Fancy a place on the farm?

[Skippy]

I saw this come up on another forum i use . I'm all for what might be called self contained self sufficient communities but i'm afraid i have my cynical head on about this one . Apologies for the link being from the daily fail.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... l#comments
Just as an aside i feel they could have left the politics out of it. How he votes or to which party he owes allegiance is irrelevant in my eyes. Doomers can and do come in all political colours. I'm more cynical about the costs which i see as a money making exercise and that the farm itself looks more like a regular farm with all it's reliance on diesel and fertilizer inputs rather than some self sufficient utopia. I also wonder if anyone with the disposable income to live there is also the type of person who currently has a garden full of potatoes and cabbages.

[Green Aura]

I didn't get past the title, skippy. What an appalling idea.

It reminds me of the Ben Elton book, Stark.

[Skippy]

Oh i agree it doesn't seem a wonderful idea to me either although it does make an interesting read. Unfortunately i don't move in the right circles so i don't know anyone who might have the wherewithall to afford a place . The cheapest place is £10,000 per person per year so presumbably those paying the £100,000 wouldhave a better accomodation and more land (?) but i tend to think the price is get a "better class" of person moving in , that is to say a barrier to those who could actually make it work

[ina]

Only proves if you have a lot of money it'll be easier to survive... Weird.

[Weedo]

Could be done (mostly) oil seed cropping to produce bio-diesel for the equipment, solar/wind etc. power - ethanol from grains and "waste" materials and so on - for $A200,000 pa I would let someone try on my place.

However, the modern farm machinery presents a bit of a problem; most of the stuff produced in the last 10 years or so is very dependent of computer technology to make it run (engine & fuel management systems, drive by wire gearing, all lighting and monitoring etc.). This stuff seems to have an effective life of around 10-15 years without significant issues - mostly from the materials the electronics are made from breaking down - fairly difficult to grow a new microchip from seed.