“Care farming” can help veterans heal from the psychological and physical trauma of war. Care farming is described by Dr. Arie Greenleaf as “the practice of using working farms and agricultural landscapes to promote mental and physical health.”
Working on a farm can be therapeutic in many ways, and there is much anecdotal evidence to support this. Greenleaf studied the effect of care farming on a group of veterans. He found that “care farming improved life satisfaction in 60% of participants and optimism about future life satisfaction in 40% of participants. Perceived loneliness decreased in 40% of participants.”
How do care farms help people heal? That’s a much more complicated question. Care farms bring people close to nature and that is healthy in many ways. But farming is more than just a walk in the woods—it can bring people a sense of value and community to workers.
Greenleaf “observed a close-knit community of veterans choosing to farm, often in inclement weather, because for the first time since their discharge they felt a part of something important. Their lives had purpose and structure again, two things the military once provided but were now desperately missed.”
Although a care farm is a working farm, being a participant/patient is not the same thing as being the farm owner/manager. A care farm is a “restorative environment… where focused attention is not necessary, and thus the mind can relax.” This may be true for certain farm chores but you would certainly want focus when, say, weeding carrots by hand or castrating ram lambs. Also, a care farm is a community where people work together, whereas farmers may feel isolated because they are geographically distant from other people or because they can’t relate to their neighbours. Also, the people in care at the farms don’t need to balance the books at the end of the season.
One of the strengths of care farming over other therapeutic options is that veterans are willing to do it. Mindfulness training and talk therapy also have positive benefits but not if people won’t embrace them. Physical work has the advantage of providing meaning to one’s life.
Greenleaf concludes that small farms “could partner with public and private sector organizations to provide veterans a restorative environment to heal.” In Europe, care farms are relatively common. “In 2005, for instance, 10,000 mental health clients visited almost 800 care farms in the Netherlands alone,” he writes. In Canada and the States, there is potential for more care farms to provide a therapeutic environment for many people, not just veterans.
Perhaps the study can also remind farmers to take a deep breath, look around and recognize the healing aspects of farm life.
Source: Effectiveness of Care Farming on Veterans' Life Satisfaction, Optimism, and Perceived Loneliness. Arie T. Greenleaf and Kevin M. Roessger. The Journal of Humanistic Counseling. Volume 56. Number 2. Page: 86. 2017.
- Janet Wallace