I always feel I have to interject and counterbalance any hype about how “natural” the Amish are. Small, diversified farms are good, I agree. I’d much rather have those than the monocrop wastelands created by Big Ag.

But let’s be clear about something. Amish/Mennonite farmers don’t use horses and other old-fashioned methods because of a “back-to-the-land” ethic of communion with nature. Their customs aren’t a reaction to industrial food’s use of chemicals and combustion engines. They are separatists who see the rest of the modern world as wicked. Their eschewing of modern technology is not about embracing a slow lifestyle so much as it’s about not getting tangled up with outsiders and getting dependent on “the English” (as they call everybody who’s not one of them). The problem with electricity isn’t that it’s modern or fast or powerful. It’s that it comes in on a wire from the electric company and connects them to the same grid as everybody else. Many Amish have gotten around this by using pneumatic power tools run by on-site air compressors. Many Amish use chemicals and some have even embraced genetically modified seed.

Following is a sample of the ethic that drives the Amish/Mennonite way of life:

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14)

“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” (John 17:14)

“He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.” (Luke 16:15)

My point here is that if you see the word “Amish” on a food product, that doesn’t mean that it’s organic, naturally raised, free-range, grass-fed, or in any other way distinguishable from factory-farmed food. In all likelihood, it is not. You might as well shop for baked goods or cheese sporting the label “Lutheran” or “Catholic-raised.”