Indiana Amish Begin Embracing Renewable Energy
by Michael Smith
The junction of spirituality and environmental awareness seems to be getting more crowded. Even the Amish are now – and this is not actually all that new, as some of the orders that are not so strict have been at this already for a while – getting in on the act.
It is not the electricity but connection to the grid that the Amish object to.
While the majority of people probably associate the Amish with living outside of modern life, without electricity and machinery this is not entirely correct and true. While initially (like in the 1920s...) there was hesitation to adopt electricity, it was not so much the electricity itself that was the issue but the connection to the grid and therefore the outside world. Low-voltage electricity is perfectly permissible and will rising diesel prices, the cost of fueling generators is causing some people to look to renewable energy to fulfill their needs.
When it comes to machinery there are many places where the lathes and such for the workshops are either powered by water or even by steam engines. Again it is not the power, and such, but the connection, via the grid, to the outside world, that the Amish have a problem with.
When it comes to electricity some are turning to solar power and others are turning to wind power. Wind turbines can now be seen in a fair number of Amish places as can photovolatic cells on roofs and elsewhere. In many places it is a combination of anything renewable they can find, including water.
In some instances renewable sources of electricity supplements other off-grid options such as diesel generators, with which to power lights, refrigerator, freezer and machinery.
Some businesses too are getting gin on the renewable act in Amish territory Brian Burkholder owns Solar Energy Systems in Nappanee, Indiana and probably 70% of his customers are Amish. This is probably not least partially because he himself is Amish.
Off-grid is good for the Amish directly as well as for their businesses, whether they sell the technology or whether they use it for whatever they produce.
The interesting thing in this is that at least in a certain part of Indiana, a group of people associated with largely eschewing the modern consumer world seem to be adopting renewable energy faster than the surrounding population. I doubt that that is a bad thing though.
Whether we agree or disagree with the Amish on a religious basis and also on the way some seem to live and raise their families and such, some of their ways could teach us a lot as to how we could take pack some of our peace in life and on the planet. Their system, in general, has a lot lower impact on the environment than our hectic modern life has.
When we see Amish embracing the Internet and technology, even though, probably, with filtering systems, and who could blame them for that, then I know that the time is right to take a few more leaves out of their books.
However, their rather lower impact life could be a guide to some of us ate least. While I am not sure how horse and buggy would go down on the streets of London, and even in my location just outside the British capital, it is, to some extent, doable and it does not have to be horse and buggy but just the humble iron horse, aka the bicycle, and trailer.
I always do, to some extent, admire the Amish not to have taken up, in general, the infernal combustion engine. Mind you, when Henry Ford invented it, it was never meant to run on gasoline. But gasoline became to cheap hence the use of gas as fuel and what have we done...
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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Horse and Buggy plus Wind Turbine
