FarmVille
© Karen GrahamK. Graham's "virtual farm" on FarmVille. Photo taken 12/08/2013.
It's not unusual to read about governments helping farmers with subsidies. In Romania, farmers are paid $150 per cow, and this can be a big help. There is just one little problem with the plan though. No one thought to mention the cows had to be real.

It was a nervy scheme, and one that lasted for three years, but eight "farmers' in Romania now have a lot of explaining to do after it was discovered their rural farms were "virtual" farms.'

The eight farmers have been collecting subsidies for their 1,860 cows, at the rate of about $150 per cow from the Romanian government. When the payments were stopped, the eight farmers sued the government because, according to the farmers, "when they applied they weren't told the farms had to be real."

Before anyone gets up-in-arms about the unfairness of it all, there's more to this story than meets the eye. It seems the whole scheme was based on the once very popular online Facebook game, "FarmVille."

Today, Farmville is still one of the top 10 games played on social media websites, but has been taken over by Candy Crush Saga. The bogus farms were on paper only, and on paper were worth $681,000 (€500,000). The money was taken from the European Union, supposedly to be used for rural development in the country. Romania has a program set up to help small and medium farmers develop their businesses as well as give support in modernizing the country's agriculture programs.

The "FarmVille Eight" were able to produce viable legal documentation showing the cows had been purchased, and even had a few real cows hanging around when state veterinarians came calling. Over the years, it wasn't just their virtual Farmville accounts gathering coins, but their real bank accounts grew, too.

FarmVille can be an addictive game, with people staying up half the night, growing crops and feeding their livestock. And don't for a minute think it doesn't cost something, either in real money, to buy "extras." or in time spent in its surreal "virtual world."