In search of traditional farm wisdom for a more sustainable agriculture: A study of Amish farming and society

Abstract

A religious society with a strong emphasis on family and community ties, the Amish are an agrarian people who have a long history of using less energy-intensive, albeit productive, agricultural methods. The low-input farming systems practiced today by Amish farmers have developed over 300 years and have sustained the Amish as one of the most persistent and successful subcultures in North America. Strict socio-religious rules control Amish farming practices. As a result, Amish agriculture depends on traditional elements, such as horse farming and hand labor, and therefore contrasts starkly with conventional high-input agriculture. However, contemporary Amish agriculture is a blend of old practices with new ideas, similar in many respects to the low-input sustainable practices that agricultural researchers are currently experimenting with and designing. The long continuous history of low-input sustainable production on many Amish farms offers researchers an unique opportunity to study the biological control of insect pests and diseases and nutrient cycling, which contribute to sustainability. Important to the success of the Amish as a traditional farming subculture is the extremely tight coupling of social and technological phenomena within their society. This observation has significant implications for the development of low-input sustainable agriculture for the larger society in which conventional agriculture often decouples farming technology from a strong cultural base.