A Pennsylvania court has ruled against an Amish family, ordering them to do something they staunchly oppose: After a legal battle spanning more than five years, a Pennsylvania court has agreed with a lower court ruling that ordered a Warren County Amish family to connect to a municipal sewer, even though doing so requires the use of an electric pump. In an opinion issued Jan….
Should Amish be required to install seat belts and other safety features common to motor vehicles? That’s the idea behind a new ordinance up for consideration tomorrow in Wood County, Wisconsin: Horse-drawn vehicles would need windshields, seat belts, child car seats and rear-view mirrors if officials in Wisconsin’s Wood County pass an ordinance that will be considered Tuesday. Amish and other religious groups that rely…
Most Amish farmers are conventional farmers. But organic farming has taken off in some communities over the past decade or two despite some practical and cultural roadblocks. One of those communities is the Kalona, Iowa settlement, where today you’ll find over 90 certified organic operations, described in a recent Washington Post article as “one of the densest clusters of organic farms in the United States.” Amish…
From the Bangor Daily News: Despite a very divided vote by the legislature’s IFW Committee, the state’s Amish hunters won the right to wear red instead of orange while deer hunting in Maine. LD 426 was sponsored by Representative McCrea of Fort Fairfield, who was joined at the hearing by several young Amish men who testified that their religion forbid them from wearing orange because it…
From the Bowling Green Daily News (Kentucky): RUSSELLVILLE – A trial date has been set for 13 members of Auburn’s Amish community who have been cited for violating a local ordinance that requires them to clean up after their horses. Authorities have accused the Amish defendants of running afoul of Auburn’s ordinance setting forth the need for large animals traveling within the city limits to…
If you’re not familiar with the term “Amish taxi”, this refers to a service common in Amish areas of size. Non-Amish drivers, often with large-volume passenger vans, provide hauling services for their Amish clientele. Taxi drivers ferry their Plain passengers to and from doctor’s offices, shopping outlets, family visits, and work destinations. You’ll see ads for Amish taxi drivers posted on local bulletin boards, and…
Why are we fascinated by stories of people both joining – and leaving – the Amish? Over the ten years I’ve run this website, stories on those topics have consistently gotten a lot of attention here. We could point to several reasons. For one, I believe entering or exiting a community with firm boundaries contains its own built-in potential for drama. Amish-born writers like Ira Wagler and Saloma Furlong have penned memoirs revealing the pain…
It might surprise you to read the words “Amish” and “heroin” in the same sentence. But Amish people are hardly immune to the scourge of drug abuse. Amish in Wayne County, Indiana recently invited former addict and anti-heroin campaigner Michael DeLeon to speak to their community. RTV6 did a story on the meeting, accompanied by a pair of videos. In the first video below (videos unavailable),…
Amish involvement in the dog breeding industry has gotten a lot of attention over the years, in particular due to several highly-publicized cases involving mistreated animals. The term “puppy mill” is often used to describe these businesses (and is sometimes extended to describe breeders in general). Amish are aware of the negative perception. The Lafayette Journal & Courier reports that Amish breeders in the Daviess County,…
In January we learned the unusual story of Amish convert Matthew Secich and his premium meats and cheeses business, Charcuterie. A former chef working in some of the country’s top restaurants, Secich had found his way to becoming a member of the Amish community at Unity, Maine. This story which achieved a national reach got him a lot of attention. Now he has issues with…