Cheese Makers, Rock Stars

The New York Times reports a microtrend of fresh-out-of-college hipsters choosing organic farming in upstate New York over slumming around in Williamsburg:

Steeped in years of talk around college campuses and in stylish urban enclaves about the evils of factory farms (see the E. coli spinach outbreaks), the perils of relying on petroleum to deliver food over long distances (see global warming) and the beauty of greenmarkets (see the four-times-weekly locavore cornucopia in Union Square), some young urbanites are starting to put their muscles where their pro-environment, antiglobalization mouths are. They are creating small-scale farms near urban areas hungry for quality produce and willing to pay a premium.

Owen O’Connor, 22 (pictured above, right), a Wesleyan dropout, is mentioned as the namer and cofounder of the sheep- and chicken-raising venture Awesome Farm.