"There are a lot of jobs that people do that I don't particularly want to do " and you've made a good list of them. But for me farm worker definitely ranks among them and it didn't take me very long doing that to conclude (1) it's not a way I want to live and (2) it doesn't seem to sensible to live off of other people living that way. So, small farms - yes, small down to the size of gardens, I say. But we need to bring up the issue of social security. Without some form of centralized social security it's every family for itself and the larger the family, the better the chance of making it in old age. I've read of and figured out many versions of Utopia but without addressing the population question they all crash. To those who claim that unfair distribution is the real problem, the reply is (1) fairer distribution is not about to happen and (2) if it did it would be a temporary solution.

My daughter lives on a commune/farm in W Va. They have goats, various fowl, a few cows, horses, and a large garden with plenty of room to expand. Recently they've taken up canning. The live very comfortably, but use a teeny fraction of the resources the same number of people in suburbia would use. Although, they are not self-sufficient, they are positioned to get a lot closer to it.

When I think of farm labor, I think of the way they live on this commune. One doesn't have to be simply a low-wage farm hand. I think it's far better, far more fun to a member of some kind of collective where farming is but one of your labors, and where you participate in deciding how to make it work.

As far hard work, I was a truck driver for 11 years, til I was 36, long, long ago. Hard, hard work loading and unloading box cars, loading my truck, running around three states delivering office furniture, carrying desks up flights of stairs, duking it out with other drivers who jumped the line at the packing houses on the waterfront in NYC, and so forth. Some of the best years of working life. Hard physical work is not to be afraid of, especially if you have some control of it and if you can lighten it up as you get older.

None of this matters, however. There's not going to be any choice about it. It's the future. It doesn't matter how much anyone hates it. The adjustment is going to have to be made. The era when everyone could sell real estate, process claims, design web pages or just walk around a warehouse guarding against "terrorists" is rapidly coming to a close. And its not a matter of re-industrializing either. That too cannot happen on a major scale. One way or another it's back to the land and small industry connected with it. People don't like biking or walking too much either. SO SORRY!

BTW, I'm a total city-slicker (although I walk everywhere, except to get out of the city to go hiking). But I know this ain't future. I used to hate visiting my grandfather's farm as a kid, getting up in the middle of the nite, like 5 or whatever, listening to some idiot fowl howling. But my daughter's commune/farm plus the recognition of necessity has changed my mind. Trouble is, I'm at the age now where all I'll be able to contribute is fertilizer, one way or another.

Ah yes, upthread there was talk of night-soil. What about buckets? Carry it out to the fields. That's what they used to do in China, probably still do.