About Us

About Us

Worldwide Farmers Exchange (WFE) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to teaching young men and women skills that allow them to help increase the quantity and quality of food and fiber produced around the world. To achieve this goal, WFE sponsors work-experience programs for young farmers and agriculture students from every continent. Trainees and interns learn practical agricultural techniques on participating farms in the U.S., while experiencing life in a different culture. WFE also partners with our cooperating sponsors in other countries to help facilitate exchange for American students seeking to advance their agricultural education while working and living abroad.

We are a founding member of Grow Abroad World Alliance, which is comprised of 35 agriculture and cultural exchange programs from 27 countries. Grow Abroad has established standards for membership to insure that participants are treated fairly.

Why We Are Passionate About Agriculture

Consider the following statistic from AgriNews: the world population in 1970 was 3.7 billion and is projected to reach 8.4 billion in the next 15 years. To keep up with population growth, more food will have to be produced in the next 50 years than has been produced in the past 10,000 years.

That is no small task, especially in a world where we are continually being asked to produce more with less—less land, less water, less resources in general.

At Worldwide Farmers Exchange, we are committed to helping current and future generations of farmers get the knowledge, tools, and hands-on experience they need to produce healthful food without compromising future generations’ ability to do the same.

History of WFE

The training and intern programs now sponsored by WFE began in 1952 when the Honorable Earl Warren, who was Governor of California at the time (and later Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court), responded to a request from the Japanese government for a program to train young farmers on California farms. In 1984, the program was reorganized to become Worldwide Farmers Exchange.

Working with cooperating sponsors in other countries, WFE has grown from a single-country program in 1952 to current programs with some 45 countries.  Since the program began more than 60 years ago, we have placed over 10,000 men and women from more than 75 countries in all fields of agriculture and all climate zones throughout the world.