Social farming as a tool for innovation in agriculture

Social farming can be an innovative approach that combines agricultural production with social, health, care and educational services. By expanding the role of farms beyond food production, it strengthens links between rural and urban areas and creates new forms of cooperation between agriculture, social services, employment and health systems.

Closely connected to current EU policy debates, including the Common Agricultural Policy and European priorities on long‑term care, health and mental well‑being, social farming represents a promising form of social innovation in agriculture.

On 28 April 2026, the EESC will hold a public debate with the aim to explore the social and economic impacts of social farming, identify key barriers to its development, and discuss how to better integrate social farming into EU rural, social and innovation policies, by gathering representatives from academia, the European institutions, civil society organisations and EESC members of the Study group for the opinion, to debate:

• with academics on the topic;

• EU current state of play and legislative context;

• concrete projects as best practices and on how to scale them up, and

• stakeholders' concrete recommendations for the opinion, including from from the perspective of rural jobs, and youth.

The programme combines keynote inputs with three thematic panels and an interactive exchange between EESC members, invited academics, speakers and representatives of the European Commission after each session.

🎬 This event will be webstreamed live on our website. 🔊 Interpretation will be provided in EN, FR and CS.

📧Contact us for a very limited offer of on-site participation.