Considering that 70% of the land under agriculture in the Octoraro Creek watershed is Amish owned, Pat Fasano had to come up with a new way to try and persuade the farmers to undertake conservation plans. The fact that Fasano knows that Amish resistance to government intrusion into their lives is part of their cultural history and is taken very seriously was a key element in his success. You can’t send some meddling bureaucrat out to their farms to issue threats and condescend. This approach will only cause friction. Chances are they’d be talking to someone whose family has been living and farming in the area since the mid 18th century. This is not to say that the Amish should be exempt from undertaking reasonable steps to improve the water quality of the Octoraro, and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.
The fact that he was able to calculate out the exact distance at which the farmers will switch to Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch is just plain funny.
