This is sad, regarding the Amish

[CathyA]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/05/22/314628097/amish-leave-pa-in-search-of-greener-less-touristy-pastures?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=morningedition&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140522

[awakenedsoul]

Beautiful photo. Farming is hard work. A lot of times children don't want to follow in their parents' footsteps. I'm glad they have other places to go. I don't blame them for wanting more privacy. Interesting article. Thanks for posting it, CathyA.

[goldensmom]

Must be why the Amish community is growing here. Farmland is reasonably priced, farms are staying in the families and more farms are bought or started by siblings. No tourists, we are all just neighbors and interact as such.

[ToomuchStuff]

If this is the place I am thinking of, a lot of the issues came from their own community. I was at a restaurant and they had a tv show called Amish Mafia on (pretty sure it was out of there). Looked like someone was trying to copy Jerry Springer.

[jp1]

I guess the part I don't understand is why they are such a popular tourist activity to begin with. I can understand wanting to buy furniture made by them or perhaps organic food grown by them, but furniture and grocery shopping are not in my definition of vacation activity.

[CathyA]

I've noticed that many Americans seem to like artifacts from a simpler time..........even though they go overboard decorating their houses with them, but having no concept of what living a simpler life is. I've never understood that. Our commercialism/consumerism in the U.S. is so out of control, it's crazy. We're like flies on a dead animal, in terms of what we will flock to.

[goldensmom]

I guess the part I don't understand is why they are such a popular tourist activity to begin with. I can understand wanting to buy furniture made by them or perhaps organic food grown by them, but furniture and grocery shopping are not in my definition of vacation activity.

I don’t get the tourist attraction part either. I know a lot of Amish people and other than standing out because of dress, mode of transportation and lacking some social graces, they are regular folk. I can see the attraction of viewing farms/farmland such as in the article but the majority of Amish farms look nothing like that.