ideological change to empower farmers and

individuals while also contributing to larger movements toward sustainability, conservation,

and environmental justice.

CARE FARMING

This movement of localized multifunctional agriculture to change the health and

agricultural systems as well as overall socio-environmental ideologies is nowhere new. Care

Farming as a concept has been thriving since 13th century Flemish psychiatric care farms

under a win-win-win model. By utilizing localized farm projects to address large

institutionalized practices of health and agriculture Care Farms are providing agency for both

the farmers and their beneficiaries. This practice diversifies farming incomes, provides a

route for rural development, creates an opportunity for new relationships between

agriculture and people, likewise creates a new opportunity for understanding health, and

promotes practices for social and environmental empowerment and integration. The green

labor and reframing of farms has become a social movement looking to establish healthy

connections between people, their land, their food, and across sectors.

For the Care Farming movement, the reintegration of humans into their natural

world is not only seen as beneficial for the individuals, but for the environment in which

they engage as well. Care Farming engages nature and people through health and agriculture

simultaneously addressing the large root issue of alienation while also creating tangible,

localized and even individualized successes.

The Care Farming Movement has flourished in Europe as a response to progress in

multifunctional agriculture and an increasing importance being placed on holistic wellness

practices. Care Farming hopes to change agriculture and the health care system all the while

creating a better world for people, the plants, the animals, and the land. Today in the

Netherlands there are over established 1,000 Care Farms with another several hundred

throughout Great Britain. Each of these farms has taken up practices serving to renew our

planet and in so doing renew ourselves. In Belgium, farmers have gone from being the

sickeners of society to the healers of people. By renewing agriculture practices Care Farms

are able to stabilize and diversify small farm income, contribute to beneficial rural

development, facilitate community and social integration, and pursue social innovations

toward holistic solutions for our planet as a whole completely reframing public perceptions

of farms, agriculture, health, animals, people, and their place in the planet.
 This movement has taken such root and has been so legitimized that In the

Netherlands, [] doctors write prescriptions for patients to go out and work on these farms

to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. European countries are finding such success that

governments have subsidized Care Farming and the Minister of Agriculture has advocated

for the movement claiming that an environment with the rhythm of the seasons, the

growth of plants and animals and furthermore [] the serenity of nature, making it a

location par excellence to offer persons with care needs good possibilities to recover.

Beneficiaries from Care Farms are seeing these effects in their lives and are beginning to

question their concepts of health and agriculture and even environmentalism after

experiencing the simplicity and informal and socially sustainable type of community care.

Even going as far to deem Care Farming as just natural. Through multifunctional

agriculture people are beginning to see farmers and themselves in new ways.

Care Farms are becoming more effective and widely utilized as they provide therapy

or treatment for folks with mental illness, intellectual disabilities, for elderly persons, drug

addicts, and many more disempowered peoples. For at risk youth or the long-term

unemployed Care Farms do more than provide a place for therapy, but Care Farms provide

a place for opportunity, skill acquisition, and personal growth through healthy interactions

with our planet and with each other. While these farms are practicing and making strides

toward change and growth in Europe, their presence is largely absent from agriculture in the

United States.

Sanctuary One at Double Oaks Farms is hoping to change that. By providing a safe

place for animals, a healing place for people, and focusing on environmental stewardship,

Sanctuary One is leading the United States movement toward Care Farming. Located in the

Applegate Valley, Sanctuary One offers people of all ages have the opportunity to volunteer
on a real working farm and experience natures healing power firsthand. The farm is known

for their educational tours that Brooke told me work to open peoples hearts and minds.

The not for profit organization invites groups from schools, community members, and

youth-serving nonprofit organizations to visit the farm for fresh air, exercise and hands-on

service learning. For Brook, focusing on the mentorship of young people provides hope and

reestablishes connections that have been lost. She hopes that Sanctuary One has a role in

mentoring and inspiring the next generation of Care Farmers.

At Sanctuary One, the focus is not based in agricultural production or in health, but

rather in the interplay of the agricultural process, holistic health, and interpersonal and

community relations. Staff members hope to share their farming practices, but also are

committed to promoting the benefits of shared ethics and mindful, sustainable living

through something tangible like a farm. Not only does Sanctuary One consider the human

or anthropocentric benefits of this kind of project, but seeks to holistically benefit the

interactions between all stakeholders: animals, people, and the earth in a commitment to

honor their intrinsic values. Through these practices Brook hopes that Sanctuary One will

be able to join other care farms in demonstrating how farming for health can be an

affordable and natural means of healing and growing people and plants. She told me she

envisions a future where Care Farms are as common in the United States as they are in

Europe. Brooke hopes that Sanctuary One will be able to enliven and motivate visitors and

volunteers ultimately working to inspire more and more Americans to start up and support

care farms in their communities.

When it comes to environmentalism for Brooke, Sanctuary One has been more than

a place for learning how the environment that sustains us can be steadily improved through

organic and permaculture-inspired practices. Through Sanctuary One Brooke has begun to
see how many environmental and social issues come together. For Brooke Specifically, she

hopes that Sanctuary One will inspire people to care a little more. She told me that while

Sanctuary one doesnt do big campaigns, or rallies or walks, or really any kind of activismy

activism she feels that the one on one interactions, the chance to bond with your favorite

goat or to walk through their enchanted forest begins to plant the seeds in individuals that

will be needed if we want to see any large scale environmental or social change.

The farm has focused areas to introduce conversations about sustainability, organics,

forest management, solar power, and other projects. Sanctuary One has even declared itself

as a vegan zone. They serve plant-based foods during all of their events and ask their guests

to comply with the plant-based dietary restrictions of their staff. While they do not engage in

vegan activism or clean energy efforts, Brooke told me that all of Sanctuary One with herself

included is activist in a way. Through Sanctuary Ones backdoor activism and by providing

a space for contemplation to start discussions of such large issues and questions Brooke told

me she hopes that the farm does more than just convince visitors to sign a petition for one

issue, but rather that the farm facilitates critical thinking about humans and our relationship

to the world. Brookes hope was that this kind of thinking would inspire greater activism and

action in the long term. While the Care Farming Movement in Europe actively promotes

pluralized and holistic changes to large institutional practices for the benefit of

Still the US is far away from having Care Farms anywhere as abundant as the

Netherlands. The lack of institutional, governmental, and community support make it

extremely difficult to integrate care farming into health or agricultural practices. But Brooke

is hopeful that by encouraging folks to take new frameworks for their relationships with

their land, engage in introspection, to continue to seek the plurality and connections between
health, agriculture, conservation, and animal rights, and to pursue holistically considerate

communities the United States may some day be as careful as the Netherlands.

care a little more

sustainability
ingold, spherical theoretical framework of relationship with the land, eachother, animals, and
overall environment encouraging introspection
plurality: health, ag, conserve, animal rights
holistic, critical environmental justice theory
peasant farmers & peasant seeds

Thesis:
Care Farming at Sanctuary One draws from European Environmentalism to interact with
health and agriculture at a community level in the United States addressing social and
ideological change to empower farmers and individuals while also contributing to larger
movements toward sustainability, conservation, and environmental justice.