The FARCURA partners had the pleasure of meeting online for their second project meeting, which was to be held in Augsburg, Germany.
We first discussed the finalisation of the state-of-the-art report of innovative models of social farming. The report reflects the diversity of social agriculture in four European countries (Slovenia, Germany, Portugal and Ireland). The starting point for this report is the recognition that European citizens increasingly see agriculture not only as a means of production and food security, but also as a means of providing services that benefit society. In recent years, this understanding of agriculture has led to the conviction that it can also contribute to the development of social and health services for vulnerable groups. This is the aim of social farming – a movement that stems partly from the tradition of rural communities, where there have always been informal forms of assistance to vulnerable groups, and partly from modern scientific and professional knowledge about the therapeutic effects of working with animals or plants in the wild.
Social farming has developed differently in EU countries, where different forms of agriculture, different support policies, different ways of involving participants from target groups in the work and life of social farms and rural communities have evolved. Our report has tried to bring together and explain these different approaches, and to give an insight into the complexity and demands of social farming. If you wish to read the summary report, it is available on our website in English, French, German, Portuguese and Slovenian.
The second main point on the agenda was to take stock of the development of the training modules by all partners involved in this task. Great progress has been made and the modules are ready to be translated into the languages of the consortium.
Our next project meeting should take place online early next year.