COWS ARE COOL: LOVE ‘EM!
46.
Suddenly In Fashion
Farming and Cows
Farming, which many city folk once associated primarily with rustic farmers and boring chores is suddenly in vogue. Never mind that most of the food we eat comes not from cozy acreages but from big corporate operations. Never mind that census data tell us that fewer than half of family-run farms show a positive net income (in other words, most farmers need day jobs). Even though farming no longer quite makes it as “a way of life,” it’s somehow become the next best thing (or maybe an even better thing): a lifestyle.
Farming is suddenly in fashion.
Some time back, Huffington Post, a popular news site in America featured a photo gallery of “hot organic farmers”. The response was so overwhelming that it did yet another spread. From a pallid hipster growing organic vegetables on a Brooklyn rooftop to a husky Californian whose specialty lettuce crops are bathed in golden sunlight, the photos suggest that running a farm — at least the kind that appears far removed from pesticides and corporate contracts — is very similar to modeling for a hot catalog.
“We think organic farmers are rock stars and heroes,” the site says. “And nothing is trendier than someone who likes to get dirty and supports the great food revolution.” Readers are encouraged to vote on their favorite farmer. Forget rock star: Farmers are so hot they could date rock stars. To some it is refreshing to see that farmers are glamorized in the media instead of, say, strippers.
But no reality show or Internet photo gallery can compare with the most unexpected Internet craze in recent memory: FarmVille. Launched on Facebook last June by the video-game developer Zynga, the social game now has nearly 60 million users, making it the most popular game on Facebook and, according to Zynga, the fastest-growing social game of all time.
Internet social games are well known to be habit-forming, but a recent spate of news coverage has suggested that FarmVille is roughly as enslaving as heroin. Users report missing work, abandoning friends and setting their alarms to wake up several times during the night so they can make the moves necessary to advance in the game.
And what particular thrills do those moves generate? Harvesting crops, milking cows of course! And buying seed and livestock and trees and buildings with virtual coins (extra coins can be purchased with real-life credit cards). And helping neighboring farmers with chores. And getting really excited because a cow wandered onto your farm.
After creating an avatar, a player is given six plots of land and the opportunity to cultivate various food products, some of which grow in a matter of hours and will wilt if not harvested on time (thus the need to get up in the middle of the night). Roaming animals such as a pink cow that produces strawberry milk and an ugly duckling that turns into a swan can be adopted and cultivated for profit (in a loving, free-range sort of way). Looks like tens of millions of people are losing sleep over virtual crop rotation.
Other than this game, there is outrage of agribusiness companies over Michelle Obama’s organic garden who fear that an organic vegetable patch in every yard may become the Obama administration’s version of “a chicken in every pot.”
Are we to infer from the FarmVille phenomenon that people are finally switching their allegiances from urban-industrial environs to lifestyles of being closer to Mother Earth? Are people yearning to connect back with mother nature, land and cows? Are people tired of techno-industrial setup and looking for something thats natural for their soul - a life founded on land and cows?
Suddenly In Fashion
Farming and Cows
Farming, which many city folk once associated primarily with rustic farmers and boring chores is suddenly in vogue. Never mind that most of the food we eat comes not from cozy acreages but from big corporate operations. Never mind that census data tell us that fewer than half of family-run farms show a positive net income (in other words, most farmers need day jobs). Even though farming no longer quite makes it as “a way of life,” it’s somehow become the next best thing (or maybe an even better thing): a lifestyle.
Farming is suddenly in fashion.
Some time back, Huffington Post, a popular news site in America featured a photo gallery of “hot organic farmers”. The response was so overwhelming that it did yet another spread. From a pallid hipster growing organic vegetables on a Brooklyn rooftop to a husky Californian whose specialty lettuce crops are bathed in golden sunlight, the photos suggest that running a farm — at least the kind that appears far removed from pesticides and corporate contracts — is very similar to modeling for a hot catalog.
“We think organic farmers are rock stars and heroes,” the site says. “And nothing is trendier than someone who likes to get dirty and supports the great food revolution.” Readers are encouraged to vote on their favorite farmer. Forget rock star: Farmers are so hot they could date rock stars. To some it is refreshing to see that farmers are glamorized in the media instead of, say, strippers.
But no reality show or Internet photo gallery can compare with the most unexpected Internet craze in recent memory: FarmVille. Launched on Facebook last June by the video-game developer Zynga, the social game now has nearly 60 million users, making it the most popular game on Facebook and, according to Zynga, the fastest-growing social game of all time.
Internet social games are well known to be habit-forming, but a recent spate of news coverage has suggested that FarmVille is roughly as enslaving as heroin. Users report missing work, abandoning friends and setting their alarms to wake up several times during the night so they can make the moves necessary to advance in the game.
And what particular thrills do those moves generate? Harvesting crops, milking cows of course! And buying seed and livestock and trees and buildings with virtual coins (extra coins can be purchased with real-life credit cards). And helping neighboring farmers with chores. And getting really excited because a cow wandered onto your farm.
After creating an avatar, a player is given six plots of land and the opportunity to cultivate various food products, some of which grow in a matter of hours and will wilt if not harvested on time (thus the need to get up in the middle of the night). Roaming animals such as a pink cow that produces strawberry milk and an ugly duckling that turns into a swan can be adopted and cultivated for profit (in a loving, free-range sort of way). Looks like tens of millions of people are losing sleep over virtual crop rotation.
Other than this game, there is outrage of agribusiness companies over Michelle Obama’s organic garden who fear that an organic vegetable patch in every yard may become the Obama administration’s version of “a chicken in every pot.”
Are we to infer from the FarmVille phenomenon that people are finally switching their allegiances from urban-industrial environs to lifestyles of being closer to Mother Earth? Are people yearning to connect back with mother nature, land and cows? Are people tired of techno-industrial setup and looking for something thats natural for their soul - a life founded on land and cows?
“I asked the waiter, ‘Is this milk fresh?’ He said, ‘Lady, three hours ago it was grass”
- Phyllis Diller
- Phyllis Diller