“I see this in the food industry. Â There’s quite a few organizations here locally that will sell using “Amish”. Â And what they’re trying to do is create the perception that it does come from Amish producers. Â When it doesn’t. Â They don’t explicitly say so, they just say “Amish Country this”, “Amish Country that,”…”Amish” is big, “Country” is small. Â So, the customer that buys this, his…
In this second part of an interview with an anonymous Lancaster County Amishman, we look at the phenomenon of outsiders joining the Amish, using the Amish name to market and sell products to the public, Amish participation in the recent presidential election, and the meaning and purpose of shunning. (And if you missed the first part, here it is: An Amish America Q-and-A with a…
“Amish” sells. That fact is not lost on the numerous merchants of Amish-branded stuff. Software, refrigerators, and organic cotton bedsheets are among the products that non-Amish dealers have sold under the Amish moniker or by association with Amish images. A female Amish acquaintance in Ohio who runs a food-related business herself offered an example, complaining, good-naturedly, about the use of the Amish name on products….