Farm-Life Happiness

Broccoli, Photo: recipes.howstuffworks.com

You dig a hole in the ground; you put a tiny seed into the black soil and then you water it. Some weeks later something might grow out of it. You did it; all by yourself with your own hands.

More and more people are fascinated by the idea of growing their own food. They seem to want to regain some of the knowledge that has been lost by most people through agricultural development. But, why is it that some people are going back in time searching for the sources of our nourishment? Isn’t modern society’s greatest advantage that the majority of people don’t have to worry about food production? Isn’t it this division of labour between farmers and non-famers that made innovation and increased productivity possible?

Environmental movements that concentrate on grow it yourself farming have many supporters, especially in industrialized countries like Ireland. Something that used to be seen as hard work three generations ago is now considered a pleasant free-time activity. People enjoy being outside and working with their hands in their plots. The abundance of gardening books, planting advisers and back to the roots blogs is overwhelming.

It is not hard to find an explanation for this longing for nature and self-produced food. Typical nine to five office jobs in service sectors are not famous for generating great fulfilment. However, the perception of a farmer’s life is that it can bring such fulfilment. The research centre Avenir Suisse found that a positive view of small farms is connected to assumed characteristics like traditional living, high work motivation and consistency. Urban people perceive the traditional farmer’s profession as a healthy, modest and all in all a satisfactory way of living. Traditional farming is associated with a simple life connected to nature. Local famers are good, multinational agricultural companies are bad; that is a viewpoint many people hold.

Seasonably vegetable chart, Photo: fastcompany.com

The rift between human beings and vegetable plantations began to develop about 80 years ago. The so called “Green Revolution” refers to the massive technological innovation that occurred between the 1940s and late 1970s. With the increased production in the agricultural sector more people could be fed from less suitable land for cultivation. The introduction of chemical fertilizers, new varieties of grains and economic industrialization led to alienation from traditional food production. Most people forgot how to create their own food and started to rely completely on a mass produced diet.

At this stage we live in a highly complex world with so many specialized areas of interest that no single person can possibly be an expert in all of them. Basically, we don’t understand the world we are living in. We don’t understand how politics works in reality, how the economy is influencing politics or simply how computers create images on the screens we look at every day. And no one can be blamed for that. In other words, we have the feeling of loosing control over our lives because we don’t understand what is happing around us.

Potato, Photo: citizenpotato.wordpress.com

Psychologists claim that the need for understanding and controlling the environment is a basic human characteristic. This is connected to the elementary desire for security. However, our modern society is nearly completely dominated by technological innovations which are traded in a globalized market economy. Most consumers are just overwhelmed by its complexity and lack of understanding of the whole process. 

Farming is different. You can see with your own eyes and touch with your own hands the fruit of your actions. You are in control of the process and you can understand how the food you are having for dinner has been created. In the end, many people feel more satisfied when they are doing simplistic work like this, than spending time doing work they can’t connect to. 

It could be argued that this trend mainly attracts highly educated people who live in bigger cites because those may be more aware of the consequences of a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. However, this is yet unknown and worth further exploration.