Three Reasons Why Amish Food Isn’t Organic (Video)
As we enter the prime season for fresh produce, I thought this might be a good topic to address. I suspect most in the public would assume that Amish-grown food (and dairy) is organic, although that’s not really the case.
While there are certainly organic farmers among the Amish, and organic farming has grown in popularity over the past years and decades, the “default” or “traditional” way of agriculture for most Amish is conventional farming, i.e., with chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
In this video I explain three reasons why more Amish aren’t farming organically, as well as look at how some Amish organic farmers succeed. Runtime: 3:45.
My experience of “Amish organic”
When in Lancaster County I stay with Amish friends on an organic produce farm. So of course I partake of the delicious veggies- (and sometimes even pick a few) heirloom tomatoes, romaine lettuce, spinach and squash.
Taste-wise the stuff is hard to beat. However when not on the farm I rarely consume organic products. Price is one factor, but that’s not all there is to it.
Organic food seems to be one of those things where the people who are into it, are INTO it. Disciples, enthusiasts, evangelists–in any case something beyond mere consumers.
Case in point: my friend took me to a picnic sponsored by his co-op a couple weekends ago. The event, which took place on an Amish farm, was held on behalf of the co-op’s CSA (community supported agriculture) customers. Most were from New York or Washington DC, having made the long journey by car and hired coach.
After a tasty pot-luck lunch, the Amish growers, 20 or so, lined up to take questions from the crowd. People asked about the origins of seeds and whether a certain wholesome-but-exotic plant could be grown and whether more of the packaging could be biodegradable and so on. Clearly health and the environment were chief concerns for the urban visitors.
There was a lot of appreciation-and for lack of a better term-something like wonder radiating out from the audience to the assembled farmers and their families. And on that note another plus mentioned, both by the growers and customers, was the idea of community, and in particular supporting the small farming lifestyle (the Amish farmers, understandably, were big on that last point). Above all there was a sense of being a part of someting bigger than vegetables.
But while I appreciate organic food-if only for the fact that it helps my friends make a living- I’ve just never been able to get that excited about it. Not in any passionate way, in any case.
Perhaps I don’t care enough about the environment, or “sustainable practices” (a term I see widely applied, everywhere from farming to heavy industry to the corporate world, but am still not quite sure what it means). Or maybe I’m not sold on the health benefits (or the inverse of that-I’m not convinced my regular old conventional produce is doing me any harm).
I don’t mean to sound like an organic agnostic, but I think that’s what I might be.
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I also imagine that even with the 3-5 year process, there are still barriers. The Amish are not keen on government involvement. So being an organic farmer would probably consist of periodic visits, inspections and most importantly actions that may demand more modernity than they would like.
I believe you are correct!
I have Amish ancestry, but I moved several states away as a child in the late ’70’s. Prior to my move from northern Indiana: I witnessed Amish relatives having chicken houses having 3-4 laying chickens per tiny cage and I oftentimes helped my cousins collect those eggs. Some of the Amish in my home area back then were still trying to milk cows and store milk for collection the old fashioned way: hand milking cow utters into very clean buckets with the cow ankles being chained to protect said bucket from being kicked over, pouring the milk into big funnels with a flat paper filter in the bottom of it into cream cans, and a non-Amish guy in a truck coming around to heft up those cans into a refrigerated truck to deliver to a creamery. Some others of them (different church group) had automatic milkers including containers designed to hold all of the milk one cow might produce.
How does my account of ancient (to you) history relevant to todays Amish? Patterns! Their religion rejects modern trends as much as religiously possible; yet they must earn money to feed their families like everyone else.
I greatly admire my (now distant) Amish relatives, and I believe some of their choices to have been very wise over the years, but I would never accept their religion.
My inner chemist wants to know where the inorganic farming is. 😉
I guess the names we end up with don’t always make the most sense. Football, a game where feet rarely touch the ball 😀