Amish Dedication to Farming and Adoption of Organic Dairy Systems - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 245

rapid changes in management instead of perpetuating negative perceptions and/or
divergent perspectives as it did in the Cashton settlement. As one Hillsboro farmer
states, “There was a period in the 80's where [we] used some pesticides but that
was mostly out of ignorance. Now we have more understanding.” Some of the
Hillsboro farmers started organic farming while they were in Indiana before moving
to Wisconsin. These farmers “were the first ones”, they “were on the train” and then
the “others who had not grown up that way” got on “the caboose” as one Hillsboro
farmer describes. Another Hillsboro Amish farmer who arrived in Wisconsin more
recently, stated the “community was more organically minded when he got here
so he learned a lot.” The community created an environment where knowledge
and positive ideas about organic spread within the community. So it seems that
the values associated with organics, i.e. the concern about the impact of pesticides
on the environment, was attributed to acquiring more information and thus was a
blending of oikonomia and bounded rationality.
In contrast to the Cashton Amish, some of the Hillsboro Amish connected their
social/spiritual oikonomia framework to organic farming in a positive way. For
example, for one Hillsboro Amish family, there is a connection with organic farming
and the Protestant Work Ethic. As one farmer stated “organic farming is well-suited
to family labor as the whole family needs to all get out there with a hoe and be
together” in order to counter weed pressures. Thus, with their decision to adopt
organic practices there is potentially a positive synergy between the agro-ecological
and the social realms with the oikonomia framework.
The tight social network of the Hillsboro Amish community also facilitated a
group certification strategy that significantly reduced the costs for individual farmers
to become certified organic. Under this scheme, a group of farmers that agree to
use the same management system is treated as one unit by the certification agency.
They are doing this group certification through ICO (Indiana Certified Organic).
The Cashton Amish formed an ICO group after hearing about it from the Hillsboro
Amish, and this created some limited exchange between the two groups.
This more positive environment for organics within the Hillsboro settlement lead
to much more subtle and positive forms of oikonomia -bounded rationality issues
even for those farmers who decided not to market organically. It seems that in
contrast to the Cashton Amish, for the Hillsboro Amish, their reasons for not going
organic may be more about keeping prices low for consumers and relations with
neighbors and this demonstrates principled satisficing or alternatively preferences
for helping others. As one of the Hillsboro Amish states, they are not certified
organic because they feel pretty well-established and should save “organic for the
young struggling farmer”. This Hillsboro farmer felt good about continuing to
produce milk for the conventional market because this allowed him to “provide
quality milk at an affordable price” rather than the higher priced organic market. As
another Hillsboro farmer offers, they choose to market their milk conventionally, so
they still have the option to buy hay from their Amish neighbors. In these cases, the
farmers' motivations for not marketing their milk organically is consistent with the
principled satisficing idea as they are not maximizing potential profits with higher
priced organic milk for value based reasons.