Article on the Amish

Here's an NYT article about EPA regulations to lessen nutrient runoff from Amish farms in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For any contrarian out there who wants to point to this article as an indication that small-scale, low-tech farming is not environmentally friendly, I want to make a few points. First off, the population density is very high in Lancaster County. According to wikipedia, average farm size for the county isn't much more than 100 acres, which is tiny for a US farm. So of course a bunch of densely-packed small dairy farms are going to add up to a lot of total pollution, even if pollution per farm isn't that high. Likewise according to wikipedia, Lancaster County produces almost a fifth of the agricultural value in Pennsylvania. So the pollution produced compared to the value produced isn't necessarily that high. My final point is that the fixes being proposed by the EPA for the county's manure management problems are pretty simple and low-tech: keeping cattle away from riverbanks, storing manure in a pit instead of on the ground, etc. Let's hope that the Amish in Lancaster County can reduce their environmental impact without too much trouble, while maintaining their high-value, low-input, small-scale agriculture and their tight-knit, healthy community.