"A farm is a place where animals live" is the most common answer of any 3-5 year old urban Indian kid in reply to "What is a farm?" question. I wondered for many days about what could be the reason for this and finally it dawned on me to blame our good "Old McDonald". This farmer keeps nothing but animals in his farm!
A Poultry Farm or a Sheep Farm comes to the minds of many people when the "Farm" word is mentioned. Few others think of places where vegetables are grown.
There is another category of people for whom a farm is a place for fun and frolic amidst greenery and fresh air. Of course the definition of "fun n frolic" varies from person to person.
Many others value a farm as a place where one can observe and learn a lot of things that they have read about in their schools. They are comfortable with the bugs, insects, reptiles, birds, animals etc that are found in a farm. There are a few who consider farm as a muddy place where you will find yucky things like - what else? - bugs, insects, reptiles, birds, animals etc and animal poop!
These are just different perspectives of a farm and none of them is wrong or right! For example, anyone who expects to breathe fresh clean air gets disappointed when he/she enters a commercial farm where high quantity of chemicals are used for farming.
What is my idea of a farm? It is a place where our food is grown in a healthy way. Ideally, it should be a place where we grow (and prepare) everything we eat (and conversely, eat what we grow). It could be grains and pulses, vegetable and fruits, spices, nuts, flowers, dairy, mushrooms and animals as per our food habits. The priority should be on becoming self-sufficient but any excess amount can be sold. A farm should also be a place where we nurture the nature at least in a small way because the idea of "farming" is an anti-thesis for nature. As the old saying goes, the nature started getting spoilt from the day man started farming. Although it is true a large extent, farming has now become a necessary evil and responsible farming close to nature is what we should strive for.
Interestingly, many people spell and pronounce "Farm" as "Form" and "Farmer" as "Former". And I prefer the former! 😀
