User:Juliad333/WWOOF

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World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF, /ˈwʊf/), or World Wide Organization of Organic Farms, is a loose network of national organizations that facilitate homestays on organic farms. As of June 2016, Australia with 2,600 hosts has the most host farms and enterprises, followed by New Zealand with 2,340 and United States with 2,052 hosts. The UK has 688 WWOOF hosts. While there are WWOOF hosts in 210 countries around the world, no central list or organization encompasses all WWOOF hosts. As there is no single international WWOOF membership, all recognised WWOOF country organizations strive to maintain similar standards, and work together to promote the aims of WWOOF.

WWOOF aims to provide volunteers (often called "WWOOFers" or "woofers", /ˈwʊfər/) with first-hand experience in organic and ecologically sound growing methods, to help the organic movement; and to let volunteers experience life in a rural setting or a different country. WWOOF volunteers generally do not receive money in exchange for services. The host provides food, lodging, and opportunities to learn, in exchange for assistance with farming or gardening activities.

The duration of the visit can range from a few days to years. Workdays average five to six hours, and participants can have the opportunity to interact with WWOOFers from other countries. WWOOF farms include private gardens through smallholdings, allotments, and commercial farms. Farms become WWOOF hosts by enlisting with their national organization. In countries with no WWOOF organization, farms enlist with WWOOF Independents.

The younger generations who are willing to work toward a positive impact on their environment are offered opportunity to work through WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). WWOOF is a global organization that allows for educational experience between both hosts and volunteers to take place. With this comes the volunteer’s duties of tending to the farm, meanwhile being accommodated with living space and food rather than being paid for their work during their stay. Each time frame is uniquely defined depending on the WWOOFer and host involved, ranging from a few days to a few months or even years. The wide variety of locations and farms in nearly 100 countries allows for thousands of options in choosing where learning the sustainable lifestyle would take place.

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The viewpoint on WWOOFers themselves is rooted in the idea that they are visitors rather than employees. There is a line drawn between these things in favor of WWOOFers’ experiences as a whole, in terms of being introduced to cross-cultural learning and organic farming educational manners. As for time spent doing farm activity, this will vary and fluctuate according to the status of the visit (i.e. the specific season, amount of hands helping, etc.). Most farms average to about 5-7 hours a day depending on these things. Information such as this can typically be found in the FAQ section of the international organization’s page.

History

WWOOF originally stood for "Working Weekends On Organic Farms" and began in England in 1971. Sue Coppard, a woman working as a secretary in London, wanted to provide urban dwellers with access to the countryside, while supporting the organic movement. Her idea started with trial working weekends for four people at the biodynamic farm at Emerson College in Sussex. People soon started volunteering for longer periods than just weekends, so the name was changed to Willing Workers On Organic Farms, but then the word "work" caused problems with some countries' labour laws and immigration authorities, who tended to treat WWOOFers as migrant workers and oppose foreigners competing for local jobs. (Many WWOOFers enter countries on tourist visas, which is illegal in countries such as the United States.) Both in an attempt to circumvent this and also in recognition of WWOOFing's worldwide scope, the name was changed again in 2000 to World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Some WWOOF groups (such as Australia) choose to retain the older name, however. Between the years 2000 to 2013, the apparently inclining demand for locally grown food had nearly tripled. Similarly, since 2000, the number of USDA certified organic farms came close to doubling.