An Amish Paradox

by Charles E. Hurst

  When work accidents occur, Old and New Order churches have the Workers’ Aid Plan available to pay for treating injuries that occur. Employers provide the funds for the plan, contributing a given amount per employee. They can then seek reimbursement for their costs when there is an injury. The Amish do not use funds from the government’s Workers’ Compensation program when on-the-job accidents and injuries occur, even though until 2003 Amish employers had been paying into the program. In 2003 the State of Ohio exempted religious groups that are opposed to insurance from paying premiums for the state program. The church plan serves as a substitute and reinforces the Amish beliefs in trusting God, in keeping tight community bonds, and in helping each other rather than relying upon the state. One Amish businessman, however, told us that in rejecting Workers’ Compensation, “sometimes I think we take it too far and be too independent.” Amish-owned companies with a mix of Amish and English employees often offer a variety of fringe benefits, including group health, 401(k) plans, paid vacations, and profit sharing. Some Amish accept the health insurance, while others refrain: “It’s a choice that guys make.”

  Some mutual-aid programs tend to be exclusive, for example, medical aid programs, but Amish from different orders help each other when fire or some other natural catastrophe occurs. When economic hard times could create an incentive for an employer to protect his or her own and reduce costs by laying off workers, the Amish reaction is more typically to share the burden. An Old Order businessman said he does not see himself as being in business to get rich or because it’s “just a job”; rather, the business provides “a sense of purpose,” “a way of life.” If there are downturns in business, he believes in sharing the economic costs with his workers rather than singling out some workers for layoffs. This response is very different from that found in most English-owned companies, where mass layoffs are likely to result from economic difficulties. But there are differences of opinion within Amish ranks about the equal sharing of aid: some feel that their aid programs should be exclusive to a given order, while others believe aid should be extended to others as well.

  Most Amish employers prefer to hire all Amish workers, even if they are of different affiliations, because it makes operations less complicated and strengthens relationships in their community. “The thing with hiring Amish is we take company field trips, … we have social events, we all get together in the evening. I’m part of that,” muses the owner of a greenhouse and outdoor furniture business. “It blends together better … and look at all the cost and the stress that takes out of doing your business.” These views are borne out in research that has shown employers to be more comfortable hiring co-workers who are similar to them because they are more predictable and fit into the ongoing company culture.33 This hiring process enhances the trust employers can place in the employee, and as Kraybill and Nolt point out, trustworthiness is a characteristic that is prized by Amish employers.34 The fact that recruitment often takes place via word of mouth among acquaintances increases the chances for a homogeneous, like-minded set of employees. In addition to the predictability that comes with hiring fellow Amish workers, issues revolving around social security, workers’ compensation, and fringe benefits are greatly simplified.

  Amish men who are willing to accept a wide range of manual jobs do not generally have much trouble finding work. Historically, the rate of unemployment in Holmes County is lower than the rate in the state as a whole, and among the Amish unemployment is very low. An Amish businessman who has spent his whole life in the area said that “as far as I know of the thousands of Amish men in this community, I do not know one that is on unemployment or is unemployed … I can’t really think of anyone that’s ever been unemployed.” Among the Swartzentruber Amish, however, obtaining long-term employment is more problematic because the range of permissible jobs is much narrower and because they focus heavily on staying at or near home when working.

  Occupational Dispersion and Internal Divisions

  As noted earlier, the population-land ratio has created heavy pressures within the Holmes County Settlement Amish to diversify their occupations. The cost of farmland in Holmes and neighboring Wayne counties has risen faster than the cost of farmland in the state as a whole.35 The combination of high birthrates, increasing scarcity and cost of agricultural land, and the continuous growth of tourist-oriented businesses has forced Amish in the Holmes County Settlement to muster all their creativity and strength of will to find new and morally acceptable occupations outside of farming.

  Sean Lowery and Allen G. Noble’s analysis of data from the 1973 and 1997 editions of the Ohio Amish Directory indicates that the percentage of Amish men working in agriculture declined from about 48 percent in 1973 to 21 percent in 1997, while the proportion working in manufacturing, construction, and wood products increased from 25 percent in 1973 to 46 percent in 1997.36 The percentages of Amish who are farmers vary across affiliations. A higher proportion of New Order than Old Order men were farmers in 1988 and 1997. In the Holmes County Settlement, at least one-third of the men earn their living doing carpentry. Amish of all affiliations are more spread out among a variety of nonfarming occupations than they were two or three decades ago.

  As expected, a random sample taken from the 2005 Ohio Amish Directory yielded smaller percentages of farmers among all sects, indicating the continuing general decline in farming noted by several commentators. Overall, slightly less than 10 percent of nonretired Amish workers in the sample were farmers. But in contrast to the 1997 figures, a smaller percentage (6%) of Andy Weaver Amish were farmers, reinforcing comments we heard from several Amish respondents that the Andy Weavers were leaving farming at a faster rate, perhaps in part because of the difficulty of competing successfully as dairy farmers without milking machines. Within the New Order churches in the directory, about 15 percent of members were full-time farmers, and in the New Order Christian Fellowship churches, 14 percent were full-time farmers. About 10 percent of the heads of households of the Old Order churches were farmers. The higher proportion of farmers within the New Order may be related to the greater leeway allowed for technology in this group and to the growth of organic farming in the Holmes County Settlement, or both. Among Swartzentruber Amish, who do not appear in the directory, the vast majority are farmers.

  A man must be careful in choosing. Occupations are acceptable only if they allow the individual to maintain Amish religious beliefs and maintain a strong family life, and if the job directly or indirectly contributes to the community. Our survey of two New Order and three Old Order churches in the Holmes County Settlement examined members’ images of occupational categories. Eight out of ten individuals held the occupation of farming in “higher regard” than either blue-collar or white-collar work, even though most were not farmers themselves. A blue-collar worker was more highly esteemed than one in a white-collar position and was seen as a person who was “faithful,” “industrious,” “honest,” “not afraid to do physical work,” and “willing to work for his daily wage”; it was felt that the blue-collar worker “earns his reward.”

  Only two out of the sixty-five Amish in the survey had more respect for white-collar work than for farming or blue-collar labor. This finding is reinforced by the decidedly mixed image of white-collar workers held by this group. When asked about such workers, many hesitated to judge, hedged their responses, or mixed positive with negative observations: “Most are out to make the big bucks, although we do need some white collar,” said one respondent. “I have respect for a person who has the capability to handle such professions if done with a meek spirit,” said another. A white-collar worker “may not be energetic enough to ‘work’ for a living, but still ‘brains’ are needed!” replied a third.

  A strong undercurrent in the responses was a belief that white-collar workers often do not like to work or that what they do is not real work: they “would rather dream and explore new ideas and let someone else do the manual labor.” A minority, however, viewed these
workers as “more educated” and “business-like” and as engaged in work that “has its place.” The mixed rather than wholly negative assessment of white-collar work can be traced in large part to the Gelassenheit value of humility and willingness to give others their due and to the fact that, with their movement into a widening array of occupations and businesses, many Amish realize the inevitability and necessity of white-collar tasks. Some have even accepted white-collar employment. Among the newer occupational areas being entered by Amish in the Holmes County Settlement are real estate, accounting, and auctioneering.

  If farming is the benchmark for an ideal occupation among the Amish, then those jobs that are the most similar to farming will be the most acceptable to them. Thus, the most favored occupations are those that are manual in nature, allow one to remain close to home, optimize the opportunity for other family members to participate, and make a measurable contribution to the community. “Your job should consist in making food, making clothing, doing carpentry, that is, doing something that is useful.” According to one Old Order leader, the nonfarming occupations most conducive to Amish values are “home-based, small cottage industries where people can still work at home or close to home. And, for lack of a better term, an Amish environment is most conducive to continuing being able to instill our values and our principles.” “The base question is whether the occupation will allow me to be a good Christian, to live with honesty and integrity, and lead a valid life,” replied a New Order member.

  A popular view is that the Amish shy away from modern technology, but this is not always the case. For some New Order Amish, the use of computers is permissible for business purposes. Photograph courtesy of Charles Hurst.

  The pressure to find an acceptable occupation outside of farming would seem to be especially great among the Amish groups who resist change most strenuously but who also have higher birthrates than other orders. Swartzentruber churches have narrower prescriptions than other affiliations on what alternative occupations are allowable.37 Estimates are that just under three-fourths are farmers. Swartzentruber farms tend to be smaller than those of other Amish. Since Swartzentrubers often work for lower wages than others, some farmers hire them to milk cows and make the hay. Produce growers often hire young Swartzentruber girls, who will work for ten to forty dollars per day. Many Swartzentruber Amish have side businesses or occupations that allow them to remain near their homes. Woodworking, buggy and harness construction, blacksmithing, carpentry, and working as a general handyman are all acceptable. A job should be physical and require some skill, but it should also keep one humble. Thus, because it suggests modesty, doing construction work on a part of a new house would be preferable to building the whole house. Although Swartzentrubers will work for English customers, they refrain from working for English contractors. Swartzentrubers’ tenacious hold on tradition comes at the cost of what outsiders might consider lost business and occupational opportunities. However, these pressures force creative capabilities to come to the foreground, resulting in novel products as sources of income. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

  Exploring New Enterprises

  As Amish people have in recent years sought new ways to make ends meet but at the same time remain close to nature, they have ventured more aggressively into new business arenas. Some of these are closely related to farming and traditional values, while others are less so and more controversial in the community. Dog raising and deer farming are among the more controversial enterprises engaged in by some Amish.

  Dog raising has grown as a means of supplementing family income, and dog farms may now be more numerous than dairy farms in Holmes County. In 2006 the county issued 478 kennel licenses; in 2001, only 276 were issued.38 The central reasons for dog raising are economic: it can be done at home, requires little acreage, and can be a significant source of income. The Buckeye Dog Auction, held about every other month in Holmes County, has been a source of controversy, even among some Amish. Attempts to move the auction to Geauga County have been rebuffed by that county because of negative feedback about the auction and allegations of animal cruelty.

  Although there is disagreement between protestors and breeders about the conditions under which dogs are being raised, part of the debate is also rooted in the way Amish and English tend to view the animals. Amish breeders see them pragmatically as a “commodity”: “Dogs are livestock, not people.”39 English protestors see them in moral terms, as “pets” with human needs and qualities. There are almost two hundred USDA-licensed breeders in Ohio, and at least half of them are in Berlin, Millersburg, and Sugarcreek, which are all in Holmes County.40

  In response to the negative publicity that dog raising has generated, a local Amish historian said that he thought the Humane Society and similar groups were focusing on the wrong issue. He argued that these associations should concentrate instead on pet owners who get tired of their pets and then just put them by the roadside. Dog breeders are generally licensed, and Amish take care of their animals, whether they are pigs, cows, horses, or dogs, he said. Nevertheless, several leaders in the Amish community have expressed uneasiness about dog raising as a major source of income, indicating that many have a “negative view on it” and that it is “not a traditional Amish vocation” that would have been “high on our forefathers’ list.”

  Deer farming has also increased among the Amish, as it has in the nation as a whole. A recent study by Texas A&M University estimated that, directly and indirectly, deer farming adds about $3 billion per year to the national economy.41 Ohio is among the states with the largest number of deer farms, 650–700 in 2007. “For many in the Amish communities, deer breeding is another way to diversify their operations … There are a lot of Amish farmers in Holmes and Wayne Counties who are turning to deer farming … It doesn’t take a whole lot of land … You can have a deer farm by dedicating 10 acres of the worst farming land you have.”42 While a disproportionate number of Amish deer farmers in Ohio appear to be clustered in Wayne and Holmes counties, particularly around the communities of Millersburg, Fredericksburg, Dundee, and Apple Creek, Amish deer farmers are also found in Geauga County, and a few are scattered throughout other parts of the state.43

  By diversifying their farms through deer farming, Amish farmers can help ensure that their land will be passed on to following generations. Many Amish deer farmers, however, take on deer raising only as a hobby. A significant number of Andy Weaver Amish have pursued the endeavor. An Amish farmer may put aside part of his farm to raise deer and then sell them or their products commercially to other ranchers or owners of hunting preserves. Deer farming is attractive because deer require less food, are less taxing on the land than cattle, mature early, and can reproduce for up to twenty years.44 Not only can more profit often be gained from deer farming than from traditional farming, but it also affords another opportunity for the Amish to gain a livelihood without leaving their farms or their homes. A 2007 two-day deer auction in Wayne County, Ohio, that attracted many Amish brought in over $3 million in sales.45

  Like dog raising, however, deer farming has elicited mixed reactions in the Amish community. Too often, one Amish farmer observed, “the entire thing comes down to the big trophy deer, to the big rack.” “For us to be involved in entertainment for some rich fellow to come out and pay $10,000 to shoot a trophy buck that was raised in a pen—there’s something not right about it,” said another. It also brings “negative publicity” from the outside. Neither dog raising nor deer farming appears to be “quite consistent with what we pretend to be,” said an Old Order businessman. He thinks there are better ways to survive: “Providing good, wholesome nourishing food is something we can all feel good about.”

  A third somewhat controversial enterprise that some Amish have taken up is establishing salvage stores that sell dented, water-damaged, and expired foods and medicines (but not baby formula). In addition to serving as a source of income, these stores are consistent with Amish values of efficiency and
careful use of resources. The Ohio stores, most of which are located in the northeastern part of the state, attract an increasing number of customers who are financially strapped. “We’ve been amazed, how good we’ve done,” remarked one Amish owner.46

  Less controversial than deer farming or dog raising, greenhouses and produce auctions are two additional sources of income for the Ohio Amish that are more consistent with their values. Greenhouses, especially those focused on hydroponic technology, are steadily increasing in number because they do not require large areas or quality soil, and they allow intensive production of crops. They are also energy-efficient and can be operated without electricity. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and cucumbers are the vegetables most often grown in them.

  Produce auctions have also become more prevalent in Ohio and have made a resurgence nationally, primarily as a way for small-scale farmers, including many Amish, to market their organic goods locally. The auctions occupy an important economic niche because they lie midway between large agribusiness and individual produce road stands. They benefit small local businesses that can purchase fresh products and therefore compete with large grocery chains such as Wal-Mart and Kroger. Small-scale farmers do not produce enough for large chains, but they can satisfy the needs of small businesses. As of 2004, there were about a half dozen produce auctions in Ohio, all of them Amish-owned. And all are less than twenty years old.47 The Mount Hope Produce Auction in Holmes County was the first of its kind in Ohio and is currently one of the largest in the state.