WINNIPEG, MB
Mennonites in urban areas across North America who long to return to the pastoral days of their youth, but find the hours and smell a little unpleasant, have been role-playing the life of a farmer for the past few years on a popular smartphone app called ‘Farmville.’
“It’s a great way to pretend to be a farmer, but without having to get up at 5 to milk the cows,” says Martha Dueck of Winnipeg. “I’ve invited all my Facebook friends to play it.”
Dueck claims that too many city Mennonites these days are cut off from the food they eat and need to reestablish that connection to the land.
“This app is a great way to do it,” said Dueck. “I usually invite and then repeatedly re-invite people to play the game after they reject my initial invitation. I can be pretty persistent, but that’s only because I believe so strongly in the simple agrarian lifestyle that Farmville can delude us into thinking we’re living.”
In the meantime, increasing numbers of farm Mennonites are fantasizing about living in the city where they’ll have enough leisure time to play Farmville.
(Photo credit: by tarikgore1 
