Abstract

Dairying among Wisconsin’s Amish and Old Order Mennonite farmers expanded through 2017, and by early 2018 Amish farms contained 12.9 percent of the state’s total dairy herds of cows, goats, and sheep. Old Order Mennonite herds comprised 5.0 percent. Faced with a variety of challenges, Wisconsin lost 198 Amish herds between April 2018 and July 2020, yet its number of Old Order Mennonite herds grew. Together, these groups operated over half of the dairy farms within 59 of Wisconsin’s towns in 2020. The paper examines the spatial patterns of expansion and contraction of Old Order dairying between 2012 and 2020, noting and explaining differences between the Amish and Mennonite farmers, as well as among the three conferences of Old Order Mennonites. Losses among the Amish were the greatest for can milk producers, yet 19 percent of Wisconsin’s Amish dairy herds were on certified organic farms in 2020.

摘要

2017 年，威斯康星州阿米什人和旧秩序门诺派农民的奶牛场扩大，到 2018 年初，阿米什人农场拥有该州奶牛、山羊和绵羊奶牛群总数的 12.9%。旧秩序门诺派牧群占 5.0%。面对各种挑战，威斯康星州在 2018 年 4 月至 2020 年 7 月期间失去了 198 头阿米什人，但旧秩序门诺教徒的数量却在增加。2020 年，这些团体共同经营着威斯康星州 59 个城镇中一半以上的奶牛场。本文研究了 2012 年至 2020 年间旧秩序奶业扩张和收缩的空间格局，指出并解释了阿米什人和门诺派农民之间的差异，如以及旧秩序门诺派的三个会议。阿米什人的损失对罐装牛奶生产商来说是最大的，