Plain Community in Organic Agriculture

Kate: Welcome to the Taproot Project. My name is Kate. When I was originally planning this podcast series, I spoke to people in agriculture across the Midwest about what stories they felt needed to be told about Midwestern agriculture. And what I heard back more than anything else was we need to talk about the role of the Plain community. Plain here P L A I N M is the preferred umbrella term for Christian groups like the Amish, the Hutterites, and Old Order Mennonites that generally live in tight knit communities separ from the modern world. I'll admit that I was surprised so many people pointed me towards an episode about plain people in Midwestern agriculture. Could these small separatist communities truly be impacting the region's agriculture so greatly? Spoiler alert. Yes they can. In this episode we will explore two areas of Midwestern agriculture that have really been shaped by the Plain organic dairy and produce auctions let's cover some basics before we get into the episode. First, Mennonites and Amish are not the same. They share the same historical roots in the Anabaptist faith tradition and they agree on basic Christian doctrine, but they have different interpretations about how to live out their faith, with Amish communities generally embracing more of a separatist lifestyle. The Plain communities are also incredibly diverse in their belief structures. The Amish, for example, have no central church government, so each community is organized around a church and develops its own set of rules that guides a good Amish life. This set of behavioral rules, called an Ordnung, provides group identity and can vary a lot between communities. Okay, let's get into the episode. Agriculture is embedded in the plain way of life. Their commitment to old world farming methods has turned them into agricultural icons, praised by writers like Wendell Berry and often looked to as the example of what environmentally friendly agrarianism looks like. This commitment to agrarianism is both theological and practical. Plain people are generally Anabaptists, which is a Christian faith stream stemming back to the 1500s, and Anabaptist theology includes a responsibility to be stewards of the land. But the agrarian lifestyle is also ultimately about maintaining the family unit and supporting a sense of social and economic independence. Living off of the land is aligned with their faith and it allows family members to work alongside each other and maintain a business with minimal exposure to the outside world. Dairy farming in particular has been especially important to that sense of independence because it offers year round income to the family business. And despite challenges to the dairy industry and massive consolidation, plain farmers are still responsible for a huge portion of the US Milk supply. For example, in Wisconsin. More than half of the dairy farms are owned by old order Mennonite and Amish farmers. These are small family owned operations, usually under 35 cows. And the vast majority of them are certified or practicing organic. These farms are so important to the milk supply chain that the organic dairy industry has been shaped around these small family operations. To learn more I spoke with Phil Forbes. Phil is the senior director of supply chain at ah, Kelowna Supernatural, an organic milk brand based in Kelowna, Iowa. He is not a member of the Plain community himself, but he has worked closely with Amish, um, farmers for over 20 years.

Phil Forbes: Okay, so Cologne Supernatural is a mid tier organic dairy brand and its claim to fame is minimally processed and focused on the Plain communities. So for the brand itself I would say, um, oh, 90%, 95% of the, of the raw milk that comes into to be processed comes from the Plain community in Iowa. In Iowa and a couple farms in northern Missouri.

Kate: Many Plain communities use organic methods. This isn't true across the board, but it is especially true in Iowa. I asked Phil about how he's seen the Amish community impact organic dairy.

Phil Forbes: Um, so historically the plant community coming over from Europe, they were real farmers. Obviously probably everybody kind of was when people came over initially. But they've really stuck to farming as a way of life. Uh, also building it depends on where they're at. And to your point, all these communities, Mennonite and Amish are all different. Each community creates, you know, they have a framework of kind of how they're going to be, but then how the community is going to agree to allow certain practices to proceed as being a part of how they can cohere together. So with that they've observed the uh, effects of conventional ag and have m in each community. I've noticed this, I've just been in so many of them, they've just noticed the destructiveness without being hyper sophisticated as to why. They wouldn't be able to give you the scientific reasons, but they would be able to give you the empirical observations of the destructiveness of conventional ag with spring and you know, all the different types of seeds. So they have just naturally moved more to the organic space. And so I've had, you know, Amish producers and their wives would tell me, yeah, we want to be for instance grass fed organic because we feel like that's really how the earth should be treated. And I think really because they don't talk about the price even though they're going to get paid more, they're not talking about that. They're talking about their, uh, their feelings of responsibility for what they should be doing while they live here on this earth. And so it's just for where organic, um, products, especially organic dairy, but also produce, um, chickens, eggs, organic eggs. A lot of that comes from the plain community a lot. And I would say we'll just use the organic dairy industry. Where is the growth coming from? Well, it's coming from two ways. Very large, non Amish, uh, organic dairies, very large, 2 to 3,000 cows, 4,000 cows or Amish dairies, Amish farms milking 30 cows, 40 cows. So there's a lot of growth for the small farm in the Amish community. And then there's growth. Less people, but bigger spaces, more cows. Not I would call the Amish, call them the English. So the Amish would say that they would call me English and it's because I speak English and their first language is Pennsylvania Dutch. The English farmers are usually very large. The English farmers cannot, um, compete with the small Amish producers because the English farmers want trucks, they have electricity, you want more things. Whereas the Amish are the plain folks and they don't have electricity. Um, they have cut their cost to the bone. There's a lot of things they don't do based on their religious perspective, uh, and culture.

Kate: Phil is talking here about how much more expensive it is to run a large quote, English dairy business. But I was stuck on how the small family farms could possibly compete with larger tech savvy dairies.

Phil Forbes: So can you help me understand?

Kate: You just mentioned that there's a big

Phil Forbes: difference between like what, uh, you know,

Kate: large dairy could produce that ah, is English and using all of this technology

Phil Forbes: that maybe the small Amish, um, farmer is not, um, how, how are these

Kate: smaller Amish or Mennonite farms able to stay in business?

Phil Forbes: Is that where Kelowna comes in? Or like that where the. Yes. So claim the fame to Kelowna. But I would say with Horizon and M, almost all of the major um, dairy procurers, milk companies realize is that they need both types of farms. They need to pick up a small farm because that's where the, that's where the milk's at. That's where a lot of the um, growth is. But they also need to pick up the big farm because in many ways the big farm will subsidize picking up the small farm. And it's all logistics, it's all cost of the haul. It's usually the pricing to both farms are sometimes a little bit different, but very similar. However, to go pick up a big farm, you can back a, um, a tanker is what it's called. Whenever you're driving down the road and you see the cylinder trailers being pulled by these big tractor trailers, um, tractors, um, that's usually there is milk in there or orange juice or olive oil, but usually milk. And those will show up, let's say, to a big farm and load entire tanker right there because they have enough cows and enough milk to load that tanker. That's a very efficient farm to go get to take to the plant. Very efficient. Now, if you're going to pick up small Amish dairies, you may have to pick up 20 or 25 small farms. There's a cost to drive to these farms to back in, to load the milk. Usually it's not a lot of milk, just the hauler getting out of the truck costs money. Um, he's being paid a certain way. So it's way more costly to go pick up these small farms however you need to, because that's where the milk's at, a lot of milk. So, um, the milk companies, Kelowna, as a good example, um, pick up. We've used it as a marketing approach. Hey, we're picking up small farms and the customer that buys our product loves that. Absolutely loves that. Oh, let's, let's support the small farm by buying Kelowna. Well, Horizon and Organic Valley do it too. But they also pick up very large farms. I would say, generally speaking, that the organic space, um, and organic market has allowed for the small farmer to have an opportunity. Otherwise, it's only going to push a very small few into the, to the large farm structure, which almost requires investors, um, managers, employees, human, uh, resource departments. I mean, these are, these are major operations. I've been on a 10,000 calderi in New Mexico. That's a small city. I mean, there's towns in Iowa that are 25 people. So you go to these dairies and it's, I mean, they have the same problems as a small city that where's the wastewater going? How are we getting rid of the manure? Where's the water? Uh, as opposed to going on. And I've done this many times going on to a small little Amish dairy that's hand milking 10 cows. I've done that many times.

Kate: I also learned in my research that Amish communities will use a trustee system. If a farm business is failing, three trustees will be appointed to assist the business. The church appoints one trustee, the farmer chooses another, and then those two trustees elect the third. Together, these three people can help the farmer get back on track. It's a built in social safety net that really drives home how businesses are not just individual ventures, but community projects. And this is also where farming interacts with the Ordnung. The community's behavioral standards, agricultural technology and food safety regulations are changing all the time. And communities must decide what to adapt and what to reject. For example, when grade A fluid milk regulations started to require bulk refrigerated milk tanks, Amish communities were at a crossroads. Some adapted to the new regulations and some created partnerships with cheese plants that would accept grade B milk.

Phil Forbes: Within Kelowna or the farms that you work with. How do you see decisions being made? And how often are people in the communities revisiting certain parts of agricultural practices and making decisions about how to stay updated or not? Yeah, um, so I could talk about that for Kelowna and then also across Indiana, Ohio, all of them, um, all the communities, like I said, are, um, self contained. So they're usually led by a couple of leaders, um, who are chosen by lot, I believe. So that's generally how the context is now. How they change is over time. For instance, um, even though it's honestly really impressive how they resist the outer world all around them, um, they do modify. And I think they are pragmatic in that if we're going to survive in this world, there's some things that have to change and then there's some things that will not change. Because they say, and I think rightly so, if we let that thing change, it's a domino that won't stop and we will all fall apart as a community in our approach to life. So it will change very slowly. Um, but it does, and I think a lot of it is the reason the change happens is that the community realizes for them to survive in the area that they're in, they do need to change this thing. For instance, having a cell phone and being able to respond to buying and selling, if that's what they're into, uh, more than having a phone in a phone shack somewhere else and visiting the phone shack once a day, those kind of pressures lead to a change in the community structure.

Kate: Thank you so much to Phil for sharing his observations from working with Amish dairy farmers. The plain community has shaped the growth and popularization of another key piece of Midwestern agriculture, the produce auction. The produce auction is a business model designed to support local farmers. On regularly scheduled auction days, farmers will bring their produce in bulk to the auction space. Anyone from the public can come to buy. But the auction mainly serves grocers or other food retailers looking to resell the produce. As a buyer, you can walk among the rows of produce pallets and place bids. The highest bidder takes their produce home, and the auction business typically earns an 8 to 12% commission on the sales. The arthur produce auction in arthur, illinois, Is one of the largest auctions in the state. The produce sold there is grown within a 20 mile radius of arthur, A predominantly amish and mennonite community. I spoke with Sheldon raber, the manager at the arthur produce auction.

Sheldon Raber: So I'm, um, Sheldon raber. Um, I'm the manager at the arthur produce auction. So basically I coordinate what comes product coming in, what we know is coming in, and also coordinate with buyers that are coming in to buy.

Kate: What is your connection to the plane community?

Sheldon Raber: So I am a member of a mennonite church there in arthur, so I am part of the plane community as well. To say we're not that much different than the amish. Um, the main difference would be the amish would drive horse and buggies, and we do drive cars and, and talk

Kate: on the phone with me.

Sheldon Raber: Right.

Kate: And for the uninitiated, what is a produce auction? Walk me through it like I'm there for the first time. What would I see?

Sheldon Raber: So our farmers, our growers grow, most of them grow produce specifically for the produce auction. Now, some of them may also have other markets, but they would grow the fresh produce, pack it, they bring it into the auction building. So basically, the auction building is simply a, uh, parking lot with a roof over top of it, if you will. Um, there's certain parts of it that we have sealed up, But a lot of it is actually just open building. And we are strictly a consignment auction where we are physically, we line that produce up in rows by pallets, whatever, and we physically walk up and down those roads and auction off the produce to the highest bidder. And, um, yeah, a lot of it is, like I say, it's case lots, pallet lots.

Kate: Produce auctions offer a number of benefits to local farmers. Built in marketing, frequent sale events, Solid demand, guaranteed payment, and sales close to home. They are often the most prominent business in the community. Larger produce auctions can have annual sales exceeding $3 million. Can you say more about who generally your growers are and who is buying through the auction?

Sheldon Raber: Sure. So our growers are mostly from the amish mennonite community. So our particular auctions, Arthur, illinois, the auction was actually pretty much started by the amish Community there in Arthur. Um, so there's some Mennonites as well as guards. There are some other people as well. But predominantly it is the plain people's community that is growing produce. Mostly families that they're doing a, ah, family, small family farm. Um, and then our buyers predominantly are stores that are um, buying to resell the produce. Some, um, marketers, I would say, I say stores, some of them are maybe they just have an open air farm stand or where they're buying and reselling. Some of our growers or some of our buyers are also farmers that actually grow some, but then they buy some either other product or buy a product to supplement what they're already doing. Now we are also open to the public. Anyone may come in and buy. And um, so we also have some homeowners or yeah, ladies that like to can vegetables that will just come in and buy cases so they can go home and can.

Kate: So what feels really interesting to me about the auction model is that you mentioned having families who maybe are just like growing out of their garden, but because it's being kind of aggregated with these other growers, there is suddenly a market for them.

Sheldon Raber: Correct. Um, the core group of growers that make the auction work are actually growing it as a livelihood. So they are growing acreage of crops. Our acreage or greenhouses full of that. Yeah, they're doing this for a living. But it's still a great family job, if you will, to have teenagers, um, involved in doing this. You know, it's a job and it's an ag job that, yeah, not um, like most other ag jobs, that children can be involved with it and actually help to do some of this. Now having said that, there is also, like you mentioned, I have a number of growers that maybe have an extra quarter or half acre of ground that they grow a small crop in there that yes, it would be really hard for them to find a market or to make it feasible to market that. But because we already have the auction going, that quarter, half acre can very well fit into what we're already doing. And uh, they have a wonderful market established for them.

Kate: Produce auctions have existed in the US for over 200 years, but the plain community stewarded them into the economic cornerstone they are today. Auctions centered in the Amish and Mennonite communities began in the 1980s in Pennsylvania. Spurred in part by declining demand for tobacco. Amish tobacco farmers switched into produce, and the produce auction became a way to support these farmers and promote agrarianism, which within the community. The model quickly Gained popularity among other plain communities. In 2019, there were over 70 produce auctions in the United States. The produce grown for these auctions represents a significant portion of fresh vegetable production in the country. For example, in Missouri, Plain people's produce auctions accounted for 26% of the state's market share of fresh vegetables in 2017. Why. Why did the produce auction get started? Can you tell me about how. How it came to be and kind of what problem it was solving for?

Sheldon Raber: Right. So the vision of the auction is it's basically for the people that want farmers. People, it wasn't all farmers that had a vision for maintaining ag and um, love of farming, growing things. And pretty much for the. So for the good of, uh, the community as well as the good of those that wanted to stay in an ag lifestyle and an agriculture job. Yeah, there's definitely, um, if, uh, you've worked with enough farmers, you know that that passion that comes out and those that are involved in agriculture want to stay there. And um, just that this auction is more of a community building support to the agriculture community. Those that want to be involved in the ag.

Kate: Was that because the community was seeing more people leaving agriculture? Like, was it becoming less viable for folks?

Sheldon Raber: Some of both. In the Arthur community especially, we were very. There's a lot of woodworking. Um, we actually are the agriculture. The farmers are very. Are actually a small percentage compared to only a couple generations ago where there was a lot more agriculture. So yes, some of that was definitely the. There was people leaving agriculture. They wanted to make it feasible to stay in it. And um, it wasn't feasible on small acreage to be profitable outside of something like produce.

Kate: These auctions are specifically designed to benefit the hyperlocal community. Many produce auctions are organized as grower owned LLCs or corporations owned by members of the community. You can see in this model how important it is for the plain community to one, support its businesses, but also specifically support and protect a culture of agrarianism within the community. I asked Sheldon about the business model for the Arthur produce auction.

Sheldon Raber: The auction company itself is a shareholder corporation. And yes, some of the ones that grow produce owned some shares when it started. There was a number of businessmen in the community that saw the value for families in the community to have this auction company that were willing to buy the shares to finance the building and the land to start with. And a number of them still own some shares there. That has changed somewhat over time to where more and more. More of those shares are being owned by the people that are doing the farming themselves. But, um, but yeah, it definitely was a vision of some of the businessmen in the community that really got the auction started.

Kate: That piece of it is really interesting to me that it was seen by the community as something that needed to happen. It wasn't a group of farmers or grocers who got it started. It was people who maybe didn't have direct interest in the auction. Is that correct?

Sheldon Raber: I would say so, yes. And by and large, no matter where you go, whether you're at Arthur or any produce auction, any community, you will find that most of them are in plain communities, Amish and Mennonite communities, and they're some type of community owned company, if you will. So. And I say that. So our, our vision is still to make it something that's worthwhile for the community to do something that's profitable for the growers. So the auction company itself does not make a lot of profit. The owning the shares of the company is not a profit making. Uh, they get, they get a little profit, but it's not. There'd be a lot better places to invest their money. Right.

Kate: Why, why do you think produce auctions are so specific to the, to the plain community?

Sheldon Raber: The easy answer is because it is a community thing. And it is. Um, the plain communities tend to be very tight knit communities to begin with, um, partly because of their church structure and how we work together as a church community. Um, and that's based on the Bible. And so that maybe follows into it that in order for the produce auctions to work the way we work them, it has to be a willingness to work together or it never works. If every grower worked independently, they wouldn't work well together, uh, as a group of the auction.

Kate: And here I fumbled my way through a question about what it is in the Anabaptist belief system and church structure that that encourages cooperation within the community. Which Sheldon graciously answered.

Sheldon Raber: So I'll try to do this without getting too deep. Uh, and you're putting me on the spot here maybe, but I welcome you

Kate: getting too deep too.

Sheldon Raber: Yeah. So the Amisha Mennonite community, or the broader term would be Anabaptist group. So the Anabaptist group, one of the core beliefs of Anabaptism compared to Protestantism, if I can generalize here. Um, and this goes back to the 1500s, in the beginning of Anabaptism. But the Anabaptists believe that the Bible clearly teaches that salvation through Christ is not only through Christ, but it's also directly relates to how a Man relates to his brother. And so love for brotherhood and fellowship within the community is an important part of obeying the Bible and following Jesus Christ. And so that translates. And then the Anabaptists would teach, and we believe that strongly that not only does it affect our spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ, it translates into everyday living. And so how we live in everyday life, how we relate to each other in everyday life, is directly affected by what we believe the Bible teaches us. And so that spills into or that controls business principles, if you will. And so that's why I say it's, uh, that principle is part of what keeps a, uh, community business organization that makes it work.

Kate: Thank you. That was actually. That was very clear and succinct. It seems like you're practiced at that. Do you remember? So have you always kind of been in food and ag or is this kind of a recent thing for you? Can you tell me about the. Maybe like the first time you remember, um, realizing that you wanted to be involved in the ag world?

Sheldon Raber: So the long answer is yeah, I've always had interest in ag. So, um, first job I had while I was still in school, um, part time was actually working on dairy and turkey farm. So probably I'm not sure if I would have stayed with that. Dairy farming would have won out. But anyway, um, I've always had interest. I've done several ag related things. I love what I do. I've always. So it really hasn't changed that much. I love working retail, working with people, filling people's needs. So I'd still prefer getting out there and selling produce to people rather than growing it. We enjoy growing it as well too. But.

Kate: Thank you to Sheldon for sharing about his life and livelihood. This episode would not have been possible without the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies, specifically the research of Nicole Welk Jorger and James Quinn. Their research is linked in the show notes. The Taproot Project is produced by me, Kate Cowie Haskell. Music in this episode includes Chasin it by Jason Shaw and Ghost Solos by Lucas Gonza. The Taproot Project is an initiative of the Midwest Transition to Organic Partnership Program, a uh, project funded by the USDA National Organic Program to support transitioning and organic producers with mentorship and technical assistance and to grow the greater organic community. Learn more@organictransition.org.