Why American Youths Are Quitting Sophisticated Jobs And Joining Farm - barefoot farmbooks

“I get calls all the time from farmers — some of the largest farmers in the country — asking me when the local and organic fads will be over,”

narrated Eve Turow Paul, a consultant who advises farms and food companies on millennial preferences.

“It’s my pleasure to tell them: Look at this generation. Get on board or go out of business.”

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 Let's ask one hypothetical question.

Imagine you're putting a whole lot of effort, puddling in mud, bathing under the scorching bright yellow sun and after sometimes you're having a cherry-red apple or a sea-green brinjal in your hand. That "cutch" sound of your knife cutting the fruit of your labour...Ahaha!

Again. imagine you are dressing up, having make-over or going in front of a beautiful fountain and standing where it's dangerous to step and still smiling widely and taking a selfie. Meanwhile, you might have got sprain in your thigh. You post it. You get 235 LIKES!

WOAH!

But wait, doesn't that seem to be similar?

If you look precisely, in both cases your efforts are huge and the result is spontaneously immediate!

This may is one of the main causes why American youths are abolishing desk-jobs of high-paying offers and setting up farms where their two or more preceding generation lived and died urban.

Let's hear from Liz Whitehurst, a 32-year-old graduate from a liberal arts college who grew up in the Chicago suburbs — abandoned Washington for this three-acre farm in Upper Marlboro, Md.

https://www.crossroadscommunityfoodnetwork.org/about-us/

“I wanted to have a positive impact, and that just felt very distant in my other jobs out of college,” Whitehurst said. “In farming, on the other hand, you make a difference. Your impact is immediate.”

There is a rattling movement happening outside you probably don't know about. Whitehurst is just one disciple.
There are many like her. The common attributes they share are-

1. They are highly educated.
2. They ne'er lived rurally.
3. They are first-time farmers.
4. They tend to be inclined to organic farming.
5. They are trying to develop a new market and economic strategies.

Let me take you there!

A hilly green ambience around you. From near uphill,  vegetable fields of peppers, cabbages, tomatoes and salad greens from baby kale to arugula are unrolling down until your feet. There is a small white hut in the right. On the left, there is a valley. A gravelled road of stones goes to the hut which is emitting cake-smelled vapours. looks like the small hut of Hadrick from harry potter. There live Whitehurst and her two friends. Like the three witches of Macbeth, these three ladies seem to chant the same riddle-

Fare is foul and foul is fare!

hover through the fog and filthy air! 

http://www.telegram.com/news/20171123/young-americans-leaving-desk-jobs-to-farm

On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, she and two longtime friends from Washington wake up in semidarkness to harvest by hand, kneeling in the mud to cut handfuls of greens before the sun can wilt them. All three young women, who also live on the farm, make their living off the produce Whitehurst sells, whether to restaurants, through CSA shares or at a D.C. farmers market. 

This farm is called Owl's Nest!

Now The real question that arises is why?

Let's jump straight into that psychological analysis that plays behind-

1. I would like to work under the sky than under a boss!

The most "guess-what-cause" is autonomy. You are the final decision maker, profit bearer, strategy designer and you don't need to show cause to anybody else. Isn't that amazing?

https://www.pexels.com/search/freedom/

2. It is my own thing!

Think again about that hypothetical question I asked at the outset. When you put so much labour, shoulder that much responsibility and shed too much sweat, the final outcome seems to be your creation. Can those clumsy chart-sheets or powerpoint presentation fetch this kind of emotional attachment? Never!

https://www.oudtshoorncourant.com/News/Article/AgriEco/farming-without-government-support-201803120424

3. The Industry is ready for a change

the farming industry is ancient. Recently it has undergone some changes during the green revolution period. But even that story is of 30's to 60's. Old enough, right?

The industry has got monotonous.

It needs some change.

Which means it will accept any twist and any endeavour will fruit well.

Opportunity-point for any entrepreneur!

4. I'll leave a meaningful legacy behind me

http://www.grandsmatter.org/hot-topics/work-family/granddad-also-fill-father-figure/

For most people farming is a love, not labour. it is regarded as a noble job to provide food. Well, it is. Many people, especially who are grown in urban areas and are in their late 30's tend to become serious about what they leave behind their life.

The soil holds the warmth of me even when I'm dead!

5. I feel For Nature!

Do you know about ecotherapy, wilderness therapy or nature-based-therapy?

Yeas they exist!

Think you are driving on a national highway. Trucks, dust, smoke everywhere. Don't you look frequently to the villages on either side, filled with green? Why so? because staying in a touch of nature makes us feel fresh and more positive.

It is a great notion that the young people are more likely to conserve nature than the older generations.

6. A timelessness!

many people claim that when they visit their farm, nurture the young leaves and the tender shoots they don't think of the time the whole day.

If you notice correctly, we as a generation have grown in a anxiety of time-rush.

It is no surprise that the feeling of timelessness will make us attracted.

https://healthyvoyager.com/finding-time-exercise-relax-busy-schedule/

7. Sustainability, of course!

When you work on a farm that digs for coal or emits potential toxins, you know inside that you are doing something wrong. This idea is not sustainable.

On the opposite side, when you farm, you know there will be the sustainability of the business and the upcoming every generation can do for its own from the piece of land you leave for them apart from the sustainability that nature attains.

https://newsroom.domtar.com/consumers-key-sustainability-trends/

8. It reminds me of death, so I appreciate life more!

https://mentalhealthfood.net/growing-your-own-mental-health-food/

Believe me or not, it is a cause.

Most people claim that growing green reminds them that nothing is ever-lasting and like that fav quote of mine-

"All Good Things Must End..."

9. I bring food on which you live!

This feeling is awesome and I tell you it happens. Even being a student of agricultural science feels like-

I am that person who provides the first basic need; food!

10. A new market in a new form!

People who are joining farming have developed an altogether different form of the market filled with new marketing strategies.

Already, several national grocery chains, including Walmart and SuperValu, have built out local-food-buying programs, according to AT Kearney, a management consulting firm.

Young farmers are also creating their own "food hubs," allowing them to store, process and market food collectively, and supply grocery and restaurant chains at a price competitive with national suppliers.

11. We've Understood the importance of small farms, hence farming!

"Young farmers tend to start small and sell to direct markets, because that's a viable way for them to get into farming," Lusher Shute said. "But many are shifting gears as they get into it — getting bigger or moving into wholesale."

Midsize farms are critical to rural economies, generating jobs, spending and tax revenue. And while they're large enough to supply mainstream markets, they're also small enough to respond to environmental changes and consumer demand.
Between 1992 and 2012, the country lost more than 250,000 midsize and small commercial farms, according to the USDA. During that same period, more than 35,000 very large farms started up, and the large farms already in existence consolidated their acreage.

Now, this is time for some information. And here we Go:

Information Courtesy Washington Post

• For only the second time in the last century, the number of farmers under 35 years old is increasing, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's latest Census of Agriculture. Sixty-nine percent of the surveyed young farmers had college degrees — significantly higher than the general population

• The number of farmers age 25 to 34 grew 2.2 percent between 2007 and 2012, according to the 2014 USDA census, a period when other groups of farmers — save the oldest — shrunk by double digits. In some states, such as California, Nebraska and South Dakota, the number of beginning farmers has grown by 20 percent or more
• A survey conducted by the National Young Farmers Coalition, an advocacy group, with Merrigan's help shows that the majority of young farmers did not grow up in agricultural families.
• Between 1992 and 2012, the country lost more than 250,000 midsize and small commercial farms, according to the USDA. During that same period, more than 35,000 very large farms started up, and the large farms already in existence consolidated their acreage.
• The number of young farmers entering the field is nowhere near enough to replace the number exiting, according to the USDA: Between 2007 and 2012, agriculture gained 2,384 farmers between ages 25 and 34 — and lost nearly 100,000 between 45 and 54.

Well, we're done reading. Let's hear for now:

Information Courtesy Washington Post

• "We're going to see a sea change in American agriculture as the next generation gets on the land. The only question is whether they'll get on the land, given the challenges." -Kathleen Merrigan, the head of the Food Institute at George Washington University and a deputy secretary at the Department of Agriculture under President Barack Obama.

• "Multigenerational family farms are shrinking. And big farms are getting bigger, for the resiliency of the food system and of rural communities, we need more agriculture of the middle."- Shoshanah Inwood, a rural sociologist at Ohio State University

• "Young farmers tend to start small and sell to direct markets, because that's a viable way for them to get into farming, but many are shifting gears as they get into it — getting bigger or moving into wholesale" -Lusher Shute, the executive director of the coalition

• "For now, I'm focused on getting better, not bigger, but in a few years, who knows. Ask me again then." -Whitehurst