Establishing Farm Living As A Worthwhile Alternative Lifestyle

If a noticeable percentage of city residents, say 5%, decide to transition to farm living, it may usher in significant positive social and ecological changes. However, ‘making a positive social and/or ecological change’ can hardly be the trigger for an average urban resident to consider such transition. People adopt changes in the hope or conviction that their personal needs will be better served in the changed circumstances. This hope can get average people to work hard, bear pain and navigate through significant discomfort. The challenge, therefore is to establish a causal relationship between farm living and this hope.

This task is an onerous one, particularly because after much effort, over decades of reinforcement, we, as a society, have almost unanimously bought into the idea that city is the place for a better life. Also, there aren’t enough people leading from the front. Many warriors of ecology and social change live in cities. Even if they live in villages, their lifestyle hardly evokes aspiration in the average urban resident. It is difficult to imagine anyone aspiring for a village life for his/her child.

It is, nonetheless, a cause worth putting up a fight for. The ecological benefit due to the reduced pressure on city infrastructure, reduced energy consumption and reduced pollution is immense. Add to it, the social impact caused by city bred people living in close proximity of villages, mountains, rivers and fields. Farm living also improves mental and physical health substantially.  

So, what will it take to get there? Lots of effort and time is the simple answer. The effort can be enumerated as below

1. A sustained, high decibel campaign aimed at positioning farm living an aspired lifestyle

2. Infrastructure and service providers (at multiple locations) to offer an experience of farm life to aspirants

3. Experts and practitioners in areas of sustainable agriculture, eco-friendly construction, economics, education, healthcare and marketing to design and implement solutions to help farmers transition to natural farming, create residential infrastructure, provide essential services and build enterprises around these

4. A panel of experienced farm residents, who can handhold early adopters through the mental transition journey and also the one on the ground

5. Pressure groups to engage with government and institutions to provide support and encouragement to those opting for the transition

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