Supporting policies for social farming in Europe: progressing multifunctionality in respojnsaive rural areas (original) (raw)
Related papers
Abstract: Social Farming (SF) is an emerging sector in the rural European context, but the European Economic and Social Committee (2013/C 44/07) emphasize that SF should be planned and implemented under the new 2014-20 rural development policy because of the positive results obtained. The SF concept can be associated with agriculture as a multifunctional activity, giving agricultural practice new meanings and functions and incorporating social services, medical treatment and rehabilitation, and educational training and support. In addition, agriculture must be considered as a means of employment and social integration for groups as diverse as individuals who are unemployed or living with mental retardation, mental disorders, or addictions, among others. As a result, innovative SF activities are contributing to the social economy, rural and regional development, and support for a new agro-social paradigm. They are mainly activities linked with endogenous resources of the territory th...
New approaches to sustainable rural development: Social farming as an opportunity in Europe?
HUMAN GEOGRAPHIES – Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography
The so-called "Green Revolution" has marginalized and depopulated many rural areas, but economic diversication has emerged since the 1980s. Consumer appreciation for organic farming and proximity sourcing has increased, and farmers have responded to this market. Since 2008 the economic crisis has led to importation of low-quality food products at an unsustainable level of energy costs, and the lack of employment opportunity has led people to seek economic opportunities in the countryside, producing foods with ecological criteria for short food supply chains. Within this scenario, Social Farming (SF) has appeared as a multifunctional innovative strategy. It gives a return to society through the production and processing of agricultural products by incorporating direct social benets in employment, training, and therapy or rehabilitation of groups at risk of social exclusion. SF offers social cohesion, empowerment of vulnerable groups, local development in rural and peri-urban settings, and an equitable balance between revenues and costs to society.
Social Agriculture in Selected EU Countries: A Market Outlook
European Countryside
Social agriculture is a fast-growing sector in Europe. There is a great diversity in the social agriculture landscape across Europe, depending on the national contexts. The settings in which social agriculture takes place, namely social farms, are innovative because they combine health care and social services with agricultural production. Different participant groups find their place on these social farms. Social agriculture can be beneficial for participants, providers, the environment and the wider society. In this paper, we give an overview of the social agriculture market situation in a selected number of European countries, namely the Netherlands, Flanders (Belgium), Italy, Austria and Ireland. The country focus is largely dictated by the composition of, and the resources available to the project team undertaking this study. To explain how social agriculture is organised in the different European countries reviewed, three main frameworks are used: a multifunctional agriculture...
Drivers and Barriers towards Social Farming: A Systematic Review
Sustainability
Social farming (SF) spread across Europe in recent decades. It represents an expression of agriculture diversification and performs a social function expressed through vulnerable individuals’ social inclusion. As a result, SF is able to generate positive externalities and thus contribute to social wellbeing. Despite benefits, SF faces several issues related to its dissemination. Although in recent years scholars have been approaching this topic, much remains to be researched. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate, through a systematic review, drivers and barriers related to the spread of this phenomenon. Results showed that factors such as the lack of information on SF, farmers’ mental limitations and the lack of economic resources, as well as excessive bureaucratization, could hamper the spread of SF. On the other hand, ethical production, new income sources, sustainable rural development and new employment opportunities can encourage the dissemination of such pra...
2020
All over the Europe agricultural and rural societies have developed experiences promoting diverse practices and forms of solidarity, social assistance and social inclusion. To implement this valuable tradition in a modern technological, economic and social reality of multifunctional agriculture, a multi-country specific support action, funded by the EU Commission, has been launched with the aim to support the building of a new institutional environment for interlacing agriculture and social care. As Slovenia was partner in the project, the paper is aimed to present and to discuss one of the Slovene green programs of social care. Qualitative case study methodology was used. Due to the novelty of the studied phenomena and its investigation in the real-life context the descriptive type of single case study was applied. Case on cooperation of the Centre for Protection and Care Koper and Goat-Breeding Farm -Brdca‖ was scrutinized from several angles: motives of stakeholders, process of m...
Social Farming and inclusion in EU ESI Funds programming
2019
EU Europe 2020 Strategy identifies fighting against poverty and marginalization as a key objective, with an attention to active inclusion in society and in the labor market of the most vulnerable groups. The paper aims at outlining the evolutionary framework of EU policies in the field of social inclusion and at analyzing the novelties introduced by the European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds 2014-20. A specific focus is dedicated to social agriculture (SF) interventions, which generate social inclusion and innovation with benefits in rural and peri-urban areas and in society as a whole. It is still too early to assess the impact of RDP-funded interventions, as the investments are still ongoing. The analysis of the SF resources highlights a wide range of policy and programming choices.
Newcomers to farming: towards a new rurality in Europe
Documents d'Anàlisi Geogràfica, 2016
One of the oldest laments in agrarian development has been over the ageing and loss of the farm population but, for the first time since the Second World War, a noticeable return to farming is now taking place across most of Europe. These farm entrants we classify as Continuers and Newcomers. Research shows that they have different characteristics. Newcomers are characterized by their profiles (female and higher education), the barriers they face (access to land, capital and markets) and by the business models that they adopt (pluriactive and multifunctional). This paper describes the main features of Newcomers as they form a new and dynamic group in European rural society and contribute strong social motivations and practices to farming. This change may be referred to as a shift from an agroindustrial to an agrosocial paradigm and, together with new social and environmental relations in food systems, forms a new rurality in Europe.
Building a Multifunctionality Agricultural House and indicators for social/health farms
The importance of multifunctional farming activities is clearly demonstrated by the significant changes made to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in its rural development policy. Multifunctionality has received a lot of attention over the last decade from scholars and policy-makers. A new rural paradigm stands out as the interrelationship between agriculture, landscape protection and social services (e.g. Social Agriculture, Teaching Farms, Social Farms, Horticultural therapy and so on). Models based on forms of solidarity or trust could be a crucial driver for fostering the competitiveness of rural areas. Evaluation tools are needed for analyzing the current system and for improving the social approach. The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the educational and social opportunities deriving from multifunctional agriculture. Furthermore, we define indicators focusing on the social/education dimension. The paper is structured as follows: after a review of literature and policies on the social/ health dimension of rural development, we investigate the role of didactic agriculture and the ‘helping relationship’ and so we define new Non-Commodity Outputs (NCOs). In addition, starting from the house of functions model by Fleskens (2009), we define a Multifunctional Agricultural House taking into account the educational and network dimension of an agricultural system; we then select indicators having an educational, social and helping dimension. Finally, conclusions are drawn.
The options for farm families programme: rhetoric and reality of change
Journal of International Agricultural …, 2008
Maura Farrell Department of Geography, National University of Ireland, Galway & Teagasc, Rural Economy Research Centre, Athenry, Co. Galway, Ireland Maura.Farrell@Teagasc.ie ... John McDonagh Department of Geography, National University of Ireland, Galway John. ...
In situations where new stakeholders attribute a growing importance to land uses and landscapes, farming activities are faced with difficult readjustments, notably in less favoured depopulated areas. We propose methodological perspectives on the diversity and adaptations of the farming systems, notably in terms of land use over time. Our fieldwork consisted in several surveys and experiences in participative research in an area of extensive sheep farming (southern Massif Central, France). We first identify livestock rearing modes with a focus on time-space dimensions of current farmer practices. This notion summarises the seasonal management patterns of flock life and grazing. The rearing modes respond to the functional coherences which structure the technical systems over time. They also help to understand the spatial organisation of farmland. We then propose a representation of this spatial organisation by means of elementary graphic models called "chorèmes". These models combine convergence patterns towards a focal point with patterns of contrast between plots. Indeed flock movements are linked in particular to the spatial position of sheep sheds and to the herding practices; they are adjusted to the farm's land layout and to contrasts between plots that are or are not adjacent, fenced, sheltered etc. These insights into grazing management over time aim to contribute to a poorly referenced theme: the land configuration practices as farmer activities. Changes in land use, as well as in production enterprises, diversification activities, life-styles etc. are a matter of strategic coherence, i.e. of managed relationship between the considered system and its specific environment. In this perspective, we designed a support system, using a GIS, for a concerted local project around a forested estate within the Cévennes National Park. Given the emerging multiple land use projects, farming and rural development needs spatial representations which can foster the dialog between farmers and other stakeholders.