Since 1991, pizza farms have been aimed at teaching urban dwellers about where their food comes from. This is just one of the current ‘entertainment farming’ options available to budget tourists, especially in the United States.
With the crisis wielding its brutal axe around the world’s tourism sector, people all over the globe have been looking for cheaper ways to spend the time their boss allows them for leisure with or without the family. There are urban campsites, reduced domestic holidays and massive discounts on package tours occurring almost everywhere. The latest craze involves agriculture tourism, particularly pizza farms. These farms have so far enjoyed popularity in the United States although their presence could be spread to other areas of the world quite rapidly.
The story started in 1991 when a Californian farmer named Darren Schmall decided that city folk were far too ignorant about the origin of their food for their own good. He soon understood that school lectures and increased efforts in education to tell people about where their food comes from was simply boring, so this saw the birth of the Pizza Farm. Another well-known farm is the "R" Pizza Farm near Dow, Illinois.
The farms are designed to resemble the shape of a pizza, with certain crops growing in wedge-like areas. Wheat grows to represent the crust and some wedges host pepper areas. The pigs on the farms are representative of the pepperoni, whereas house hogs and cattle are sometimes symbolic of sausages and cheese. This is certainly a very entertaining and colourful way of providing an explanation for the contents of the giant city pizza boxes. Furthermore, pizza farms make money. They are one of the fastest growing areas of tourism in the USA, with a 30% growth rate every year since 1987.