For Amish, life is changing, for
Jacob Beachy life moves along much as it always has. Every day, there are the
35 cows that need tending, as well as 90 acres of farmland. His is the life of
an Amish farmer, in which family, work, and faith intertwine on one plot of Ohio land.
Yet
across the street, on 60 acres that were once a farm, stands a sprawling new
mansion, complete with a multidoor garage. A few years back, that land sold for
$1.4 million.
“When
we moved here in 1968, we thought we were in the sticks,” Mr. Beachy says,
rocking in his living-room recliner. “All of this was working farms. It’s
changed a lot.”
Indeed, for America’s Amish, much is changing. The Amish are, by one
measure, the fastest-growing faith community in the US. Yet as their numbers
grow, the land available to support the agrarian lifestyle that underpins their
faith is shrinking, gobbled up by the encroachment of exurban mansions and their
multidoor garages.
According
to the study, there are 456 settlements in the US and Canada – a number
forecast to reach 1,000 by 2050. Likewise, the US Amish population – now at
251,000 –is estimated to grow to more than a million by 2050, the researchers
add.
In
the Amish heartland, these demographics are clashing with geography, as Beachy
can attest. “Amish will have to spread out,” Beachy says. “That’s why you see
settlements all over – they are looking for farmland. You can’t buy a farm
anymore to farm.” Click for article By Mark Guarino, Staff writer / November 30, 2012 Christian
Science Monitor