Neo-agrarianism

I've decided I want to be a farmer. On the face of it, this is ridiculous. Both my wife and I grew up in cities; neither of us has ever lived in anything that could be called a rural community. I will grant that Los Alamos is small, but it is certainly not rural. Also, I have a PhD. In physics. And, I'm addicted to technology.

These last couple of points, especially, might seem to indicate that I wouldn't be a ready convert to agrarianism. But, for some reason, I find the agrarian ideal very appealing. I have recently just finished Wendell Berry's book Citizenship Papers and while he starts off discussing Liberty and Security, and Government, he eventually gets around to his favorite topic, which is Agrarianism. To his credit, the multitude of topics he covers in the 19 essays in that slim volume are all related; Liberty and Security are deeply tied to Government and Economics, and Economics is the point on which America today diverges from Berry's agrarian ideal. Reading the book, one doesn't feel as though the topic has changed---rather, one feels that the essays comment on the same bad situation, but in different arenas and with different players. The dynamic is the same.

So here is my plan: Become a professor at some small college or university in New England. Buy land in the neighborhood, suitable for farming, and teach by day and farm by night. If we rise to the level of not needing my teaching income, we can reevaluate, but I enjoy teaching so much that I don't think that is going to be an issue.