FarmVille vs. Real Farms [INFOGRAPHIC] — Some Thoughts

In farming circles people talk about Farmville now and then, but in my farming social media circles, it seems to come up more often than not because it you spend day and night on the farm or working with agriculture, someone either from a local high school, a church or a family member will eventually ask the question — do you play Farmville? Social media site Mashable explains why that question comes up so often:

With all those millions of Facebook and iPhone users tending to virtual crops and sharing them with friends, have you ever wondered how their toils stack up against actual real-life farmers?

How does our output of digital (and decidedly less tasty) tomatoes compare with our worldwide production of real tomatoes? And perhaps most importantly, who are these casual croppers, and are they anything like their plow-toting counterparts?

We broke it down by the numbers and put some of these FarmVille trends in perspective for you.

Go on. Harvest it.

via FarmVille vs. Real Farms [INFOGRAPHIC].

The graphic from Mashable stunned me… The numbers are overwhelming.  I simply HAD to comment. There is more money to be made in Farmville? Seriously?

People really spend that many hours a week playing a farming game? Wow. And how come cotton didn’t make the list? I mean I like strawberries and sunflowers but come on, show the natural fiber a little love too folks!

Well, while I appreciate software writers, I hope this doesn’t discourage young people considering farming to put that aside for the lucrative field of game development. But the reality is, the people who look to farming as a career, usually also have such a passion that even if they don’t do that for their “paycheck,” they will pursue it as a passion. Even if it’s only at harvest time.

I love farmers they feed my soul and my belly. And I think of the video I’ve put in below as telling a little bit of the story. But I encourage you to seek out farmers, who blog (I have a list here conveniently), or those on Twitter and Facebook who formed the AgChat Foundation are also great sources!

Now the real question, do you Farmville? Farm for real? Garden?

(ANOTHER POST ADDED MONDAY on the financial prospects)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYc21ogh1M0]