Farming - stress therapy at its best

Four years ago my wife and I bought our first farm in the Philippines.

Since then we have expanded to approximately 30 hectares of land where we grow coconuts, bananas, and a wide variety of tropical fruits. We also keep bees from which we harvest honey. We breed very large New Zealand goats and we also have a chicken farm.

The next project will involve the conversion of 50 heactares of rice fields into Tilapia fish ponds.

This all started as a pet project to do something different from our normal roles of Country Manager Saudi for a technology/consulting firm (me) and dentistry (my wife).

We soon realized that we loved what we were doing. First of all we loved it because it was apparent to us that the world is fast running out of food and that a) there is good money to be made in smart, targetted farming (important because we still have the reality of raising a child and putting her through school), and b) it gave us an opportunity to provide food at very reasonable prices to those in the Philippines who could not afford good quality nutritious food.

But the real kicker was that although we worked very, very hard we both discovered that farming was a major stress reliever from our "real" jobs. Yes, there was the physical aspect of it. But more importantly we felt that finally we were doing something that mattered. We were dealing with Mother Earth and we were giving back. Our lives were no longer just about money.

The world is changing. The financial crisis we are living through has shown us that none of our "real" jobs are safe any longer.

Maybe this is a good time to re-evaluate how we can make money and also help others and in the process find happiness, peace and contentment.