Impact of support centres for social farming on benefits from livestock in northern Europe

J. Schuessler*, M. Siegmund-Schultze, T. van Elsen, A. Valle Zárate

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Social farming uses farm activities as a means of promoting human mental and physical health. As organized social farming became more professional, some European countries introduced support centres to assist in its development. This paper reports on a study that examined the experience of such support centres in the Netherlands, Norway and Flanders to assess their current activities and their impact on social farmers who kept livestock. Information was gathered through interviews and online questionnaires. The Dutch farmers had generally restructured their livestock activities to meet some of the demands of social farming, whereas the Flemish farmers had not adapted their system, as they derived their main income from farming rather than from social care.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)313-322
Number of pages10
JournalOutlook on Agriculture
Volume40
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Livestock
  • Networking
  • Social farming
  • Support centre

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Impact of support centres for social farming on benefits from livestock in northern Europe'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this