organic

WWOOF: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

WWOOFer Weeding

Image source: Tinyfarmblog.com

Inspired by yesterday’s article, I wanted to find another organization that matched volunteers with workstays: free work partnerships in which the volunteer exchanges labor for food and lodging. I spend most of my time researching traditional volunteer outfits, which are as varied as snowflakes. I’m well versed in the differences between for-profits and non-profits, the financial peccadilloes of NGOs and the many directories that match volunteers with opportunities. But I realized some time ago that a rather large population of people seemed to be under served: the grassroots communities who want to interact directly with volunteers, and the volunteers who want a less traditional volunteering experience. The volunteer organization serves as a buffer. It negotiates the terms, monitors the projects, and helps volunteers navigate travel, lodging, and sightseeing. But sometimes that buffer is also a hindrance. Especially for volunteers with limited resources who have all of the experience they need to work on their own terms.

Agri-Tourism With the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute

VISFI Farmer Teaching Volunteer and Kids

Image source: Theaccidentalfarm.com

In the future, I think we’re going to see a world full of sustainable farms. Our current techniques are unsustainable. We deplete the soil with single-crop harvests. Year after year we grow corn on the same land and each year that land loses more of its vitality and biodiversity. As the microorganisms die, flooded by artificial fertilizers and pesticides, the land becomes increasingly barren. Eventually, that land becomes infertile and we move on, abandoning one wasted farm after another until we have nothing left. Barren soil is prone to erosion from wind and rain. As the last of the life-giving dirt is lost to runoff, the farm becomes a desert. This is how we will lose our green spaces, our food, and our future, unless we start farming responsibly. The Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute is doing just that.