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For me it's the desire for a simple life. I grew up on a small "farm". We had goats, sheep, hogs, cattle, rabbits, chickens, geese, and quail. Every year we put in over an acre of garden with another half acre of various fruit trees, and we never bought meat and only bought vegetables in the winter when we got sick of green beans/corn/beets as those were what we put up the most of. Me and my siblings were all extremely active in 4H, when I was in highschool I started working for local farmers and thought that was what I wanted to do with my life. I went to one of the best ag schools in the country, got a degree in agronomy, and by pure chance I took a summer job doing forestry work. I spent a summer planting trees, spraying invasives, maintaining trails, and doing about a thousand other new things and I was sold. I never want to do anything else with my life. When that summer was up I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and my childhood, and my education, and several other things and I realized that I have never been happier in my life than I was working in the woods and working with my animals or in my garden. The nature of man isn't to oversee hundreds or thousands of acres, hell the term "acre" used to mean the amount of land a single man could plough with a single ox in a day and the hide was an area around 120 (but as small as 60 and as large as 180) acres which was regarded as the amount of land a single person could work in a year while supporting a family. In the modern age that number can be shrunk up considerably, but the idea remains. People are trying to find that connection again, the appeal of wealth and luxuries is strong, but the natural drive to work the ground and provide for you and yours is as natural as drinking water, and just like thirst it gets stronger the longer you go without. That's the appeal to me, to reach a point where I am able to simply exist under my own power, to provide everything I need for me and mine.
