The Riddle of Amish Culture by Donald B. Kraybill

Author:Donald B. Kraybill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2001-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

THE MILK TANK BARGAIN

The electricity issue returned again in 1968. To improve sanitation and reduce hauling costs, milk companies began requiring dairy farmers to store and chill milk in large stainless steel tanks instead of in old-fashioned milk cans. Bulk storage tanks, powered by electricity, could hold a ton or more of milk. Amish farmers had already been chilling their milk in cans in mechanical coolers powered by diesel engines, but the bulk tank edict placed church leaders in a quandary. The dairy industry was booming in the 1960s. Amish herds with a dozen cows were doubled and sometimes even tripled. Milk prices were good. The diversified farming of the past was giving way to specialized farming. Amish farmers were using mechanical milkers, and the monthly milk check was becoming the prime source of income for many families.

In 1968 Amish farmers received a series of letters spelling out the stark ultimatum: install bulk tanks or lose the market for your milk. The tanks required electricity. Amish leaders were caught in a dilemma. If they banned the tanks, many members might lose their prime source of income: some would be forced to quit farming altogether, and others would sell their milk for cheese and take a financial loss. Rejecting the bulk tank might encourage young farmers to leave the church or force them to take factory jobs, placing the family farm in jeopardy.

An Amish farmer summarized the impasse: “The milk companies said we had to get bulk tanks or lose our milk market. Milk was our most important income and so we tried to keep it. The bishops had a hard line to draw so that farmers could make a living off the family farm, but yet not get too big and go in debt or go for government financing. We didn’t want electric or to have to tap into public lines.” If the bishops took a hard line on bulk tanks, they might annoy enough members to trigger a new division—something they surely did not want two years after the schism of 1966. And yet the bishops could not capitulate to modernity by overturning tradition and using public power lines. They could not rescind their recent taboo on electric generators. If they did, history and the Lord himself would never forgive them; moreover, how would they ever control the use of electricity with all its complications?

Although the milk companies pressed the issue, they also needed milk from Amish farmers and thus were willing to negotiate. In a series of three delicate meetings, a settlement was chiseled out between the stewards of tradition and the agents of modernity. Five senior bishops and four milk inspectors negotiated the deal in an Amish farmhouse. The senior milk inspector, who spoke the Amish dialect, called the meeting. He said in retrospect: “We had a long battle with them, but we didn’t want to lose them.”

The milk inspectors and the moral inspectors dickered over a variety of issues. First, how would the tanks be powered? That was easy.

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