Author: Dr. John LaPuma
What are care farms? Simply put, a care farm involves the therapeutic use of farming practices to facilitate healing. Also known as green care or therapeutic farming, care farming is supervised and structured, providing “farming-related activities for individuals with a defined need.” These activities include things like animal husbandry (livestock, small animals, poultry), agriculture, horticulture, woodland management, produce collection, craft-making, woodworking, garden tending, habitat restoration, and more.
Care farms provide structured and supervised care services, usually as part of an educational or rehabilitative program. They have been found to be successful for a variety of vulnerable groups, such as people with mental health problems, people suffering from mild to moderate depression, adults and children with learning disabilities, children with autism, people with a drug or alcohol addiction history, disaffected youths, and people on probation.