Inspiring Farmers For Healthy Farming

Summary

"The health and nutritional value of agricultural food products is strongly linked to, and inherently dependent on the production process and farm system. However, there are currently only limited options for transferring and measuring farm-health principles at farm level (Vieweger and Döring, 2015). In our previous work we have shown how organic farmers have developed their own strategies and philosophies for running healthy farming systems and increase the health of soils, plants, animals and humans. Such tacit farmer knowledge and awareness of a holistic systems-approach to health in food production can contribute crucial information and practical understanding for food system sustainability. The current project builds on these earlier findings, using participatory multi-actor approaches to collaborate with the established international network. The farmer groups in Germany, Austria and the UK aimed to 1) conceptualize health criteria on farms, such as ‘Is a nutrient or humus balance calculated?‘, ‘How much time is spent for observation and reflection?’, ‘Are regionally adapted breeds and varieties used?’; and 2) develop a concept for farmer-to-farmer learning, defining most appropriate conditions and methodologies for the multiplication of this knowledge. With a co-learning approach, we aim to allow a flexible integration of farmer knowledge and experience, thereby inspiring farmers to reflect on the potential ways they can improve health in their system, and further develop their individual methods over time; this approach also aims to help research identify general drivers of farm health."