Only been to Africa a single time, and was confused by the question upon my return to the US.

In Atlanta we were asked if we had been on a farm.

I wasn't being dishonest when I said "No", as the place I went wasn't technically a farm. It was in the rural parts of Namibia. No livestock or crops, just African game.

What is the appropriate answer to this question?

Is a hunt in Africa time spent on a farm?

or better put, what is the "Intent" of this question?

Thank you all in advance!!!

I believe the intent is to see of you have been around livestock that could be a possible carrier of hoof-and-mouth disease. If you answer yes they will ask you to remove all your shoes from you bag so they can treat them. Whether I have been on a farm or not, they have recognized me as a hunter and treated my footwear regardless of how I answered the question.

If you answer "yes" to the question (which is the answer the customs people expect if you've been out hunting or hiking somewhere other than an urban environment), then they will require you to turn over ONE pair of boots or hiking shoes to be drenched in some yellowish liquid which presumes to sterilize them of whatever feared pathogen might be lurking on them. They don't seem to care if you've hunted/hiked in a half-dozen pairs of boots/shoes, they just ask for one.

This, of course, is bureaucratic folly. They asked for my hunting boots, which I dutifully surrendered, then had them returned in a few minutes dripping with some foul liquid and placed inside a somewhat leaky plastic bag -- all to go back in my duffle (yuck!) Ironically, the shoes I was wearing were the same ones in which I had hiked extensively through a game park just hours before boarding the airplane. The now-sterile hunting boots had hardly touched the ground since we did the majority of our hunting from a truck, while the non-sterilized shoes I was wearing were much more likely to harbor some microscopic creepy-crawly which will kill all of the cattle in North America, or turn all of the sheep into cannibals, or whatever.

Maybe the well-prepared traveler should have a pair of throw-away boots at ready. You answer the question "yes", give them the pair of throw-aways, and say, "here, you keep them".

You can always leave your boots behind in Africa, there is always someone around the camp, or that you hunted with, that has footwear needs going unmet. And it's less to carry home.

I left a perfectly functional pair of Danners for one of the assisting PH's last year. Compared to the duct taped remains of some leather he was wearing, it was probably appreciated more than the tip.

My boots died while in South Africa two weeks ago and I asked PH if he could dispose of them...they took 3 thorns through the sole into my foot and the side wall of one broke....and he asked the skinners: " who has big feet?" The lucky "winner" will most likely be wearing them when I go back! Just hope he removes the thorn that was still embedded in the sole before he puts them on!

Told them when I got off the airplane my boots were still in Africa and that was the end of the story for me and my shoes.