Back to the land

The NYT had an interesting article on a new back to the land movement in Greece.  With unemployment hovering in the 15-20% range, a cross section of middle class and professional workers are heading back to the countryside to get in touch with their agricultural roots.  Starting enterprises as diverse as snail farms and tapping trees for edible sap, these folks are going back to the ways of their recent ancestors.  Although some of them are reluctant agriculturalists, and some of their parents and grandparents are horrified they are abandoning the possibility of high paying jobs in engineering, international trade, etc., the general feeling is one of hopelessness that Greece will ever recover from the austerity being imposed by their European bankers.  I have not seen anything like this occuring in the US.  Granted their are a few local back to the land types in Plattsburgh, but these farmers chose this life at a fairly young age, not like some of the middle aged types in Greece.   Also, as the article pointed out, many of these people inheireted the land they were retreating to.  I doubt many Americans have that option.  Besides that, much of America has moved to a sanitized supermarket culture with only boutique farm options available to the aspiring farmer.  I don't know about the Greeks, but I doubt most 21st century Americans are ready for the 80 hour weeks most farmers work for a monetary return they would consider a joke.  I hope we never get to the point where this becomes the attractive, or indeed the only way some people will survive.













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