Amish Dedication to Farming and Adoption of Organic Dairy Systems - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 246

In addition to the cultural factors and oikonomia -bounded rationality issues
associated with organic dairy, there was also some risk aversion among Hillsboro
Amish towards marketing organically because of the costs of organic feed and
hay and the uncertain state of the organic line within Old Country Cheese. The
Hillsboro farms tend to be smaller than the Cashton farms and not all of them
were feed self-sufficient. (Many non-Amish intensive graziers shared these concerns
because sourcing organic feed can be challenging.). Although not many Amish cite
marketing uncertainty related to the unpredictable decisions of Old Country Cheese
described earlier, it is likely to have played a critical role in discouraging adoption.
Their investments in organic certification offered no organic price premium during
the periods when the co-op did not sell organic cheese. This uncertainty may have
created some risk or ambiguity aversion that limited organic dairy adoption among
both the Hillsboro and Cashton Amish. For example, one Hillsboro Amish who had
been organic when the co-op was selling organic milk, switched to conventional
fertilizer after the co-op decided to leave the organic market. But when the co-op
decided to re-enter the organic market, the farmer was understandably nervous about
once again incurring the cost of getting re-certified without any assurance about how
long Old Country Cheese would continue to purchase his milk.

12.10 Summary

Oikonomia and bounded rationality frameworks help to explain why and how the
Amish farm on the landscape. Organic dairy seems particularly well suited to the
Amish style of farming and their lifestyle, so the relatively low adoption rates of this
practice may be surprising to outside observers. Despite the popular perception that
Amish farmers are organic, not all Amish practice organic and/or other sustainable
practices. The Amish have reasons for farming and for deciding to adopt organic
dairy and some of these reasons are specific to their faith and culture. The Amish
emphasis on contentment and simplicity plays an important role in explaining how
and why the Amish farm in the midst of economically challenging times.
There can be a tension between maintaining common values and enabling
financial survival on the land when Amish elders decide what technology and
management systems are allowed. Decisions are made with the goal of attaining
unity among the church leaders. The Amish have minimal overarching structure
beyond the individual church settlements and their written and unwritten rules.
This minimal bureaucracy in combination with intimate social relations within
settlements may contribute to the diversity in how oikonomia values and bounded
rationality themes play out in complex adoption decisions within and across
communities.
The intersection between the frameworks of oikonomia and bounded rationality
described in this chapter at the community, settlement and individual levels is
helpful for understanding the complexities of individual factors when studying farm
management decisions. This framework may also be helpful for understanding the