http://www.landinstitute.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2000/12/15/3df6412ab088c
An economic comparison of traditional and conventional agricultural systems at a county level
M.H. Bender
Accepted December 15, 2000

Abstract. In Holmes and Wayne Counties, Ohio, respectively, one-half and one-fourth of the farms belong to the Amish, an agrarian culture whose traditional agriculture has been remarkably successful. In an analysis of the 88 Ohio counties by means of the federal agricultural census, the economic performance of the two counties was examined in graphs of agricultural characteristics and financial indicators, some expressed on a per-ha basis across total farmland, as a measure of the efficiency of land utilization. Their performance was assessed relative to the following three groups of Ohio counties with high per-ha net farm income: those with large mean farm size, a prevalence of nursery and greenhouse production, or mixed crop and livestock agriculture. Belonging to the latter group, Holmes County ranked tenth and thirteenth highest among Ohio counties in per-ha gross and net farm income, respectively, and Wayne County, fifth and sixth. Despite the small mean farm size of 50 and 62 ha for Holmes and Wayne Counties, respectively, they matched counties of large mean farm size in terms of per-ha net farm income, and among 22 counties with small mean farm size of about 60 ha or less, they were exceeded only by three counties based on intensive nursery and greenhouse production.

The large incomes were due to high marketed value of animal products. Supplemental feed consumption was 2.0 and 1.3 times the harvested crop production in Holmes and Wayne Counties, respectively, thus indicating large net imports of purchased feed.

The large net incomes for the two counties were also a result of low labor costs, partly due to the fact that the Amish do not charge for helping each other on farms. When a conventional charge was applied to Amish labor, Wayne County remained among the highest of Ohio counties in per-ha net farm income, but Holmes County dropped to near the 50th percentile. Nonetheless, for the same decline, Holmes County remained among the highest of the 22 counties of small mean farm size because its initial performance was well above most of these counties.

Since this was a study of land use efficiency, some discussion is devoted to farm size and productivity, relative levels of animal production, and cropland requirements to power horses and biofueled mechanical traction, the former an integral component of Amish agriculture. In the latter topic, corn-based ethanol and horse feed would require roughly the same area of cropland for traction to farm the nation's cropland, but on a net energy basis, the former area (ethanol) would be more than twice the latter (horse feed). Since animal production is a major component of Amish agriculture, the results of the study provide indirect evidence that the small-scale, traditional farming of the Amish contributes substantially to the agricultural economies of Holmes and Wayne Counties.

When we had minimal fossil fuels we had a much smaller population. We need high yield farms to feed a much larger population.

If large scale mechanized agriculture does not have a high EROEI then we are going to get awfully hungry. My hope is that the EROEI of farms is already high enough or will rise fast enough due to technological advances that large scale mechanized agriculture will survive. I think every rational person should hope for this.