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World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF)

KayeilKayeil Washington State
in The Universal Membrane
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF)

I know some of you like to travel, this sounds like an interesting way to do it instead of air bnb or hotels/motels/hostels... or maybe for those of you who might (I have no idea) live on farms, it could be something for you to get involved in.

WWOOF is a worldwide movement linking volunteers with organic farmers and growers to promote cultural and educational experiences based on trust and non monetary exchanges thereby helping to build a sustainable global community.

WWOOF is an exchange. In return for volunteer help, WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles.
Many countries have national WWOOF groups. Look in the drop down menu or list below to find where they are  - and start your WWOOF adventure.

Other countries have hosts - but no national WWOOF group as yet! 

Has anyone tried this before or thought about it?

What doesn't kill you gives you exp.

Comments

  • ValkynValkyn
    My sister has done it both locally (New Zealand) and quite a bit of it in Canada. She found it quite a mixed bag, some places were awful, some were great experiences. One she actually felt quite unsafe in over there, trapped on an island with this strange guy. She seems to enjoy it though, but then she was partly doing it to learn new skills as well as for the travel. She's a scientist who works in an orchard, and she's a bit of a health nut.

    My bf had a couple of friends who took wwoofers in on their 'farm' but I think they mostly had them just doing odd jobs and helping out with rennovations, since they didn't actually have a real farm, just a really big property.  :/ I guess if it works and everyone's happy though?

  • KayeilKayeil Washington State
    Guess it's just like anything else... crappy and great experiences with hotels/motels/hostels or air bnb. Some of that does sound pretty creepy, I've heard of really creepy hostels, too. Might be best to not go alone, then.

    Sounds like you could learn some nice skills if it all works out, though. I looked at some random pages, and it looks like each country has different expectations when you sign up for their website. The Norway one actually comes with some kind of insurance with your subscription.
    What doesn't kill you gives you exp.

  • AktillumAktillum Philippines
    @Kayeil

    Sorry I'm super-late to your thread. I did WWOOF Hawaii for around a year.

    I will echo Valkyn - it is definitely a mixed bag. You are agreeing to do "free" labour for people in exchange for a pad to crash and maybe a few other perks. You do not know these people. They can be a completely different person in email correspondences. Let me share my own experiences.

    First WWOOF host:
    A coffee farmer on Kona side of Hawaii. Seemed like a very nice guy in emails, talked about all the cool beaches, how he loves to surf, etc. Just seemed like a very cool type of guy. He turned out to be the complete opposite - a total manipulator, control freak, and liar. He said he was 100% organic, and then had the WWOOFers spraying non-organic chemicals / pesticides all over the farm. Then he would sell the coffee as "Non-Certified Organic", which is a clever way of saying "Im totally organic, I just don't have the certification to prove it". No shit, buddy. Also he never surfed a day in his life. After WWOOFing on his farm for about 3 months, he abruptly asked me to leave so that a family of like 10 Polynesians could inhabit the small shack I was staying in. 10 people in a tiny little shack-house.

    Second WWOOF host:
    Cool, laid-back, ex-hippy guy, but also a New Age pseudo-cult leader. He was actually really cool and I enjoyed working on his farm. I stayed in a 10x20 tent on his farm for about 2 months. He was just really, really into New Age spiritual stuff. He was the leader of a local New Age "church", and would invite me to their meetings. Sometimes I'd wake up in the morning and see him standing on the porch, literally staring into the sun. I was like "dude what are you doing?" and he responds "I am energizing my third eye with vitamin C from the sun". Okay dude B) Despite the New Agey oddness, he was a really nice guy and we still keep in touch.

    Third WOOF host:
    An aquaponics farm owner, totally awesome guy. His 4yo son had leukemia and he needed help harvesting his farm, which grew mostly lettuce via aquaponics. I learned a fair bit about aquaponics systems from him, and I felt like my labour was actually contributing to something worthwhile, since he also donated some of the produce to a charity group of children with cancer.



  • KayeilKayeil Washington State
    Aktillum said:
    @Kayeil

    Sorry I'm super-late to your thread. I did WWOOF Hawaii for around a year.

    I will echo Valkyn - it is definitely a mixed bag. You are agreeing to do "free" labour for people in exchange for a pad to crash and maybe a few other perks. You do not know these people. They can be a completely different person in email correspondences. Let me share my own experiences.

    First WWOOF host:
    A coffee farmer on Kona side of Hawaii. Seemed like a very nice guy in emails, talked about all the cool beaches, how he loves to surf, etc. Just seemed like a very cool type of guy. He turned out to be the complete opposite - a total manipulator, control freak, and liar. He said he was 100% organic, and then had the WWOOFers spraying non-organic chemicals / pesticides all over the farm. Then he would sell the coffee as "Non-Certified Organic", which is a clever way of saying "Im totally organic, I just don't have the certification to prove it". No shit, buddy. Also he never surfed a day in his life. After WWOOFing on his farm for about 3 months, he abruptly asked me to leave so that a family of like 10 Polynesians could inhabit the small shack I was staying in. 10 people in a tiny little shack-house.

    Second WWOOF host:
    Cool, laid-back, ex-hippy guy, but also a New Age pseudo-cult leader. He was actually really cool and I enjoyed working on his farm. I stayed in a 10x20 tent on his farm for about 2 months. He was just really, really into New Age spiritual stuff. He was the leader of a local New Age "church", and would invite me to their meetings. Sometimes I'd wake up in the morning and see him standing on the porch, literally staring into the sun. I was like "dude what are you doing?" and he responds "I am energizing my third eye with vitamin C from the sun". Okay dude B) Despite the New Agey oddness, he was a really nice guy and we still keep in touch.

    Third WOOF host:
    An aquaponics farm owner, totally awesome guy. His 4yo son had leukemia and he needed help harvesting his farm, which grew mostly lettuce via aquaponics. I learned a fair bit about aquaponics systems from him, and I felt like my labour was actually contributing to something worthwhile, since he also donated some of the produce to a charity group of children with cancer.


    Wow, that's interesting! Sorry about your first experience not being great, but the other two sounded worth it. Sounds like you can meet some really unique invidivuals along the way. So WWOOF doesn't allow reviews of the farms you've stayed at to give other people a heads up, or anything like that? Seems pretty lame they let that first guy in their program since he was lying about what he was doing there.
    What doesn't kill you gives you exp.

  • SzanthaxSzanthax San Diego
    Seems doubly odd because the people volunteering to do organic stuff seem like the first whistleblowers for people not doing it right



  • ValkynValkyn
    It's mostly done on word of mouth. I'm sure there'll be forums somewhere where you can share experiences - there's forums for everything right?

  • AktillumAktillum Philippines
    edited June 2016
    Kayeil said:
    Wow, that's interesting! Sorry about your first experience not being great, but the other two sounded worth it. Sounds like you can meet some really unique invidivuals along the way. So WWOOF doesn't allow reviews of the farms you've stayed at to give other people a heads up, or anything like that? Seems pretty lame they let that first guy in their program since he was lying about what he was doing there.

    It depends on the WWOOF group you join. There was a forum for WWOOF Hawaii, and some people did leave negative reviews of farms or stories of bad experiences, but the forums should also be taken with a grain of salt. Some of the volunteers for WWOOF Hawaii were super-hippy stoner kids looking for a free place to crash so they could go surfing all day and do the bare minimum amount of volunteer labor. And of course this is not a professional volunteering organization, it is just an organization that connects you with farmers who are looking for help. Its not like signing up for the Red Cross or something. Its like the Craigslist of volunteering.

    Also understand that for WWOOF Hawaii, at least, the Big Island of Hawaii is a small place. Everybody knows eachother. All the farm owners know eachother. All the WWOOFers know eachother - there were big WWOOFer gatherings at beaches and potluck dinners when I was a WWOOFer. So with that in mind, you can shit-talk a bad farm-owner on the WWOOF Hawaii forums, sure, but they could also shit-talk you to their network of other farm owners in the area and give you a bad rep.

    The best advice I can give:

    1: Have a return flight home or emergency money for one
    2: Talk to several farms and have option B or Option Cs lined up incase your Option A turns out to be a douchebag in disguise. Tour their farms before making a commitment.
    3: Try to talk to people who have WWOOFed for them. If there is a farm that catches your fancy, try Googling for online blogs from people who have WWOOFed on that farm before.
    4: Avoid WWOOFing in some sketchy place like the rainforests of Colombia and becoming a cocaine-farm slave

  • ExelethrilExelethril
    Aktillum said:

    Second WWOOF host:
    Cool, laid-back, ex-hippy guy, but also a New Age pseudo-cult leader. He was actually really cool and I enjoyed working on his farm. I stayed in a 10x20 tent on his farm for about 2 months. He was just really, really into New Age spiritual stuff. He was the leader of a local New Age "church", and would invite me to their meetings. Sometimes I'd wake up in the morning and see him standing on the porch, literally staring into the sun. I was like "dude what are you doing?" and he responds "I am energizing my third eye with vitamin C from the sun". Okay dude B) Despite the New Agey oddness, he was a really nice guy and we still keep in touch.
    Did you tell him to cut it out? Could lead to blindness via retinal damage in the long run.

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  • AktillumAktillum Philippines
    Exelethril said:
    Aktillum said:

    Second WWOOF host:
    Cool, laid-back, ex-hippy guy, but also a New Age pseudo-cult leader. He was actually really cool and I enjoyed working on his farm. I stayed in a 10x20 tent on his farm for about 2 months. He was just really, really into New Age spiritual stuff. He was the leader of a local New Age "church", and would invite me to their meetings. Sometimes I'd wake up in the morning and see him standing on the porch, literally staring into the sun. I was like "dude what are you doing?" and he responds "I am energizing my third eye with vitamin C from the sun". Okay dude B) Despite the New Agey oddness, he was a really nice guy and we still keep in touch.
    Did you tell him to cut it out? Could lead to blindness via retinal damage in the long run.
    He would probably just tell me that his salt-water cleanses, frankincense aromatherapy, and quionoa diet would take care of that.

  • KayeilKayeil Washington State
    Ah yeah, I can see the problem where "volunteers" could abuse the oppurtunity to be lazy, freeloading bums. Still sounds like a really interesting thing to try out, but I really don't think I'd go alone.
    What doesn't kill you gives you exp.

  • AktillumAktillum Philippines
    edited June 2016
    Kayeil said:
    Ah yeah, I can see the problem where "volunteers" could abuse the oppurtunity to be lazy, freeloading bums. Still sounds like a really interesting thing to try out, but I really don't think I'd go alone.
    I really truly loved it and encourage you to give it a shot, just think that people should be aware of the pros and cons before diving in :)

    edit: here's some pics from my WWOOF days









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