| dc.description.abstract | Concern has been growing over the increasing average age of American farmers as well as the larger environmental impact of agriculture. This research is focused on a growing craze of going ‘back to the land’ as a sustainable farmer within the U.S. It centers on eleven first-generation, millennial farmers in North Carolina and how they perceive their agrarian lifestyles to be ‘the good life’. Through ethnographic-inspired methods, the work displays attitudes, dreams, and motivations of the young farmers. Positive Psychology is utilized to assess ‘the good life’ through Paul T. P. Wong’s (2011) model. Additionally, Bourdieu’s tools of habitus, capital, and field aid in the analysis to help bring to light some of the influences of the conception of ‘back to the land’ as ‘the good life’. Ultimately, the way in which personal backgrounds, economic conditions, the American Dream, and social interactions all contribute to this conception is revealed. This answers the central aim of this research: how and why millennial, first-generation farmers perceive ‘back to the land’ as ‘the good life’. | eng |