Amish and Non-Amish Farmer Perspectives on Climate Change Causes, Effects, and Adaptation Strategies

Caroline Brock () and Haden Van R.
Additional contact information
Caroline Brock: Department of Sociology, University of Missouri, 322 Middlebush, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Haden Van R.: Agricultural Technical Institute, The Ohio State University, 1328 Dover Road, Wooster, OH 44691, USA

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: Successful agricultural extension programs on climate change require a better understanding of the diverse and evolving farm population. Amish communities are an increasing constituency of rural populations. Ohio Amish and non-Amish farmers ( n = 122) were surveyed on attitudes about weather events, climate change, potential adaptation, and policy strategies. Farmers’ belief in climate change and its associated effects were relatively low compared to other studies, with Amish farmers’ belief in climate change less than half that of their non-Amish counterparts. Farmers also tended to focus on isolated weather events over long-term trends. Respondents expressed more concern about government strategies to address climate change than the biophysical climate change effects, with a strong desire to adapt independently of government policy. These sentiments were more profound among the Amish. Both Amish and non-Amish farmers expressed views about God being in control of the weather and, thus, not a pressing source of concern for them. Results indicate the importance of Christian land stewardship principles and point to future research and outreach possibilities that could develop a better understanding of farmer motivations toward climate friendly practices through interviews and collaborative partnerships to promote conservation behaviors in culturally appropriate ways.

Keywords: Amish; agriculture; religion; climate change; adaptation; extreme weather; Christianity; environmental values (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/897/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/897/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:897-:d:1323128

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().