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.