virtual farming and the educated eater: trends we need to capitalize on somehow.

"Jamie Lynn found a lonely black sheep on her farm.
Marcia got an apple tree from Charmaine.
Tiffany bought a harvester".

Fron the Weds. Globe and Mail

"Three of the site's (facebook) top 15 fastest-growing applications are now farming related: FarmVille, Farm Town and (Lil) Farm Life.

The sites allow users to grow and harvest their own crops, customize their farms with scarecrows, streams and hedges, and send gifts, like wheat and hogs, to their friends.

FarmVille doubled its active users from 16 million at the beginning of August to more than 32 million by the end of the month. Farm Town boasted nearly 19 million users and 1,100,000 fans, from Pakistan to Hoboken, N.J. "


Read the story

But still I wonder...do they have virtual fresh cow shit, flies, crop failures or transgenic encroachment, factory farms?...any of this on these sites. I'm guessing not. Anyone know this...world?

Perhaps if we match this fascination with a farm ideal with the new breed of eater describes so well by Dave Murphy in the Nation recently we can get somewhere.

" a new breed of eater awakening to the fact that food is not just something of convenience, a balancing of flavor and calories and macronutrients, but part of a larger conversation about how our nation's democracy functions. For this generation, the idea that we can have a positive impact on the environment, a farmer's life, rural communities and the welfare of animals by what we choose to eat is only the beginning. Increasingly, Americans want to know where the food they eat comes from, how it was grown and who grew it, because they are beginning to understand the connection between our stomachs and our common destiny".

67 virtual farm addicts, throngs of new eaters awakening...Its a culture that needs the real living soil.