"We are not meant to suppress our desires, or relegate ourselves to meaningless work in exchange for a paltry sum every month.” Sal Rachele
For years now, I have wanted to start a network for people in the permaculture movement to find the place of their dreams and for people who need help on their dream places to connect with people that have the time.
Are you looking to get more help on your farm or homestead?
Are you looking for a farm or homestead to help on and to get more experience?
Keywords. Farms, homesteads, permaculture projects, restoration work, Permaculture job searches, interns, woofers, cooperatives.
Lots of people are shifting around. Tens of thousands of our compatriots are looking for their next move in 2015. Lots of people want to help. All hands on deck. Some sort of Game Reset is going to show up sooner than later. If so, the numbers of people who will want to be on a farm or landed project will drastically increase. At the same time, travel and mobility will become harder.
The first WWOOF program in the modern world started in England about 1970. In the first couple years the acronym stood for Weekend Workers on Organic Farms. As workers tended to stay longer and for then for full seasons the title was changed to Willing Workers on Organic Farms. It was the prototype for dozens of other WWOOF programs around the world, also variously called farm internship and apprenticeship programs. WWOOF Australia and WWOOF New Zealand are two of the best organized and most famous WWOOF programs in the world. Some of the current programs operating in the Pacific Northwest include WWOOF USA, WWOOF CANADA, Tilth Producers of Washington Internship Listings (formerly the Tilth Placement Service), and GrowFood.org (formerly organicvolunteers.com). GrowFood is national in scope as well as international and currently has over 18,000 members.
I have been tracking the various wwoof-type programs since 1972 and have run a number of such programs. I helped start and run the Farm Brigade in 1972, which was one of the first wwoof programs in the USA (perhaps the first). I started and ran a national Rural Apprentice Program from 1974 to 1988, and the international Travelers Earth Repair Network from 1989 to 1999.
I currently don’t have the time to manifest such a linking service for permaculturits and their ilk, but perhaps if I put the idea out there someone else has the time and inclination to make it a reality. Or perhaps I can collaborate with others.
In the meantime: Here is the best resource I know of to link farmers to would-be farmers.
Greenhorns has put together perhaps the best list in the country on programs to link farms with interns, farm jobs, woofing etc.
Check out
https://www.thegreenhorns.net/category/resources/agriculturejob/
The Greenhorns is a non-traditional grassroots non-profit organization made up of young farmers and a diversity of collaborators. Our mission is to recruit, promote and support the new generation of young farmers. We do this by producing avant-garde programming, video, audio, web content, publications, events, and art projects that increase the odds for success and enhance the profile and social lives of America’s young farmers.
NATIONAL
The Greenhorns jobs list
National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association
National American Biodynamic Apprenticeship Program
Small Farmers Journal (a quarterly publication with a classifieds section)
Holistic Management International
COMFOOD listserv, Tufts University [Specifically, there is the Community Food Security Coalition's Job Listing Email Listserve: Subscribe to Comfoodjobs: https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/comfoodjobs. Note: All posting must include specific location(s) of job opportunities in the Subject line. ed.]
EAST
NEW ENGLAND
NEW YORK
Columbia County Land Conservancy Landowner Matching Program
PENNSYLVANIA
MAINE
Midwest
WEST
OREGON
iFarm (a project of Friends of Family Farmers)
Ten Rivers Food Web Oregon Tilth
CALIFORNIA
CASFS (Santa Cruz apprenticeship program)
NEW MEXICO
Quivira Coalition New Agrarian apprenticeship program
My webmaster has been collecting links to similar resources as well and adds these to the list:
Cascade Harvest Coalition - Washington FarmLink
National Young Farmers Coalition - Land and Jobs
Center for Rural Affairs - Land Link Services
Photo from Afristar Foundation
MICHAEL “SKEETER” PILARSKI is a life-long student of plants and earth repair. His farming career started in 2nd grade and his organic farming career began in 1972 at age 25. Michael founded Friends of the Trees Society in 1978 and took his first permaculture design course in 1982. Since 1988 he has taught 36 permaculture design courses in the US and abroad. His specialties include earth repair, agriculture, seed collecting, nursery sales, tree planting, fruit picking, permaculture, agroforestry, forestry, ethnobotany, medicinal herb growing, hoeing and wildcrafting. He has hands-on experience with over 1000 species of plants. He is a prolific gathering organizer and likes group singing.