Leaving the City for the Farm: A ‘Shameful but Useful’ Escape?
A Note from Foodthink
We hope the selected participants for the second intake will embark on their journey with these questions in mind, come fully prepared, and begin their first stop back to the countryside at the internship farm!
What was the most immediate change the farm internship brought to your life?
Cui Jingwen
Intern at Yinlin Farm, March-June 2022
Now a new ‘villager’ of Yinlin Village
Looking back now, joining the internship programme was a huge step in restarting my life.
I grew up in the city, and although I had some experience working in rural areas, I had spent very little time actually living in the countryside. I had never worked the land, couldn’t even recognise the vegetables in the field, and knew absolutely nothing about ecological farming—but once I arrived at the farm, I was completely hooked. I began to pay attention to food and to life itself; as a result, life felt more tangible. My gut can now distinguish between different types of food; if I eat in the city now, my stomach definitely feels uncomfortable.
During my time interning at the farm, I spent a lot of time thinking about ecological farming, cultivation, and food—for instance, what we should be eating and when, and the state of the food during different seasons. The greatest sense of artificiality in city life is the belief that anything can be bought with money. But when you truly deal with the land, you realise that caring for the soil and crops is full of challenges. When abnormal weather means you cannot have certain foods, you begin to cherish them.
When I first arrived at the farm last year, it happened to be the tomato harvest season. By April, when the tomatoes were gone, I thought: ‘Great, I’ve had so many that I never want to see another tomato again.’ Yet when December came and I could finally eat tomatoes again, I felt a sudden, intense surge of joy—something that is completely impossible to experience while working in the city.
Through the farm, you also meet many wonderful and unique people. Take our farm owner, Guo Rui, for example; he was actually willing to return to the countryside to start a farm and pursue ecological agriculture while everyone else was choosing the city. In the current climate, this is still a very unconventional choice. It made me realise that there is another way to live—that I can live a fulfilling life without spending every waking moment thinking about making money. This opened up a new direction for my life.
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Is the farm internship exhausting? How does it differ from the ‘996’ culture of urban youth?
Zhang Bin
Intern at Zhiliangtian Ecological Farm, Feb–Aug 2022
A former student of the Guangzhou Practical School, now a young entrepreneur returning to his roots.
I spent about six months at the farm, helping with the sowing, weeding, and watering of muskmelons, millet, maize, potatoes, and pumpkins. The person in charge of production, “Captain Zhao”, was my mentor. He is a wonderful man, and from him, I learned perseverance and strength. “The Captain” taught me so many things: how to drive a tractor, operate a forklift, fix the plumbing and electrics, and even cook… Whenever he was away, I was the one handling these jobs.
Working on the farm was certainly exhausting. Every day, I headed out to the fields with the other workers. Most of them were in their fifties or sixties, but having spent half their lives farming, they were incredibly fast—sometimes I couldn’t even keep up. Although I’ve never worked in a city office, I feel that in terms of sheer physical exertion, it is harder than ‘996’, because the crops in the field don’t give us any holidays. Whether it’s wind or rain, day or night, they need looking after every single day.
Personally, despite the exhaustion, I was very happy. During my time in Alxa, it was mostly sunny; the skies were a deep blue and the horizon felt endless. In the evenings, I could see the sunset resting on the edge of the desert. I felt almost no anxiety at the farm; my days were spent tending to the plants I’d planted, watching the muskmelons grow from sprouts to flowers and finally to fruit. In my spare time, I’d read or occasionally play cards with the elderly women who worked there.
I had previously studied at the Guangzhou Practical School with the goal of returning home to pursue agriculture, but at the time, I didn’t really understand the current state of the industry. After my internship, I gained a much deeper understanding. I used to know that cow dung in our pastoral regions could be used for fuel, but I never imagined it would be far more effective in the soil than chemical fertilisers. I also compared the traditional farming of my hometown with ecological agriculture, hoping to preserve the best parts of the traditional ways while reforming the parts that are no longer effective.
Finally, a word to the next batch of interns: Agriculture is indeed hard work, but if it were too easy, there would be no challenge. So, as long as you love it, just go for it!
Related reading ▼
Is interning on a farm a case of “escapism is shameful but useful”? What is real agriculture actually like?
Li Yu
Intern at Letian Bay Farm, Feb 2022
Currently exploring new ways of living
I grew up in a village, so farming wasn’t particularly novel to me. In the past, I only helped my grandparents with simple chores. However, once I truly engaged with agriculture, I realised there is so much to learn—what to plant in which season, how to plant it, and how to plan the land. It is far more complex than I had previously imagined.
Why did I want to join the farm internship? To be honest, while in my previous job, I often found myself reflecting on my future and wanting a different way of life, which is when I came across organic farming. I feel that culture and value systems act like a filter of reality; they create a temporary state of hypnosis that allows one to indulge in many fantasies.
But when those fantasies are put to the test in reality, the practicalities can leave you feeling conflicted. Many people may be like me, joining the internship because they want to change careers or shift their lifestyle. But I would say: don’t overthink it. My mentor at the farm, Teacher Yuan, told me the same. Once you actually engage with agriculture, your thinking and perceptions will naturally evolve.
After spending a long time in agriculture and living in the countryside, returning to the city can sometimes bring a sense of urgency. In contrast, the countryside feels open, allowing you to immerse yourself completely in the rhythm of life and work. However, we must all eventually face the choices we make in the later stages of our lives; there is no escaping them. Interning at a farm is simply choosing a different environment in which to decide your direction in life; it cannot solve the fundamental life questions that we all must eventually confront.
Related Reading ▼
Before heading to the farm, what is the most important preparation to make?
Li Chenzhao
Intern at Yuefengdao Organic Farm, June 2022
Aspiring to be someone who understands agriculture and loves the farmers and the countryside.
At Yuefengdao Farm, where I interned, a lot of work is done on heritage seed conservation; my primary focus and learning were in the area of crop cultivation. In terms of methodology, agriculture is a comprehensive technical system involving many stages and diverse fields of knowledge. It requires both a keen eye for detail and a holistic understanding of the entire system.
My mentors at the farm often told me that what is learned at any one farm is only applicable to that specific farm’s geographical environment, its current scale of production, and its level of technology. The techniques employed are localized; nothing we learn can be blindly copied and pasted elsewhere.
After six months of interning, my takeaway is that everyone arrives at the farm with their own existing knowledge structure and personality traits; we are already mature, complete individuals. Upon arriving, one must be able to actively design their own learning process and have clear, personal goals. Otherwise, if you simply follow in others’ footsteps, the experience may not truly suit you. For example, when it comes to weeding, a farmer and a biologist see different things. What you see depends on you, not on the farm you visit.
Furthermore, a farm mentor is someone who imparts knowledge and, more importantly, resolves doubts. Only by practising, reflecting, and gaining knowledge—thereby generating your own questions—can you gain more from your interactions with a mentor. Only then can you engage with them as an equal, allowing you both to truly learn and grow together. If you come knowing nothing, you will leave having learned nothing.
These few months of interning at the farm have been a precious time in my life; it is essential to cherish the time and effort invested. I hope everyone finds success in their studies!
Agriculture is not a romanticised pastoral idyll, nor is agroecology a simple return to tradition. For ecological farmers and young people returning to the countryside, farming is an exploration of sustainable ecology and living, a curiosity about the unknown, a reverence for life and nature, and a responsibility to family and community.
We hope that the young people selected for the second intake of the internship programme will bring fresh energy to the farms, while gaining invaluable experience from their mentors in farm management, production techniques, and marketing. This will help reduce the learning curve and the cost of trial and error for those who may eventually start their own rural ventures, allowing them to inspire one another and grow together within a collaborative learning network of peers.
Please stay tuned for further updates on Foodthink’s agroecology internship programme!
Compiled by: Yan Ou
Edited by: Ze En