The Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT) is a coordinated effort run regionally around the world to bring established farmers, farm apprentices, and students of agriculture together for educational training in sustainable agriculture.

Working collaboratively, farmers in the North Fork Valley can offer a broad experience to their interns, and a deeper understanding of farming as a business and way of life. The goal of the CRAFT program is to attract and retain quality interns and to build a stronger sustainable farming community.

VOGA has received a grant from the Kampe Foundation to sponsor the North Fork Valley CRAFT Program. The program is free to interns once they have submitted an application and been accepted into the program. Interns must be sponsored by a CRAFT farm member. CRAFT farms are all members of VOGA.

Contact Lynn Ruoff (lynnruoff@gmail.com, 970-319-9434) for more information.

_Sustainable Agriculture Internships
A Sustainable Agriculture Internship is a hands-on educational opportunity for interested people to participate in organic farming and learn practices of sustainable agriculture including fertility practices, crop rotation principles, organic pest control, and animal husbandry.  Internships agreements vary from farm to farm, some include work stipends, room and board, others not.  All interns working at a VOGA member farm may attend VOGA's local CRAFT Educational Program free of charge. Additionally, they participate in the development of a community focused on a local, organic food supply and observe firsthand the benefits of its community spirit.

We will list the VOGA member farms accepting Sustainable Agriculture Internships.

WWOOF Volunteer Program
WWOOF-USA, Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, has been connecting sustainable farmers with willing volunteers, in an exchange of education, culture, and sweat to bring forth wholesome agricultural products from the farms of the USA since 2001.

The program is open to anyone 18 years of age or older, regardless of experience.

One-half day of volunteer help is traded for food and accommodation, with no money exchanged.  This is not paid work on farms, it is an exchange of education and culture.  The WWOOF-USA® Host Farm Directory lists more than thirteen hundred organic farms (not necessarily USDA certified organic) and gardens across the country.

We will list the VOGA member farms accepting "WWOOFers".