The Allure of the Rural Idyll
When I want to escape the cacophony of civilization, I head to the country. I love to see all the grazing cows as I drive through a quaint rural backroad. The lush, wholesome scenery is exactly like the images on my organic milk and yogurt containers.
Maybe I come across an antique shop, where I find a wooden ironing board from the late 1800s. Not that I’d use it, but at least I’d have something in my cluttered urban dwelling to remind me of a simpler time.
I love the warm, fuzzy sensation I get when I see all the barns and farm fields in the country. It makes me feel rooted to the earth. The landscape is just like a beautiful painting you admire from a distance.
And don’t you love the smell of woodsmoke in the winter? Nothing is more home and hearth than a wood-burning fireplace. It’s primal.
And what about the people that live in the country, who tend to the cows, the fields, and the rustic barns? By God, they are the real salt of the earth. They are rugged and virtuous, just as they were portrayed in that famous commercial from a year ago.
So if the country is a nostalgic place of purity and healthful living–a rural idyll where one finds harmony with nature–then it makes sense that people, including the rich and famous, will seek out this oasis. But all you foodie enthusiasts pining for a taste of authentic country living should know that there is nothing modern or authentic about celebrity farmers living in a socially constructed agrarian paradise.
I’ve seen a bunch of these types of articles lately. Are they aspirational–this is what you can do if you get really rich? Or are we seeing that people who are successful in one area struggle to figure out the economics of farming?
All the farmers in my twitter feed laugh. One of them was particularly funny.
https://twitter.com/mem_somerville/status/363118028172443649
https://twitter.com/mem_somerville/status/420338978454118400
Greeeeeen Acres is the place for me….
Green Acres is the place to be.
I guess Prince Charles is the most famous advocate of this idyllic rural stuff, Downton Abbey-style 😉
“It is the people and what they do that creates the beating heart of our countryside – the vitality that comes from the busy village shop and pub, a thriving school, from the Church and W.I [Women’s Institute] ,” he said.
“It comes from the tractors in the fields, the skilled work of the stonewallers and hedgelayers, the livestock, the growing crops and the landscape’s biodiversity – now so much under threat from a combination of climate change, diseases of every kind and insensitive development – which is absolutely fundamental to sustainable farming and to the economy.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9778669/Prince-of-Wales-countryside-is-as-precious-as-an-ancient-cathedral.html
Ah, the country is so beautiful! And that little word on the package just proves it’s all true. It’s all organic, safe, and pleasant! Yum!
You can’t feed the world by having your sister go milk the family cow.
14 BILLION eggs were produce in 2010…just in Indiana alone.
9 BILLION chickens were slaughtered in the US in 2008.
Like clean energy, most people don’t appreciate the actual numbers in play. Unicorn chasing doesn’t pay the bills.
One of the basic measures of economic wealth of a country is what percentage of income is spent on food.
Kenya – 45%
Brazil – 25%
US – 6%
Ask all the Kenyans which one they would prefer.
Who’s dumber, Lord Grantham or Prince Charles?
My favorite exchange (shows how old I am):
Eb: Now I’ll never get to Las Vegas, Illinoiz!!
Lisa: I thought Las Vegas was in Nevada.