KarunaNews Story

France has an interesting new idea: part-time farming. A new tribe has been identified that wants the best of both worlds: city and country; laptop and the land; the digital and the manual. These young mold-breakers use the opportunities of technology and workplace flexibility for a hybrid lifestyle that fits today’s desire for meaning and money. Working the soil brings the rewards of physical labor, and a sense of purpose often missing from office work. By edging in gently to farming, they keep the financial assurance of a city salary, and the intellectual support of their urban social circle. “In the corporate world, there are more and more people questioning the meaning of what they are doing. There’s an awful lot of burn-out and anxiety,” says Julien Maudet, data-engineer and cider-maker. “On the farm, you don’t have to ask. It’s obvious why you’re doing it. It’s to produce food for people. But you’re doing it in conditions that are often very uncertain and risky. These two worlds - the farm and the office - are in crisis. And it dawned on me that each is the solution to the other. What we need to do is bring the two worlds together.”