Preparing for volunteering with the host

The first step of your learning experience is to choose your host farm. This can be done by choosing a country and join the relevant link organisation – see WWOOF nations around the world. There are over 100 different WWOOF organisations in over 100 countries. They are all networked through the Federation of WWOOF Organisations (FoWO). Depending on where you wish to go WWOOFing you will either have to join a national WWOOF organisation (have a look at www.wwoof.net for a complete list) or, if you wish to go to a country where a national WWOOF organisation is not yet in place you might find hosts on the Independents site www.wwoofindependents.org. You can generally preview the host list on a given website to see in which countries you might find a hosts. Once you decide to join a particular organisation (either national or the so called Independents list) you can then access the contact information of all hosts in a given list. You will then be able to contact each host individually and find out if they are willing or able to host you for the period you wish to visit.

• As a member you will be able to access a database of farms in your chosen country and start making plans.

• You also need to choose what you really want to experience and learn about in organic farming and sustainable lifestyles.

• On which size of smallholding or farm?

• With which livestock or crops?

• Doing which activities – sowing, harvesting, building?

• At which season – spring, winter?

• With what sort of hosts – family, community, enterprise?

• You will find it helpful to read some online guidance on volunteering on organic farms.  Many of the WWOOF organisations offer advice, FAQs or downloadable guidance on volunteering as a WWOOFer eg. FAQs from WWOOF Deutschland
  

After you have chosen your host farm

• Ask your host farm what you might learn during volunteering – so you can match this with your own objective for learning on the farm, and discuss this with the host.

After you have been accepted by the host farm

• Prepare to take photos and videoclips, as well as notes, sketches and reminders on a notepad.

• Look at Google map of the farm and local area.

• Read about the crops and livestock on the farm and then search on the LLOOF site. Look at the range of skills you may develop on the host farm.

• Think about how your experience might relate to some of the wider issues about farming, food, health, as well as the global PESTE – political, economic, social, technological and environmental - issues. See the Wider Context – PESTE issues on the LLOOF site.

• Think about how you might want this experience to influence your own lifestyle and even career.

• If your first language is different to that of your host, consider taking a dictionary or downloading a suitable online dictionary.  

• Consider what you could take to the host farm as an example of local food or drink from your region, or as photos of farming in your region. It's a good start to a friendship, as well as a culture of mutual learning!

Before volunteering on the farm, find out about your own food consumption and ecological footprint. Your food footprint is invariably an important part of your personal ecological footprint. For the less affluent it is often the biggest source of emissions, and only makes up a smaller share as people have more to spend on housing, travel or products. Your food footprint (foodprint) is all the greenhouse gas emissions that result from the production, transportation and storage of the food supplied to meet your consumption needs.  

See Eating up the earth: how sustainable food systems shrink our ecological footprint.

Try the WWF Footprint Calculator http://footprint.wwf.org.uk. Use this to compare with your footprint after volunteering and learning on the host farm.

Introduce Yourself

Before you read the next chapter, take a moment to introduce yourself on the course forum.