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Summary
- Most Amish who farm use conventional fertilizers and pesticides; researchers at the College of Wooster found in 2013 that the large majority of Amish are not full-time farmers.
- A 1994 study of a Swartzentruber Amish settlement in northern New York found Amish farms smaller and more diverse than their neighbors’ but using about the same overall amounts of fertilizer and pesticide.
- Some settlements have small specialty farms that grow vegetables, herbs and flowers by organic methods for city markets, and an Amish cooperative in northeast Ohio sells certified organic produce.
- Most Amish groups forbid self-propelled farm machinery; the New York farmers worked their fields with horse-drawn equipment.
- Amish belief treats farming as a calling suited to a Christian life, in line with the charge to Adam in Genesis 2:15.
- In some Amish communities fewer than 10 percent of households now earn their main income from farming, the biggest change in Amish society in the last century.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Matthew J. Mariola and David L. McConnell, “The Shifting Landscape of Amish Agriculture: Balancing Tradition and Innovation in an Organic Farming Cooperative,” Human Organization 72, no. 2 (2013): 144–153. Abstract at The College of Wooster Open Works. https://openworks.wooster.edu/facpub/13/
- Katharine V. Blake, Enrico A. Cardamone, Steven D. Hall, Glenn R. Harris and Susan M. Moore, “Modern Amish Farming as Ecological Agriculture,” Society & Natural Resources 10, no. 2 (1997): 143–159, quoting Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, “The Plain People among Us,” The Quarterly 35, no. 3 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1080/08941929709381015
- Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College, “Occupations.” https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/social-organization/occupations/
- Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, “Diversity.” https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/social-organization/diversity/
- Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, “Technology.” https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/cultural-practices/technology/
- Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, “Mutual Aid.” https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/cultural-practices/mutual-aid/
- Scripture quotation from the King James Version: Genesis 2:15.
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