The Western world has more wealth and more choice than ever before. Yet, with higher rates of depression and suicide, it’s also more miserable. So it’s no surprise many of us hanker after a simpler life – no traffic jams or technology – and the pandemic seemed to strengthen that feeling.
But how would we really fare? A fascinating new show on Channel 4 aims to find out. Called The Simpler Life, it sees 24 modern Brits try to live like an Amish community – the Christian group who live a modest life of self-sufficiency, mostly in the American Midwest – over a six-month period.
Over the course of the project, the community – which includes a rapper, a former soldier and a social media content creator – live without mains electricity, gas or any form of technology on a 40-acre farm in Devon complete with a lake and a wood.
They have to harvest more than three acres of hay – without mechanisation – as well as build a barn and a shelter for pigs and wash their clothes and dishes without modern appliances.
Luckily, Amish farmer Lloyd Miller came to the UK with his wife Edna and three of their six children to show them how it’s done.
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