I, like most everyone I know, has a Facebook account. I am on it all the time too, mostly times when I should be doing something way more productive. I use it to stay in touch with college friends, a handful of high school people, but I also use it to unwind. I play handful of games that have been designed specifically for Facebook.

My favorite game is called Fish Wrangler, but I play a few others as well. I have noticed that over the last few months the popularity of farming games has skyrocketed. I can understand why too. It’s very appealing and almost magical to watch something go from a seed to a plant that produces food. There are a wide variety of seeds that you can plant ranging from cotton, to sun flowers and potatoes to watermelons and everything in between.

The games are very deceptive though. The designers have tapped into something that is in all of us; our desire to create. We have a natural desire to create and for generations that desire was used to produce food. Now we have games that tap into that desire but don’t give us any of the benefit.

After hours spent using your mouse to navigate your way around the farm by plowing, planting and harvesting your fields, all you have left to show for it is some fake coins. Nothing real. No food. No money. Most of all, you are left with a void. A void that you have always had because you aren’t growing your own food or using your creativity. This void is something that can be fed but it always consumes what you have to offer and doesn’t ever get filled. That’s what these games do.  They feed the desire, but leave you empty in the end.

I know all of this because I have that same void and have tried to fill it playing these games or by doing something else. I grew up on a farm and was in the midst of growing my own food, as well as producing for others. This was my life until I left for college. From then on out, food had a very consumeristic place in my life. Food no longer came from my farm, but was purchased at the local super market, or picked up from the counter at the dining commons. I had lost my place in the chain of life. I was no longer a producer, I was just a consumer.

After spending several years of my life in this mode, I had quite honestly gotten to a point of lethargy. It was easier to just go buy it from the store. In the mean while, food is being shipped farther and farther across the country to get to the consumer. It’s being grown and harvested by people that don’t receive a fair wage for their days work. To top it off, the farmers are spraying the plants with all different types of chemicals and fertilizers because they have to maximize their production to meet the demand of the consumer.

I went to my parents for a week this past summer to help on the farm. While I was there, my father took me to a field day. This is an event where a seed corn company brings in a few guest speakers to talk about the upcoming new technology in bio-engineering seeds, and usually involves a free meal. So, I was definitely going. While I was waiting in the buffet line, I overheard a gentleman behind me speaking to another fella. He was talking about his farm producing tomatoes that were being sold to Heinz. I asked him what he does to prevent blight on the tomatoes. (Blight is a airborne disease that infects tomato plants can cause them to die.) He said that he sprays his tomatoes 2 times a week with 3 different chemicals. I nearly fell over. I couldn’t believe that it would take so much to produce a tomato. I also couldn’t believe that for years, I didn’t care about the process of food production.

Some people will argue that we have to use these techniques (large industrial machinery and chemicals) to produce for the entire world.  For over half a century now we have been using these practices and the last I checked, world hunger hadn’t been solved. The only thing that has gotten better is the type of machines or chemicals farmers use, and subsequently the amount of destruction to the environment that those improvements do.

It’s a lack knowledge  and of not caring about how our food is produced  that has gotten us into the state that we currently find ourselves. We don’t really have any other options to buy food than at the local super market. Farmer’s markets are few and far between and honestly out of the way, or inconvenient at best. Large farms are thriving on government subsidies and loans, while the small farmer is being driven out of business. The cost to buy biologically engineered seeds is going up, and farmers are unable to keep back any seed from this year’s crop to plant next year. Saving seeds has been a right of the farmer since farming began. Now, they are not allowed to use this practice because Monsanto and other seed companies have copyrights on the bio-engineered seeds and can and will sue the farmer for theft.

There are only 2 ways that I can see to break this cycle. One is to create a separate economy. An economy that isn’t dependent upon shipping food all the way across the country or by purchasing seed from a large agri-business company like Monsanto, but on developing a relationship with local farmers. A farmer that a person can trust to produce food in ways that don’t hurt the environment or rely upon the use of chemicals to make production sustainable.

A good way to develop this relationship with a local farmer is by joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The organizations are typically family farms that grow vegetables, produce eggs, raise animals for meat, or cows for milk. A person can pay between $500-1000 depending on how much food you want to receive and get a fresh delivery every week from May - November. Google CSA and your town/city and I am sure you will find something close to where you live.

The second way that I can see us breaking out of this cycle is for us to grow it ourselves. Start our own garden. Produce our own food. Relieve some of the burden placed on the American farmer, or the underpaid Mexican farmer/migrant worker. Growing your own vegetables isn’t as difficult as you think.  It requires work and effort, but in the end, you have fresh, healthy food and that makes it worth it.

Fill that void for creativity that you have, by planning and starting your own garden. Find a sunny place in your yard and start today. If it’s winter where you live, start by composting. Do something. Do anything. Nothing is a choice that is not acceptable.