In Amish Country, the Future Is Calling

[JonLP24]

By KEVIN GRANVILLE and ASHLEY GILBERTSONSEPT. 15, 2017

A young woman, wearing a traditional full-length Amish dress and white bonnet, stepped away from a farmer’s market, opened her palm and revealed a smartphone. She began to scroll through screens, seemingly oblivious to the activity around her.

Not far away, a man in his late 60s with a silvery beard, wide-brimmed straw hat and suspenders adjusted the settings on a computer-driven crosscut saw. He was soon cutting pieces for gazebos that are sold online and delivered around the country.

The Amish have not given up on horse-drawn buggies. Their rigid abstinence from many kinds of technology has left parts of their lifestyle frozen since the 19th century: no cars, TVs or connections to electric utilities, for example.

But computers and cellphones are making their way into some Amish communities, pushing them — sometimes willingly, often not — into the 21st century.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/business/amish-technology.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

[enough]

1. The Amish around us use chemical herbicides and pesticides on their fields and

in their greenhouses. I've seen barefoot children spraying Sevin in greenhouses with no breathing protection. I know it's Sevin because I asked.

I guess the future is here.