The Farm-Based Education Network (FBEN) aims to inspire and promote educational experiences on farms, enhancing social, moral, cognitive, and emotional growth through hands-on learning. It serves a diverse membership of 2,425 members across 28 countries, offering programs that connect education with nature and practical applications of various subjects. Through various initiatives, farm-based education fosters community engagement, responsibility towards living things, and supports children, particularly those from challenging backgrounds, in their personal growth.

1. Growing Educational
Programming on Farms
Vera Simon-Nobes

2. Farm-Based Education Network (FBEN)
The mission of the Farm-Based Education Network is to inspire,
nurture and promote farm-based education.
Members operate on owned, leased, for-profit or not-for-profit…
Vegetables, animals, fiber, timber...
Single staff person to a staff of hundreds…
In 2008, approximately 70% of FBEN members farmed at non-
profit farms.
The FBEN is housed at Shelburne Farms, a nonprofit education
center for sustainability, 1400-acre working farm, and National
Historic landmark on the shores of Lake Champlain in Shelburne,
Vermont.
Hawthorne Valley Farm, Ghent, NY, USA

3. Farm-Based Education Network
A free member network established to strengthen and support the
work of educators, farmers, and community leaders
2,425 members
1,711unique programs
28countries represented
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, NY, USA

4. Common programs among FBEN members...
Public tours
School field trips
Summer camps
Farm dinners
Harvest Festivals
Fresh Roots, Vancouver, BC

5. handful of sounds
available at:
www.farmbasededucation.org/forum/topics/chan
ging-the-menu-montreal-2015

6. Why farm-based education?

7. Farm-based experiences
promote social, moral,
cognitive, and emotional
growth.
The natural rhythms and
cycles seen and
experienced on farms leads
to a deeper and accessible
understanding of the world.
We believe that farm-based
education promotes
respect for nature.
Hands-on learning on
farms builds confidence,
self-awareness, and
individual and collective
responsibility which leads
to the sustainable
stewardship of our world.
Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont, USA

8. “We have a young goat, Vanilla, who has never been happy with
other goats. She’s content when she lives with pigs, however. We
use her to talk about differences and relationships. We also have
an 11-year-old transgender student [at our school] can really relate
to Vanilla.”
- Maureen Doherty, Green Chimneys Farm and
Wildlife Conservation Center, Brewster, NY.
Green Chimneys Farm and Wildlife Center, Brewster, NY, USA

9. “My latest joke as a farm-based educator, which is not actually a
joke, is that I tell everyone what I do is farm-based education,
but that what I know inwardly is that it should be called farm-
based healing. I have watched children from traumatized
situations come into the farm in a completely shutdown state,
shields up, nerves raw, eyes downcast, hoods over heads, and
within minutes, I see them transform. They laugh, they chat, and
they smile, all while digging in the dirt, arranging the flowers,
cradling worms in their palms. It’s nothing I do, all I do is lead
them into the garden and show them what to do, the rest
happens naturally, because I believe it is how we are meant to
be.”
- Barbara Sarbin, Director of Educational
Programming, “Something Good in the World”,
Cortland Manor, NY
Something Good in the World, Cold Spring, NY, USA

10. “The world is the classroom. For example,
when we’re planting garlic, 400 bulbs, 100 foot
rows. Mathematics! They think they didn’t
cared for mathematics, but when there’s a
practical application, they care about it!”
-Charlie Gook, Organic Farmer with
Green Chimneys Farm and
Wildlife Center, Brewster, NY, USA
Green Chimneys, Brewster, NY USA

11. Steckle Heritage Farm, Kitchener, Ontario
Fun!

12. Farm-based
learning takes all
shapes and forms!
Many successful
programs include…
1) Role Playing
Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont, USA

13. Many successful programs
include…
1) Role Playing
1) Connections to
ecological cycles
LifeLab Garden, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Hidden Villa Farm, Los Altos, CA, USA

14. Many successful programs
include…
1) Role Playing
1) Connections to
ecological cycles
1) Relevance to the
wider world

15. Many successful
programs include…
1) Role Playing
1) Connections to
ecological cycles
1) Relevance to the
wider world
1) Promotion of
responsibility and
care for living
things
“I’m going to take him home and
shelter him. I love sheltering
animals. I care about him. I love
bugs.”
Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont, USA

16. Farm-Based Education can serve diverse audiences

17. Strategies for Connecting with Farmers
-Letter writing
-Locating a farm that is close-by as to limit bus fees
-Tracing a locally sourced product from the school cafeteria back to the farm
-Think inclusively about farm-based learning. Beekeeping, urban farming, potato sorting
factory, timber, hay, grain, wool, etc.
-Interviewing retired community members who may have grown up on farms
-Through literature
-Growing indoors and in the schoolyard in the classroom
-Learn how people farm in other parts of the world

18. How to find a farmer....
-Canadian Organic Growers - Growing Up Organic
-Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training
(CRAFT)
- Atlantic Canada Organic Regional Network (ACORN)
-Attend a Farmers’ Market
-Remember farm-based learning can take place at
urban farms and in community gardens, too!

20. Convincing Others that Farm Field Trips
are Worthwhile
-Wellness
-Community service - support a community
-Teamwork - group weeding, group planting,
group harvesting. Make it competitive!
-Form an ongoing relationship - you can go back multiple
times and always see something new.
-Explore a diversity of occupations.
-Give kids who may not thrive in a traditional classroom an
opportunity to succeed in a new setting.Everdale Summer Campers
Toronto, CA

21. “Applying for a farm apprenticeship at
EarthDance Farms was possibly the
most selfish thing I’ve done this year. I
wanted to learn how to be a better
gardener and to improve my physical
health... I wanted to do something for
my spirit, which took a beating this
year in the struggle to find my way
through the messiness swirling about
us in Ferguson. [But] nothing prepared
me for the gifts this summer has given
me. The satisfaction of getting covered
in mud, picking a few extra sun gold
tomatoes or leaving with a bag of
vegetables. The excellent management
of the instructors was outweighed by
the power of the experience of working
with the young farmers who do this
with me. Varied as they are in age,
experience, personality, and
aspirations, they hold in common
certain qualities of kindness and
generosity that are a joy to find all in
one place. Their hopes inspire me.”
EarthDance Farm, Ferguson, MO, USA

22. Growing Educational
Programming on Farms
vera@farmbasededucation.org