[ExI] Farmville for real

[Richard Loosemore]

spike wrote:
>> ... On Behalf Of BillK
> Subject: [ExI] Farmville for real
> 
>> Spike mentioned a project to allow Farmville players to try their skills on
> a real-life farm.
> A trial project is now starting up in the UK.
> 
> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13276102>
> 
>> It was partly inspired by the online Facebook game Farmville and follows
> the example of Ebbsfleet Football Club which is run on a similar basis.
> Decisions about the running of the team in Kent has been in the hands of
> MyFootballClub subscribers since 2008. ---- BillK
> 
> 
> Thanks BillK, this gets me half way there.  A story in Mark Twain's Tom
> Sawyer has Tom recruiting the local kids to do the job he was assigned and
> pay him for the privilege of doing it.  In general and depending on the
> circumstances, farming in America on a small scale isn't profitable, so in
> many if not most cases, the farmer must pay to do that kind of work.  Most
> real farmers have another paying job unrelated to farming, and live on
> dreams of making it big, which they seldom do.  
> 
> Since it is so educational and helps connect them with the food on their
> plate and all that, my goal is to figure out how to convince the Farmville
> community to operate my farm and pay me for the opportunity.  I think there
> is a buttload of money to be made here. 

Uh, Spike, I hate to come across as the world expert on farming here, 
but I am not sure you are really in touch with the way it actually works 
on the ground.

Small farms ARE profitable.  They set up a filthy, almost-collapsing 
house somewhere on the farm, then get a couple of dozen undocumented 
immigrants from Guatamala to come live in it.  These folks then work in 
shifts, all day, all night, seven days a week, for wages so low that 
some of them have to get second jobs to make enough to send home.

Then the farmer makes a fortune, builds the biggest McMansion that this 
part of the world has ever seen, gets cable installed, and sits back to 
enjoy life.

Don't believe it?  Hey, come visit!  I can put you up in the barn. :-)


Richard Loosemore