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The economics of green care in agriculture
The COST Action 866 ‘Green Care in Agriculture’ defines Green Care as ‘the utilisation of agricultural farms – the animals, the plants, the garden, the forest, and the landscape – as a base for promoting human mental and physical health, as well as quality of life, for a variety of client groups’.
Taking this statement as a starting point, this COST Action’s Economics of Green Care working group has gathered a group of European researchers in the fields of multifunctional agriculture, public health economics and others, who are occupied with Green Care in one way or another. But a thorough analysis of the economics of Green Care is lacking so far. This is striking, as the phenomenon as such is gaining importance all over Europe. The mere existence of this European COST Action shows the relevance of the topic. In different contexts, at different speeds and along diverse trajectories, Green Care is developing in practice, is gaining economic impact and is attracting policy attention at different levels. Given the near-absence of research on the economics of Green Care, and hence the evident lack of empirical data, the authors were challenged to reflect on the economics of Green Care based on their own expertise and perspective. This challenge resulted in a fascinating variety of contributions. Some are rather theoretical reflections; others are based on the little data available and one is even based on personal experience. The book first classifies the different Green Care arrangements in Europe in terms of their underlying philosophy and organisation. Three discourses can be distinguished, e.g., multifunctional agriculture, public health and social inclusion. The emergence of Green Care in Europe is inspired by socio-cultural developments and trends. The changing function of the countryside, novel role of farmers and innovations in the health care sector all contribute to new alliances between society, agriculture and care. Chapter 3 describes this fertile breeding ground for the development of Green Care. After these reflections, seven contributions present a variety of case studies that represent different discursive settings and different points of view. Taken together, they give insight into how costs and benefits of Green Care are experienced, evaluated and dealt with. The book concludes with a summary of what we have learnt from the various cases, and which questions are still left open. The open questions address both the levels that have yet to be studied as well as the areas where comparison and integration across levels and ‘discourses’ or sectors are still lacking. This examination then naturally results in a research agenda.
Lees de publicatie
- Publicatiedatum
- Augustus 2010
- Publicatietype
- Boek
- Thema's
- Duurzame landbouw
- Auteur(s)
- Joost Dessein & Bettina Bock