The Amish are different than us in many ways and many of us find ourselves a bit curious about their way of life. Many of us believe that because they lead a simple, hard working life, they don’t use any modern conveniences at all, including pesticides and herbicides when they grow their vegetables.  I cannot begin to tell you how many times I’ve read on Facebook as well as elsewhere on the internet, that the Amish grow their produce organically and eat organic locally grown food.  I’ll bet that you’ve even believed or thought that as well?

Well, it’s FALSE.  Some of them do eat organic and some of them do grow their crops organically, just like some of us do.  But the operative word here is SOME.  Just like us, it’s a case of some of them do and some of them don’t.  I happen to know at least 20 Amish families and only TWO of them grow their crops and eat organically.  The others are totally conventional.

The organic Amish pasture their animals and when winter comes, they feed their animals organic hay, which is quite costly.  The conventional Amish pasture their animals as well, but their diet is supplemented with conventional grain in summer as well as in winter.

My husband was raised Amish, but at the age of 15, when he was supposed to join the church, he never did.  Instead he joined mainstream society and I met him while he was living and working in NYC.  He told me that the most common misconception concerning the Amish is that they’re organic and don’t use pesticides and herbicides on their produce.  He told me his parents were conventional farmers and used pesticides and herbicides liberally on their crops.

When we moved here to central New York state in 2010, we found ourselves living among many Amish close by and made friends with many of them.  We’ve been invited to dine with them and I’ve gone food shopping for them at Walmart, of all places.  It was truly amazing to me that they eat stuff like hot dogs (the cheapest brand) and white bread and they drink soda and some of them even smoke cigarettes.  Even ones who do maintain organic farms, they still drink a lot of soda, the father and elder sons smoke cigarettes and consume a lot of processed foods along with the organically grown vegetables.   So much for the “healthy” lifestyle image I had of them.

One aspect of their lives in which they are indeed healthy is their work ethic.  They are very hard working people and their kids are raised to pitch in and help by doing chores.  Their kids aren’t sitting or laying around the house playing video games or watching TV or on the computer, as that would be rather difficult with no electricity.  I’ve never seen an obese Amish kid.  This is one category, where I believe they’re healthier than us and our kids.

The purpose of this article is to guide you when you go to farmer’s markets, Amish markets, Amish farms, etc…  Make sure you know who you’re buying from and what their growing practices are.  Never assume that because they’re Amish that the fruits and vegetables they’re selling must be organic.

Most times they are not.