Update on the Farm

For the last several years we have managed to demonstrate the effectiveness of natural farming in rice growing in our region. We have truly healed nearly four and a half acres of dead land. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of natural, home-made fertilizers and pest controls. We have published research on economical improvements to seed storage. We have provided good employment for oppressed people.

The Charis Teaching Farm has in many ways been a tremendous success. The farm started out as an attempt at a business partnership between The Charis Project and a collective of un-landed migrant workers. This partnership fell through before it had a chance to start but we had already leased the land and we felt it was immoral to not do something productive with what we had. That is the origin of the Charis Teaching Farm.

These several years down the road, The Charis Project, has had to grow up and firmly establish its focus and clarity of mission. The mission is to “heal families, strengthen families, and keep families together.” While we could tell a true story of how the Farm accomplished these goals, that story was longer than it should be.

We have decided to cease the Farm as a project of The Charis Project in the spirit of making the painful decision to not let the good distract from the better. The farm has been very good but it has not had the same return on investment toward our central mission as our other projects.

Happily, some of our staff have decided to take the farm over as their own livelihood to support their own families. The work we have done is “staying in the family” as it were and we are continuing to work with these new owners as business partners and customers…..much like we had originally intended the farm to be.

We still provide training in the things we learned and validated on the farm and have a richly fond place in our hearts for the dead dirt that has now become fertile.

Thank you all for your support over the years. And as the experienced among you know, especially for the good hearted, the good can easily become the enemy of the best. Please keep following and encouraging us in our more focused endeavors to heal families, strengthen families and keep families together.