Churchill Fellowship - checking in with the farming community as the research begins

As I mentioned in last week's blog, I began my Fellowship research by reaching out to the farming community. Aware of the changing global and national landscape I wanted to be sure that my research topic was still relevant. I also wanted to understand any current issues or questions related to care farming to ensure that I considered them within the research.

I would like to extend a big thank you to the farmers and farm consultants who took the time to speak with me and share their experiences, thoughts and concerns, as well as describing the advantages of care farming that they had found. Interestingly, they shared similar worries and all included the 'health and safety implications of running a care farm' on their list. I wondered how these worries had been mitigated in other contexts or countries and if my findings could provide some useful practical solutions for UK farmers. I'll be sharing the full list and my findings as part of my final report in the summer.

I would also like to thank Deborah and Rachel from Social Farms and Gardens UK for their lively and helpful discussion and for sharing the most common concerns expressed by the organisations and individuals that they support who are considering setting up a care farm.

Last but not least, thank you to Aoibeann from Rural Support and Suzanne from Queen's University Belfast for sharing more about the social farming programmes and projects that have been running on family farms in Northern Ireland since 2015.

This week I will be attending an introductory course into 'sustainable farming' as part of my Fellowship and I look forward to sharing more in next week's blog.

Churchill Fellowship - selecting my research topic

Back in the Spring and Summer of 2019 I was fortunate enough to visit almost 50 care farms, city farms and social or therapeutic gardens across the South East of England. As I chatted with the farmers, founders or owners, they went to great lengths to tell me about their projects and programmes, how they had begun and the benefits for the visitors or clients. They talked about potential diversification and how they raised additional funds to help support the project through selling produce and crafts or hiring the venue out for private events.

Most also shared their private concerns and worries, which usually centred around funding and attracting enough clients, and told tales of taking years to break even financially. I was struck by what was seemingly left out of the conversation as much as what they actually said and I began to wonder if there was any real benefit to anyone other than the client in a care farm set up.

I'd read some research from European social farming that referred to farmers who had set up care farms. The research suggested the farmers felt less isolated, enjoyed spending time with visitors or clients and that it boosted the farm finances as well. This was encouraging but seemed to be mismatched with my own experiences of visiting farms. I was keen to investigate further and decided to apply for a Churchill Fellowship to travel to Europe to research care farming with a focus on the benefits to the farmer, the local rural community and the wider rural economy.

Fast forward to April 2021 and as I prepared to start my Digital Fellowship (as described in my last blog) I was very aware that we were now living in different times. Not only were we in the middle of a global pandemic, but we had been through Brexit and were entering a period of change in UK farm payments. I wanted to be certain my research topic was still relevant so I decided to 'test the temperature' by speaking with a few UK farmers and farm consultants. In my next blog I will expand upon those conversations and describe how they have served to shape my Fellowship research.

Beginning my redesigned digital Churchill Fellowship

Those of you who have been reading my blog since last year will know that in March 2020 I was awarded a Churchill Fellowship. I had planned to visit Ireland, Italy and Norway to research care farming and specifically the benefits for farmers, local communities and the rural economy. Unfortunately, the pandemic halted travel and the overseas research was paused. 

Behind the scenes the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust investigated other ways of conducting our fellowships and we were invited to an online event led by Jackie Charles discussing her 'Virtual' Australian Churchill Fellowship. 

I am now delighted to announce that my digital Fellowship research finally began on the 1st May and will last for six weeks. I'm disappointed not to be able to travel and see the different types of care farms in person. However, I'm grateful for the opportunity to adapt my fellowship and include Northern Ireland, Australia and the USA in the research.

I look forward to sharing my research and findings over the next few weeks.