Imagine if there was a dearth in farmers. Nobody wanted to farm. It was too hard. People wanted to be accountants. It made more financial sense! Universities promoted accounting and so did governments, Tiger Moms, Boomer Conservatives. There were scholarships, flattering job offers, shows about accountants on Netflix.
Soon there were a lot of affluent professionals everywhere, but they found they were going home to empty fridges. Suddenly they couldn’t find avocados or eggs anywhere. Although they had cash to blow on tapas and drinks, Brunch started to deteriorate. A few resolute farmers tried in vain to alert people to the necessity of farming, as a precondition for accounting you might say, but they were shouted down!
“Accountants are ontologically equal to farmers!” pastors preached and bloggers blogged. “Farmers farm food!” the farmers pointed out, feeling silly because of how obvious and unsophisticated this statement was. The accountants started to complain on social media platforms that the farmers were being haughty. "Idolatry of Farming" articles were reposted.
“Food grown on farms is just one of many ways to get food. You can also get food from the government or from a lab”, they maintained, tummies grumbling. Christian accountants mumbled something about "spiritual food" being a thing too.
“How are we even supposed to begin to farm”, some of the hungry accountants asked, “when our parents sold our grandad's ranch?”
The farmers said "How about you come and help on weekends? Maybe we could set something up and you could learn some skills that might help you in the future."
“We are not your cheap labour!” some of them responded, but others were intrigued … maybe this could work, they thought. Maybe it’s not too late.