History Main / TheSimpleLifeIsSimple

** While a lot of it is his own inexperience and over-reliance on book learnin', his job is made a lot harder by [[VillainProtagonist his neighbours]], who dam up a spring that drains onto his land, hoping to drive him off so they can buy him out cheaply; and by the villagers, who knew about the neighbours' plan but didn't tell, partly out of cowardice, partly out of disdain towards "the stranger". The man is eventually killed after trying to dig out a spring with explosives.
** Gets ''even worse'' later once it's revealed the man was actually [[spoiler:the long-lost son of the neighbor]], meaning he was responsible for the death of [[spoiler:the heir he so desperately wanted]].

* The player characters in ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon''/''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons'' series frequently fall into this. They often come from the city to start the farm after getting a letter--in the majority of games, this is a farm that belonged to a late grandfather, making them two generations removed from farm life. In ''[[VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons2014 Story of Seasons]]'' they just applied after getting a flier. Regardless, they arrive and pick up farm life within the span of a season at most, already knowing how to milk cows and plant seeds and thriving on the farm from the get-go. (''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons2014'' does have the player do a six-day "tutorial" with Eda, but after than they're on their own.)

* Funny enough it's averted in ''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons2014''--but not by the player character. Fritz, the poorer farmer, moved out to the country to farm just on a whim similar to the player character. However he's not doing so hot compared to rivals Elise and Giorgio. He always struggles to run his farm, has a lot less crops, a smaller and more ramshackle house, only a few cows or chickens, and never has enough money to truly challenge anyone during the rival events. He's got the spirit, but he's not doing so hot overall.

* While it's mainly baking with farming on the side, King Roland from ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'' believes this, so much that when he accidentally wishes that he was a baker instead of a king, he wants to stay for a while rather than undo the spell. What happens is a SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome, and the family fails to adapt, with them only getting by because Sofia and her mother have actual farming and baking experience from their pre-royalty life.
* The Canadian animated short ''Wild Life'' tells the story of a young RemittanceMan who has this impression of life as a rancher on the prairie. [[spoiler:He doesn't survive his first winter.]]

* Many settlers of Canada (and other colonial countries) experienced this trope first hand. As 19th-century settler Susannah Moodie describes it in her memoirs ''Roughing it in the Bush'': "[Advertisements for colonial farming] told of lands yielding forty bushels to the acre, but they said nothing of the years when these lands, with the most careful cultivation, would barely return fifteen; when rust and smut, engendered by the vicinity of damp over-hanging woods, would blast the fruits of the poor emigrant's labour, and almost deprive him of bread. They talked of log houses to be raised in a single day, by the generous exertions of friends and neighbours, but they never ventured upon a picture of the disgusting scenes of riot and low debauchery exhibited during the raising, or upon a description of the dwellings when raised--dens of dirt and misery, which would, in many instances, be shamed by an English pig-sty. The necessaries of life were described as inestimably cheap; but they forgot to add that in remote bush settlements, often twenty miles from a market town, and some of them even that distance from the nearest dwelling, the necessaries of life, which would be deemed indispensable to the European, could not be procured at all, or, if obtained, could only be so by sending a man and team through a blazed forest road,--a process far too expensive for frequent repetition."
* The Khmer Rouge tried to reshape Cambodia into a self-sufficient agrarian society, including forcing millions of city-dwellers into agricultural labor camps. The result was up to two million dead.

* ''Series/FrontierHouse'': Three modern-day families try to establish homesteads in Montana the way pioneers in 1883 would have lived. After filming from June to October, a panel of historical experts were called to judge which homesteads would survive the winter. All three families were found to have insufficient firewood, one didn't have enough food for themselves or the livestock, and one, while physically prepared, was crippled by [[DysfunctionJunction developing domestic strife]].

HaHaHaNo. Not at all. This misconception of farming shows up fairly often in fiction-- usually from a character (or writer) who's a CityMouse.

* 'Series/FrontierHouse'': Three modern-day families try to establish homesteads in Montana the way pioneers in 1883 would have lived. After filming from June to October, a panel of historical experts were called to judge which homesteads would survive the winter. All three families were found to have insufficient firewood, one didn't have enough food for themselves or the livestock, and one, while physically prepared, was crippled by [[DysfunctionJunction developing domestic strife]].

And surely we'd have no trouble doing so. Farming is [[CommonKnowledge well known]] to be simple. You don't even have to go to college to run a farm, let alone work on one. Sure, of course it's ''hard work''. But it's not ''complicated''. We could totally do it if we just buckled down.

* PBS historical reality show ''Series/FrontierHouse'' showed three modern-day families trying to establish homesteads in Montana the way pioneers in 1883 would have lived. After filming from June to October, a panel of historical experts were called to judge which homesteads would survive the winter. All three families were found to have insufficient firewood, one didn't have enough food for themselves or the livestock, and one, while physically prepared, was crippled by [[DysfunctionJunction developing domestic strife]].

%%(Needs more information) * The farmers in ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' sometimes fall into this.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Mists of Pandaria'' has the farming community of Tillers, where the player can have their own farm. It's based on a simple minigame, with farming of course being much easier than in RealLife. Given a HandWave by the powerfully rich soil (enhanced by the water from the Vale of Eternal Blossoms) of the zone, and on that plot of land in particular.
** Justified with the garrison herb garden in ''Warlords of Draenor'', though. You don't grow the herbs yourself, the garrison staff does it for you. You can also assign a follower with the herbalism special to it to increase your yield, thus delegating to an expert.

HaHaHaNo. Not at all. This misconception of farming shows up fairly often in fiction-- usually as a result of a character (or writer) being a CityMouse.

In fact, farming is extremely complicated. A farmer working a diversified farm has to be a highly skilled generalist with specific, situation-relevant knowledge from a dozen different [[{{Pun}} fields]], from botany to meteorology to mechanics to veterinary medicine to chemistry to entomology. What's more, a mistake or bad luck (such as a late frost) can spell disaster: a ruined crop can't be fixed, and can't be replaced ''until next year''. There ''can'' be long stretches of leisure time, but this is because you can't speed up either the plants, the animals or the seasons. And many farmers need other jobs to pay the bills during those times. [[Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion Garrison Keillor's]] farmers in Lake Wobegon speak of these things often and give you a much more realistic idea of what it's like.

It also often appears in adventure stories where the wandering hero earns his keep at local farms as he passes through[[note]]Does not apply, of course, if said [[FarmBoy hero]] or [[FarmersDaughter heroine]] already knows how, or is a quick study as in ''Film/{{Witness}}''[[/note]]. This trope is the basis of {{Arcadia}}, where farming is idyllic and pleasant as well as simple, and may show up when a character is [[CallToAgriculture Called To Agriculture]]. A SlowLifeFantasy will also play it straight, though those protagonists often have magical powers that make their work easier.

* Farming in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' is far, far easier than in RealLife- for instance, you can make your crops grow on demand by adding bone meal. There are also very few pests to deal with that can't be kept away with a simple fence, plants are ready to harvest mere days after planting, and they can be grown indoors lit only with torchlight. As for livestock, they only need to be fed when the player wants them to breed (and they'll give birth instantly), they never become aggressive or defiant (not that they can be used for much more than meat), and they're all hermaphrodites so there's no juggling amounts of them per sex. Somewhat {{enforced|Trope}} in this as in other video games, since games are intended to be... what was that word again... ''fun''.
* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'', despite the complications of being in a city where the sun is blocked by a giant rock ceiling, necessitating artificial light for crops, most of the farmers seem happy and enthusiastic about their work... because the only other job is demon hunting, which is extremely dangerous. Farming may be hard, but it's much easier in comparison.

* ''VideoGame/SunshineAcres'' is less about a farm than a backyard produce garden. Starting with a basic investment, you grow sunflowers, corn, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in ascending levels of complexity, aided by a Boston terrier puppy who digs up more money that's been buried all over the property. Various equipment becomes available to make things easier. By planning your strategy and investments just right, you can end up with millions. The atmosphere is intriguing, occasionally frustrating (especially the occasional epidemic requiring fungicides, and those damn sheep running in to eat everything) but overall relaxing.

* UsefulNotes/JimJones's Jonestown: the cult leader tried to create his own self-sufficient agricultural village where everyone worked in the fields. The vanguard actually did pretty well for themselves when sent on ahead to get Jonestown started, but the poor soil's output couldn't feed the entire cult once it showed up, and there were other problems like storms destroying crops and mass disease outbreaks. And eventually, a depraved cult leader hoarding what food they ''did'' successfully produce.

* This was one of the ways the U.S. government tried to solve the "Indian problem": if them dang lazy Indians were given plots of land and taught to farm and worship Christ, they would be more easily assimilated as "productive" members of Anglo society. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_on_the_prehistoric_Great_Plains Many Native Americans grew their own crops]] long before the Anglos got here, and many were fine with Christianity[[note]]observing numerous similarities between Christian and traditional virtues, to the point that [[Literature/BlackElkSpeaks Nick Black Elk]] became a Catholic catechist and is now up for sainthood[[/note]] but the disastrous reservation breakup of 1890 was an attempt to get the roaming, hunter-gatherer Plains nations to do the same. The problem, again, was the land: that region is just not suitable for prosperous farming, but the Indians were blamed and the government cut their rations. Since the American Bison had already been virtually wiped out, you now had thousands of starving Indian people. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Massacre 1890 Ghost Dance tragedy]] arose out of this situation.
* Hugely subverted in the late [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]]. When the Soviet authorities started to allot the general city population small plots of land for hobby farming (and we mean ''small'' -- they were usually 600 square meters, or about 0.15 acres), the city population, armed with general curiosity, hundreds of tomes on modern agriculture, a desire to escape the dreary boredom and horrible quality of official produce, took to the farming with such gusto that within a decade the (unofficial) output of these plots begun to outstrip the output of the official, state-managed agriculture in some areas, especially vegetable production, despite most of these people having a day job and tending their suburban plots only on weekends. It spells volumes on the inefficiency of the official Soviet agriculture, but also about the intensity with which these {{City Mouse}}s cultivated their land.

* This is the main criticism that people from rural or farming backgrounds have made against the "cottagecore" aesthetic trend, as it's mainly popular among teens and young adults who have never actually maintained farms or lived in the countryside without technology (which, obviously, is what's needed to post about cottagecore to begin with). Cottagecore on its face is all about celebrating the beauty of rustic life (wildflowers, berry picking, gardening, sewing dresses, etc.), without going into the downsides and hardships of such a lifestyle to begin with (the inherent difficulties of farm labor, cleaning up after the animals, harvesting crops every season, etc.). Because of this, critics contend that the movement trivializes farmers' hard work and sends the false message that living a simple, closer to nature life is easy when it is anything but.

In fact, farming is extremely complicated. A farmer working a diversified farm has to be a highly skilled generalist with specific, situation-relevant knowledge from a dozen different [[{{Pun}} fields]], from botany to meteorology to mechanics to veterinary medicine to chemistry to entomology. What's more, a mistake or bad luck (such as a late frost) can spell disaster: a ruined crop can't be fixed, and can't be replaced ''until the next year''. There ''can'' be long stretches of leisure time, but this is because you can't speed up either the plants, the animals or the seasons. And many farmers need other jobs to pay the bills during those times. [[Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion Garrison Keillor's]] farmers in Lake Wobegon speak of these things often and give you a much more realistic idea of what it's like.

If a character who has no experience farming takes to running a farm without a noticeable learning curve, that is this trope. In the case of a hobby or "gentleman farmer", who's merely farming for fun with little or no economic pressure, the learning curve can be less steep. If a character with no experience farming has to do some farmwork and does it with no training, no practice, and no trouble, that is also this trope.

It also often appears in adventure stories where the wandering hero earns his keep at local farms as he passes through[[note]]Does not apply, of course, if said [[FarmBoy hero]] or [[FarmersDaughter heroine]] already knows how, or is a quick study as in ''Film/{{Witness}}''[[/note]]. This trope is the basis of {{Arcadia}}, where farming is idyllic and pleasant as well as simple, and may show up when a character is [[CallToAgriculture Called To Agriculture]]. A SlowLifeFantasy will also play it straight, though those protagonists often have magic powers that make their work easier.

As we seek ways to solve global warming and the despoiling of natural resources, we may believe that small organic farms selling produce at farmers' markets, etc. are the answer. But most people can't afford to buy land and make the necessary investments. And most people, especially low-income workers who want but can't afford nutritious food, ''can't'' "just" quit their jobs and move out to the country. Community gardens and urban gardening/farming as [[https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2020-07-10/gardening-with-gangsta-gardener-and-masterclass-teacher-ron-finley Ron Finley]] teaches are more realistic, and closer to what was done in cities as recently as a century ago (which is why you'll see chickens and goats in old movies that take place in, say, San Francisco or Brooklyn).

* Volunteer Marek (a journalist and writer in his civilian life) in ''Literature/TheGoodSoldierSvejk'' tells basically the same tale as Mark Twain's one mentioned above, only about a zoological almanac. Which is, as Marek is generally a Hašek's AuthorAvatar, BasedOnATrueStory.

* In Creator/JohnRingo's 2008 ''Literature/TheLastCenturion'', the titular 1st person narrator is a farmer, and goes on a long spiel about how complex real farming is, especially when done on the production scale necessary to feed the world. His comments on organic farming, and city people who want to "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-to-the-land_movement get back to the land]]", are equally pointed, and none too complimentary.

* 16-17th century English Pastoral literature was often like this, most famously the early example of Creator/ChristopherMarlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love", in which the only reference to actual shepherding is that he will "pull" the wool from lambs[[note]]This is actually possible depending on the breed. When sheep begin shedding, you can gently pull their wool right off them. It's called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8hp-rngcEA rooing]] and it's less stressful for the sheep than shearing. Honest-to-God ''woolgathering'' is collecting wool from bushes and fences as shedding sheep rubbed against them. It may have ''looked'' like aimless wandering or seemed nonproductive. Music/PattiSmith has something to say about this in her memoir ''Woolgathering''.[[/note]] to make his Love's gown. Apart from that, they're mostly going to sit around admiring the countryside. Sir Walter Raleigh's AnswerSong "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" is rather scathing about the impracticality of it all.

* Subverted on ''Series/TheFabulousBeekmanBoys'' - they believe farming life is like this, but it turns out to be much harder than they think.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' takes place in an irradiated post-apocalyptic wasteland, yet any settler can farm with ease, even those who are known to have no experience (such as most companions). You can also feed people with absurdly small areas of soil, such as a single small suburban lawn. NPC farmers talk about the hard work they're doing, but not about any difficulties with ensuring crop success. Given that this game also lets you [[MacGyvering build complex machinery out of random household junk]], it might be more that The Protagonist's Life Is Simple.

* Justified in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse''. Despite the complications being in a city where the sun doesn't shine due to a giant rock ceiling [[spoiler: until Shesha destroys part of it]] and needing to use artificial light for crops, most of the farmers seem happy and enthusiastic about their work. Of course, the only other job is demon hunting, which has a very high mortality rate. Farming may be hard, but it's much easier in comparison.

* ''VideoGame/SunshineAcres'' is less about a farm than a backyard produce garden. Starting with a basic investment, you grow sunflowers, corn, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in ascending levels of complexity, aided by a Boston terrier puppy who digs up more money that's been buried all over the property. Various equipment becomes available to make things easier. By planning your strategy and investments just right, you can end up with millions. The attitude is intriguing, occasionally frustrating (especially the occasional epidemic requiring fungicides, and those damn sheep running in to eat everything) but overall relaxing.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Mists of Pandaria'' has the farming community of Tillers, where the player can have their own farm. It's based on simple minigame, with farming of course being much easier than in RealLife. Given a HandWave by the powerfully rich soil (enhanced by the water from the Vale of Eternal Blossoms) of the zone, and on that plot of land in particular.

* UsefulNotes/JimJones's Jonestown: the cult leader tried to create his own self-sufficient agricultural village where everyone worked in the fields. Though the vanguard actually did pretty well for themselves when sent on ahead to do this alone, their food output was overwhelmed when the rest of the cult showed up, and they faced other problems like storms destroying crops and mass disease outbreaks. And eventually, a depraved cult leader hoarding what crops they ''did'' successfully produce.

* James Burke's documentary ''Series/{{Connections}}'' points out that a lot of urbanites believe they could survive an apocalypse if they got out of the city fast enough; after all, they could just find an abandoned part of land and start farming. Yeah... no. There's a reason that serious believers in the end of the world start building their colonies so early (and, thus, resources like night classes, mail order catalogs, and the Internet are all still up and running). There won't be time to learn later.
* This is the main criticism people from rural or farming backgrounds have made against the "cottagecore" aesthetic trend, as it's mainly popular among teens and young adults who have never actually maintained farms or lived in the countryside without technology (which, obviously, is what's needed to post about cottagecore to begin with). Cottagecore on its face is all about celebrating the beauty of rustic life (wildflowers, berry picking, gardening, sewing dresses, etc.), without going into the downsides and hardships of such a lifestyle to begin with (the inherent difficulties of farm labor, cleaning up after the animals, harvesting crops every season, etc.). Because of this, critics contend that the movement trivializes farmers' hard work and sends the false message that living a simple, closer to nature life is easy when it is anything but.

* The Disney Channel Original Movie ''Film/HorseSense'' has a lazy and spoiled city boy being sent by his parents to Montana to work on his aunt's farm as punishment for his terrible behavior when his cousin came to visit. Both the cousin and the farm workers don't think much of the city boy and give him "simple" tasks, which he is having a lot of trouble with. Of course, the cousin deliberately withholds information that could vastly simplify those tasks (e.g. telling the city boy to move a pile of manure from one place to another, "forgetting" to mention a tractor behind the shed).

** While a lot of it is his own inexperience and over-reliance on book learnin', his job is made a lot harder by [[VillainProtagonist his neighbours]], who dam up a spring that drains onto his land, hoping to drive him off so they can buy him out cheaply; and by the villagers, who knew about the neighbours' plan, but didn't talk part out of cowardice, part out of disdain towards "the stranger". The man is eventually killed after trying to dig out a spring with explosives.

* In Creator/JohnRingo's 2008 ''Literature/TheLastCenturion'', the titular 1st person narrator is a farmer, and goes on a long length about how complex real farming is, especially when done on the production scale necessary to feed the world. His comments on organic farming, and city people who want to "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-to-the-land_movement get back to the land]]", are equally pointed, and none too complimentary.

%%(ZCE) * The farmers in ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' sometimes fall into this.
* Farming in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' is far, far easier than in RealLife- for instance, you can make your crops grow on demand by adding bone meal. There are also very few pests to deal with that can't be kept away with a simple fence, they're ready to harvest mere days after planting rather than taking several weeks, and they can be grown indoors lit only with torchlight. As for livestock, they only need to be fed when the player wants them to breed (and they'll give birth instantly), they never become aggressive or defiant (not that they can be used for much more than meat), and they're all hermaphrodites so there's no juggling amounts of them per sex. Somewhat {{enforced|Trope}} in this as in other video games, since games are intended to be... what was that word again... ''fun''.

[[quoteright:200:[[Webcomic/NerfNow https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/imgsug_4.png]]]]

Everyone knows about farming. It's simple and picturesque, right? It happens in the country, where there's grass and trees and fields. Farmers are simple, hard-working people who till the soil, with a tractor if they're modern or a plow if they're historical. They grow crops, raise animals, sell their produce, and live an honest, healthy life among nature, free from the troubles of modernity. [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife If we were less addicted to the internet]], [[CallToAgriculture we'd probably all go join them.]]

And surely we'd have no trouble doing so. Farmwork is [[CommonKnowledge well known]] to be unskilled labor. You don't even have to go to college to run a farm, let alone work on one. Sure, of course it's ''hard work''. But it's not ''complicated''. We could totally do it if we just buckled down.

In fact, farming is extremely complicated. A farmer working a diversified farm has to be a highly skilled generalist with specific, situation-relevant knowledge from a dozen different [[{{Pun}} fields]], from botany to meteorology to mechanics to veterinary medicine to chemistry to entomology. What's more, a mistake or bad luck (such as a late frost) can spell disaster: a ruined crop can't be fixed, and can't be replaced ''until the next year''. There can be long stretches of leisure time, but this is because you can't speed up either the plants, the animals or the seasons. And many farmers need to do other jobs to pay the bills during those times. [[Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion Garrison Keillor's]] farmers in Lake Wobegon speak of these things often and give you a much more realistic idea of what it's like.

The historical farmer didn't have it any easier; driving a tractor is considerably simpler than getting a mule to do exactly what you want it to. And that unskilled labor like hoeing and picking? Yes, anyone can do that. If a farmer's willing to hire them over an old hand who can do the work five to ten times faster.

If a character who has no experience farming takes to running a farm without a noticeable learning curve, that is this trope. In the case of a "gentleman" or hobby farmer, who's merely farming for fun with little or no economic pressure, the learning curve can be less steep. If a character with no experience farming has to do some farmwork and does it with no training, no practice, and no trouble, that is also this trope.

This trope is played straight in some TheCityVsTheCountry plots (where the [[AnAesop moral of the story]] is "city life is too complicated, you should get back to nature") and averted or subverted in others (where the moral is more like "everyone has his cross to bear"). It was also one of the driving forces behind the {{Commune}} movements of the 1960s and 70s[[note]]some of which succeeded and are still around[[/note]].

It's also often played straight in adventure stories where our wandering hero earns his keep at local farms as he passes through[[note]]Does not apply, of course, if said [[FarmBoy hero]] or [[FarmersDaughter heroine]] already knows how, or is a quick study as in ''Film/{{Witness}}''[[/note]]. This trope is also the basis of {{Arcadia}}, where farming is idyllic and pleasant as well as simple, and may show up when a character is [[CallToAgriculture Called To Agriculture]]. A SlowLifeFantasy will also play it straight, though those protagonists often have magic powers that make their work easier.

As we seek ways to solve global warming and the despoiling of natural resources, we may believe that small organic farms selling produce at farmers' markets etc. are the answer. But most people can't afford to buy land and make the necessary investments. And most people, especially low-income workers who want but can't afford nutritious food, ''can't'' "just" quit their jobs and move out to the country. Community gardens and urban gardening/farming as [[https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2020-07-10/gardening-with-gangsta-gardener-and-masterclass-teacher-ron-finley Ron Finley]] teaches are more realistic, and closer to what was done in cities as recently as a century ago (which is why you'll see chickens and goats in old movies that take place in, say, San Francisco or Brooklyn).

** While a lot of it is his own inexperience and over-reliance on book learnin', his job is made a lot harder by [[VillainProtagonist his neighbours]], who dam up a spring that drains onto his land, hoping to drive him off so they can buy him out cheaply; and by the villagers, who knew about the neighbours' plan, but didn't talk part out of cowardice, part out of disdain as they consider him "a stranger". The man is eventually killed after trying to dig out a spring with explosives.

* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' is built on this. Your protagonist, despite being a former office drone, has no problems handling a hoe, scythe, water can, axe or pickaxe with ease. Crops will grow just fine as soon as the seeds are planted and just needs to be watered daily and have a nearby scarecrow to keep birds away; once fully grown, can be harvested with ease. Farm animals do fine as long as they have a patch of grass or some hay to eat, and only need to be petted once in a while, besides the milking, shearing and collecting eggs stuff. However, it's implied that you have a special connection to nature (which is why the Junimo love you), which could account for your farming knack. In addition, you own your land and have zero bills or taxes to pay, so you can put all your money towards the next purchase, and although eating restores your health and energy, allowing you to work even more, it's not actually required.

* ''{{VideoGame/Valheim}}'': Farming only requires tilled soil (done with just a click), planting seed, and waiting for them to grow, while any two animals of a tameable species will produce offspring eventually with enough food. There aren't even seasons in Valheim, the main issue comes from EverythingTryingToKillYou (and your crops). Presumably Scandinavian farmers knew how to deal with wolves and boars; trolls, goblins and tree-men, less so.

* ''Webcomic/NerfNow'' parodies the ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' example [[https://www.nerfnow.com/comic/1764 here]]. A cubicle worker who dreams of getting out of the rat race goes off to the farm...and soon finds himself longing for the cubicle life again.

* After UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the Australian government gave land grants to veterans so as to settle sparsely populated areas of the country. Many failed miserably due to a lack of support infrastructure, capital, and the general inexperience of the mostly city-raised soldiers. The project was restarted after the Second World War, this time with greater support for the farmers.
* Jim Jones's Jonestown: the cult leader tried to create his own self-sufficient village where everyone worked in the fields and could get everything they needed by farming. Though the villagers actually did very well for themselves when sent on ahead to do this alone (the food was plentiful and delicious), they still faced shortages, fertile soil washing away in the rain, and once lost some of their harvest in a storm. And eventually, a depraved cult leader hoarding what crops they ''did'' successfully produce.
* The USA's Extended Homestead Act of 1909. Its intent was to facilitate the development of the Great Plains by providing land grants to would-be farmers. Unfortunately, this backfired spectacularly: the land was not conducive to traditional agricultural development (for one thing, the yearly rainfall estimates were based on what turned out to be a couple of abnormally wet years), and the homesteaders themselves didn't understand local ecology well enough to cultivate the land properly. Mismanagement of the land combined with one of the worst droughts in US history led to large-scale erosion and loss of topsoil, and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
* This was one of the ways the U.S. government tried to solve the "Indian problem": if them dang lazy Indians were given plots of land and taught to farm and worship Christ, they would be more easily assimilated as "productive" members of Anglo society. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_on_the_prehistoric_Great_Plains Many Native Americans grew their own crops]] long before the Anglos got here, and many were fine with Christianity[[note]]observing numerous similarities between Christian and traditional virtues, to the point that even [[Literature/BlackElkSpeaks Nick Black Elk]] became a Catholic catechist and is now up for sainthood[[/note]] but the disastrous reservation breakup of 1890 was an attempt to get the roaming, hunter-gatherer Plains nations to do the same. The problem, again, was the land: that region is just not suitable for prosperous farming, but the Indians were blamed and the government cut their rations. Since the American Bison had already been virtually wiped out, you now had thousands of starving Indian people. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Massacre 1890 Ghost Dance tragedy]] arose out of this situation.
* Hugely subverted in the late [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]]. When the Soviet authorities started to allot the general city population small plots of land for hobby farming (and small means '''''small''''' -- they were usually 600 square meters, or about 0.15 acre), the city population, armed by the hundreds of tomes on modern agriculture, a desire to escape the dreary boredom and horrible quality of official produce and general interest, took to the farming with such gusto that within a decade the (unofficial) output of these plots begun to outstrip the output of the official, state-managed agriculture in some areas, especially vegetable production, despite most of these people having a day job and tending their suburban plots only on weekends. It spells volumes on the inefficiency of the official Soviet agriculture, but also about the intensity with which these {{City Mouse}}s cultivated their land.
* Many settlers of Canada (and other colonial countries) experienced this trope first hand. As 19th-century settler Susannah Moodie describes it in her memoirs ''Roughing it in the Bush'': "[Folders advertising colonial farming] told of lands yielding forty bushels to the acre, but they said nothing of the years when these lands, with the most careful cultivation, would barely return fifteen; when rust and smut, engendered by the vicinity of damp over-hanging woods, would blast the fruits of the poor emigrant's labour, and almost deprive him of bread. They talked of log houses to be raised in a single day, by the generous exertions of friends and neighbours, but they never ventured upon a picture of the disgusting scenes of riot and low debauchery exhibited during the raising, or upon a description of the dwellings when raised--dens of dirt and misery, which would, in many instances, be shamed by an English pig-sty. The necessaries of life were described as inestimably cheap; but they forgot to add that in remote bush settlements, often twenty miles from a market town, and some of them even that distance from the nearest dwelling, the necessaries of life, which would be deemed indispensable to the European, could not be procured at all, or, if obtained, could only be so by sending a man and team through a blazed forest road,--a process far too expensive for frequent repetition."

* James Burke's documentary ''Series/{{Connections}}'' points out that a lot of urbanites believe that they could survive an apocalypse if they got out of the city fast enough; after all, they could just find an abandoned part of land and start farming. Yeah... no. There's a reason that serious believers in the end of the world start building their colonies so early (and, thus, resources like night classes, mail order catalogs, and the Internet are all still up and running). There won't be time to learn later.

Everyone knows about farming. Farming is simple and picturesque, right? It happens in the country, where there's grass and trees and fields. Farmers are simple, hard-working people who till the soil, with a tractor if they're modern or a plow if they're historical. They grow crops, raise animals, support the whole enterprise by selling their produce, and live a simple, healthy life in a natural setting, free from the complications of modernity. [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife If we were less addicted to the internet]], [[CallToAgriculture we'd probably all go join them.]]

And surely we'd have no trouble doing so. Farmwork is well known to be unskilled. You don't even have to go to college to run a farm, let alone work on one. Sure, of course it's hard work. But it's not ''complicated''. We could totally do it if we just buckled down.

This misconception of farming shows up fairly often in fiction -- usually as a result of a character (or the writer) being a CityMouse.

In fact, farming is extremely complicated. A farmer working a diversified farm has to be a highly skilled generalist with specific, situation-relevant knowledge from a dozen different [[{{Pun}} fields]], from botany to meteorology to mechanics to veterinary medicine to chemistry to entomology. What's more, a real mistake or bad luck (such as a late frost) can spell disaster: a ruined crop can't be fixed, and can't be replaced ''until the next year''. There can be long stretches of leisure time, but this is because you can't speed up either the plants, the animals or the seasons. And farmers who can often do odd jobs during those stretches, to eke out the necessary money. [[Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion Garrison Keillor's]] farmers in Lake Wobegon speak of these things often and give you a much more realistic idea of what it's like.

The historical farmer didn't have it any easier; driving a tractor is in fact considerably simpler than getting a mule to do exactly what you want it to.

And that unskilled labor like hoeing and picking? Yes, any newbie can do that. If a farmer is willing to pay them the same rate as experienced people who can do the work five to ten times faster.

If a character who has no experience farming takes to running a farm without a noticeable learning curve, that is this trope; in the case of a "gentleman farmer" or hobby farmer, who's merely farming for fun with little or no economic pressure, the learning curve can be less steep. If a character with no experience farming has to do some farmwork and does it with no training, no practice, and no trouble, that is also this trope.

This trope is played straight in some TheCityVsTheCountry plots (where the {{aesop}} is "city life is too complicated, you should get back to nature"), one of the driving forces behind the {{Commune}} movements of the 1960s and 70s[[note]]some of which succeeded and are still around[[/note]], and averted or subverted in others (where the [[AnAesop aesop]] is more like "everyone has his cross to bear").

It's often played straight in adventure stories where our wandering hero earns his keep at local farms as he passes through[[note]]Does not apply, of course, if said [[FarmBoy hero]] or [[FarmersDaughter heroine]] already knows how, or is a quick study as in ''Film/{{Witness}}''[[/note]]. This trope is also the basis of {{Arcadia}}, where farming is idyllic and pleasant as well as simple, and may sometimes show up when a character is [[CallToAgriculture Called To Agriculture]]. A SlowLifeFantasy will generally play this straight, though the protagonists usually having magical powers make it a bit more plausible.

[[ConstantlyLactatingCow Constantly Lactating Cows]] are often found on these farms.

* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' is built on this. Your protagonist, despite being a former office drone until ennui set in, has no problems handling a hoe, scythe, water can, axe or pickaxe with ease. Crops will grow just fine as soon as the seeds are planted and just needs to be watered daily and have a nearby scarecrow to keep birds away; once fully grown, can be harvested with ease. Farm animals do fine as long as they have a patch of grass or some hay to eat, and only need to be petted once in a while, besides the milking, shearing and collecting eggs stuff. However, it's implied that you have a special connection to nature (which is why the Junimo love you), which could account for your farming knack. In addition, you own your land and have zero bills or taxes to pay, so you can put all your money towards the next purchase, and although eating restores your health and energy, allowing you to work even more, eating is not [[WizardNeedsFoodBadly mandatory]].

* The Extended Homestead Act of 1909. Its intent was to facilitate the development of the Great Plains by providing land grants to would-be farmers. Unfortunately, this backfired spectacularly: The land was not conducive to traditional agricultural development (for one thing, the yearly rainfall estimates were based on what turned out to be a couple of abnormally wet years), and the homesteaders themselves didn't understand local ecology well enough to cultivate the land properly. Mismanagement of the land combined with one of the worst droughts in US history led to large-scale erosion and loss of topsoil, and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
* This was one of the ways the U.S. government tried to solve the "Indian problem": if them dang lazy Indians were given plots of land and taught to farm and worship Christ, they would be more easily assimilated as "productive" members of Anglo society. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_on_the_prehistoric_Great_Plains Many Native Americans grew their own crops]] long before the Anglos got here, and many were fine with Christianity[[note]]observing numerous similarities between Christian and traditional virtues, to the point that even [[Literature/BlackElkSpeaks Nick Black Elk]] became a Catholic catechist and is now up for sainthood[[/note]] but the disastrous reservation breakup of 1890 was an attempt to get the roaming, hunter-gatherer Plains nations to do the same. The problem, again, was the land: that region is just not suitable for prosperous farming, but the Indians were blamed and the government cut their rations. Since the American Bison had already been virtually wiped out, you now had thousands of starving Indian people. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Dance 1890 Ghost Dance tragedy]] arose out of this situation.

* Many settlers of Canada (and other American countries) experienced this trope first hand. As Susannah Moodie describes it in her RealLife account in ''Roughing it in the Bush'': "[Folders advertising colonial farming] told of lands yielding forty bushels to the acre, but they said nothing of the years when these lands, with the most careful cultivation, would barely return fifteen; when rust and smut, engendered by the vicinity of damp over-hanging woods, would blast the fruits of the poor emigrant's labour, and almost deprive him of bread. They talked of log houses to be raised in a single day, by the generous exertions of friends and neighbours, but they never ventured upon a picture of the disgusting scenes of riot and low debauchery exhibited during the raising, or upon a description of the dwellings when raised--dens of dirt and misery, which would, in many instances, be shamed by an English pig-sty. The necessaries of life were described as inestimably cheap; but they forgot to add that in remote bush settlements, often twenty miles from a market town, and some of them even that distance from the nearest dwelling, the necessaries of life, which would be deemed indispensable to the European, could not be procured at all, or, if obtained, could only be so by sending a man and team through a blazed forest road,--a process far too expensive for frequent repetition."
* The Khmer Rouge tried to reshape the whole of Cambodia into an self-sufficient agrarian society. The result was up to two million dead.

* James Burke's documentary ''Series/{{Connections}}'' points out that a lot of urbanites believe that they could survive an apocalypse if they got out of the city fast enough; after all, they could just find an abandoned part of land and start farming. Yeah ... no. There's a reason that serious believers in the end of the world start building their colonies so early (and, thus, resources like night classes, mail order catalogs, and the Internet are all still up and running). There won't be time to learn later.
* This is the main criticism people from rural or farming backgrounds have made against the trend of the "cottagecore" fashion aesthetic movement, as it's mainly popular among teens and young adults who have never actually maintained farms or lived in the countryside without technology (which, obviously, is what's needed to post about cottagecore to begin with). Cottagecore on its face is all about celebrating the beauty of rustic life (wildflowers, berry picking, gardening, sewing dresses, etc.), without going into the downsides and hardships of such a lifestyle to begin with (the inherent difficulties of farm labor, cleaning up after the animals, harvesting crops every season, etc.). Because of this, critics contend that the movement trivializes farmers' hard work and sends the false message that living a simple, closer to nature life is easy when it is anything but.

* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2VOb6WUPPE The Desk]]" episode of ''Series/BarneyMiller'' shows an ex-con, Gil Lesco (Don Calfa), who had a {{Lobotomy}} and is now functioning at a very basic, almost childlike level. Also in the squadroom is an Amish farmer, Caleb Webber (played by veteran actor Jeff Corey) who's been robbed. Webber talks to Lesco about typical farm work, and ultimately Lesco decides to accompany Webber back to the farm.

It's often played straight in adventure stories where our wandering hero earns his keep at local farms as he passes through[[note]]Does not apply, of course, if said [[FarmBoy hero]] or [[FarmersDaughter heroine]] already knows how, or is a quick study as in ''Film/{{Witness}}''[[/note]]. This trope is also the basis of {{Arcadia}}, where farming is idyllic and pleasant as well as simple, and may sometimes show up when a character is [[CallToAgriculture Called To Agriculture]].

* While it's mainly baking with farming on the side, King Roland from ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'' believes this, so much that when he accidentally wishes that he was a baker instead of a king he wants to stay for a while rather than undo the spell. What happens is a SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome, and the family fails to adapt, with them only getting by because Sofia and her mother have actual farming and baking experience from their pre-royalty life.

* While it's mainly baking with farming on the side, King Roland from ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'' believes this, so much that when he accidentally wishes that he was a baker instead of a king he wants to stay for a while rather than undo the spell. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome and the family fails to adapt, with them only getting by because Sofia and her mother have actual farming and baking experience from their pre-royalty life.

* ''Literature/FarmingLifeInAnotherWorld'': While Hiraku's "omnipotent farming tool" makes a lot of his farming work trivially easy, the difficulty of actually farming is {{lampshaded|trope}} by the other villagers when he decides to prepare rice, with them wondering how the end-product could justify such a complicated preparation process.

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* Zgizagged in ''Manga/SilverSpoon''. The main character Hachiken has this attitude and thinks that since he got generally high marks as a junior high student in his city school, an agricultural high school should be a total academic cakewalk, which is part of the reason why he chose that school (the other reason was that it's a BoardingSchool so it gave him an excuse to get away from his overbearing EducationPapa). He finds out very quickly just how wrong he was and is frequently overwhelmed by the amount of technical skill required to do the many aspects of farming, from the basics of animal husbandry to the administrative knowledge required to run a large-scale agricultural operation. Being the obsessive studier and planner that he is, he quickly figures out the academic part of the new material. Though he never gets the top marks in anything ([[TheBGrade to his disappointment]]) he impresses everyone else by being a JackOfAllTrades despite having no previous experience in agriculture before coming to the school, while everyone else has their own subject they do well in. It's the more physical activities that go with the conceptual understanding of farming (Waking up at four in the morning every day to take care of his horse for the Equestrian Club, having to till and clear debris from farmland, taking care of livestock, etc.) that he really struggles with.

* Subverted in ''Literature/TessOfTheDurbervilles,'' where Angel, a pampered son of a preacher, gains a real admiration for those who have farmed, and will farm, all of their lives, especially in the face of catastrophe (such as one cow eating a garlic plant, resulting in that entire week's worth of butter being unusable because it tastes faintly of garlic[[note]]this was before butter blended with garlic was much in demand, although that ''did'' originate in France about thirty years before ''Tess'' was published and might have been a case of "you got chocolate in my peanut butter"[[/note]].

* In ''Series/JohnnyBago'', Johnny's RV is out of water so he gets some from a nearby pump. Then he's informed that since the area is irrigated he basically just stole their water.[[note]][[BasedOnATrueStory Something like this actually happened]] to Creator/TomSelleck when he was [[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/16/california-water-tom-selleck-lawsuit accused of watering his avocado trees from a fire hydrant in 2015]][[/note]]. He doesn't have the $20 they want so he's forced to work it off by picking cauliflower alongside the Hispanic migrant workers. He thinks he'll get done quickly but is then informed that all his picking for the day amounts to a little under $1 - not counting expenses.

It's often played straight in adventure stories where our wandering hero earns his keep at local farms as he passes through[[note]]Does not apply, of course, if said [[FarmBoy hero]] or [[FarmersDaughter heroine]] already knows how, or is a quick study as in ''Film/{{Witness}}''[[/note]]. This trope is also commonly found in {{Arcadia}}, where farming is idyllic and pleasant as well as simple, and may sometimes show up when a character is [[CallToAgriculture Called To Agriculture]].

* Largely justified in ''Literature/BewareOfChicken'' by the presence of qi. Not only can Jin enhance his plows to cut through the ground like butter, and saw hardwood planks like paper, but he also accidentally uplifts some of his animals, who cheerfully help out their "Great Master", and qi infusions cause his crops and animals to be unusually productive and nutritious. As a result, he soon decides he's living the dream. Of course, such a rich farm is a prime target for rat swarms and wandering bandits...