Thinking positive–can the pandemic inspire a meaningful lifestyle change?
“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready.”
This is our moment of change.
Since its emergence in January 2020, the novel coronavirus has altered almost everything about our everyday lives: our jobs, our habits, social lives, even our everyday trips to the grocery store. We’ve had to change everything to accommodate quarantines, lock downs, and social-distancing, but soon enough we will need to embark on an even more difficult mission: We will have to go back out into the world and rebuild our communities to be stronger and more resilient than before.
In some ways, the rebuilding that will come in the aftermath of COVID-19 is a fertile opportunity to create meaningful change on a personal, community, and global scale. One way to do this is to use the pandemic as the catalyst to create more small farmers. Farming is a sure way to build the strong disrupted food system that we need in light of pandemic shortages and supply chain failures. On a personal level, farming can also be the lifestyle change you need as you reckon with the post-coronavirus world.
Here are four ways we see farming as a great option for finding meaningful change:
#1 - Make time for what’s truly important
Working-from-home (WFH) in the time of COVID-19 is rife with its own stressors (like juggling screaming kids and your company-wide Zoom meeting), but it has awakened hundreds of thousands of Americans to the many benefits of WFH compared to the normal 9-5. These include better work-life balance, more family time, and cutting back daily stresses like your dreaded commute.
Small farmers report many of the same lifestyle benefits. With modern systems like the Greenery reducing labor to 15-20 hours a week, farmers can always find the time for school drop-off, soccer games, and other important family activities. Finding what’s truly important can also go beyond the boundaries of your own home. Growing live organisms, feeding people, bringing people joy in the form of good nutrition and exciting tastes, connecting to nature…all of these can help you infuse your work with meaning.
Farming allows sarah to prioritize family
One such example is Sarah Ward who runs Oasis Springs Farm from her home in Nashua, New Hampshire. As a former marketing professional, Sarah was all too familiar with the daily office grind. When the opportunity arose to go back to work after years spent at home raising her kids, she chose not to go back to the office. Instead, she turned to indoor farming, which gives her the flexibility to structure her business model around important family routines–like not working on weekends, or always being there for important family rituals, like meeting the bus after school.
Photos: Oasis Springs Farm on Facebook
#2 - Find independence & purpose
Beyond the basic work-life balance benefits, farming gives you the opportunity to be your own boss. This takes your fate out of someone else’s hands and gives you agency over your own life, decisions, and priorities. As the leader of your own small business, you’re able to create a company and brand identity that supports what’s most important to you, whether its sustainability, service, community development, or anything else. The world becomes yours to populate with the kind of ideas, people, and products you believe in.
Plus, as a member of a disrupted food system, you’re able to give others independence. Instead of relying on a complicated, broken, and inefficient food system, you can give the community a local food option that they can rejoice in.
Farming gave Dave the confidence to drive change
Before starting Clawson Greens, Dave Ridill worked many “odd” jobs: ski patroller, volunteer EMT and firefighter, and forest serviceman. In fact, he was on his way to start a paramedic training program in Boston when he ultimately decided to start a farm in Tetonia, Idaho instead. Located in the snowy mountains of Teton Valley, Dave’s town constantly suffered the repercussions of a centralized food system: delayed shipments of fresh food led to limited and unappetizing choices. Dave never had aspirations of being a business owner, but he saw the need in his community and decided to do something about it.
Photo: Camrin Dengel, Teton Valley Magazine
#3 - Focus on holistic health
Desk jobs (or really “couch jobs” in today’s world) may not be as dangerous as the novel coronavirus, but they are still detrimental to our long-term health and quality of life. Considered by many the “new smoking”, sitting for extended periods of time has been linked to neck and back pain, depression, anxiety, chronic illness (diabetes, heart disease), and even early mortality. In stark contrast, modern indoor farming methods keep you on your feet and lightly active all day without putting too much strain on your body.
Beyond the beneficial effects on the body, growing plants from seed to feed your family and community can drive increased feelings of purpose and accomplishment. Even just the act of working with has been shown to relieve stress and anxiety…something we can all appreciate during these crazy times.
People around the country use farming to help others grow
There are a lot of examples of how working in a farm can provide peace of mind to farmers and others in the community! OD Greens is a veteran-operated farm in Ohio that uses the relaxing work conditions inside their container farm to help veterans reintegrate into civilian life. Zeponic Farms in Virginia uses its container farm as a safe and positive space for adults with autism to find meaningful employment. San Antonio Clubhouse in Texas uses a container farm to run confidence-boosting job training programs for adults with Special Needs and mental illness. And some farmers just do it for themselves, enjoying their quiet, green space and methodical workflow.
#4 - Start a resilient business
When it comes down to it, security and safety is the greatest human need after physiological ones (food, water, shelter). While a typical desk job was once a sure way to guarantee stability, the pandemic has changed all that: one study found that the pandemic has jeopardized one-third of U.S. “non-essential” jobs to date, between business closures and lay-offs.
As a self-employed farmer, you are not at risk of being laid off or being made obsolete. As a food provider, you will always be deemed an essential business and be allowed to operate throughout this outbreak and any that will follow. As a small, single-person operation, no number of social distancing orders will interfere with your workflow. While many face uncertainty, job loss, or wage reductions, you will be able to operate your farm business with few changes.
You can also rely on job stability thanks to increased interest in buying goods from local businesses. This is driven in part by the unreliability of grocery stores, and also by people’s desire to find suppliers that have a short and trustworthy supply chain. The result is a lot of public interest in CSAs, virtual farmers markets, and online ordering all over the country.
Think you’re ready to make a change? Talk to us.
We’ve worked with people of all backgrounds who have decided that they want to start farming to create positive change for themselves and others. Even now, the pandemic has brought many people to our (metaphorical) door with questions about how farming can help them find their place in our evolving world. They trust the Freight Farms’ proven technology and business plan that has worked for hundreds of farmers–contact us to see how the Greenery™ platform can work for you.
