Amish Farmers May Save Our Food

The challenges facing many farmers have little to do with business practice and lots to do with natural practices.

As a self proclaimed green thumb myself, I can identify with the stress and loss they feel when a plant dies or they find a whole field of crops struggling to survive against a strain of powerful fungi.

The temptation to spray a field of food with toxic pesticides and herbicides is real for many hard working American farmers.

A community of farmers (who have a long history of agriculture under their belt) may be leading the fight for safe and natural farming practices in this country.

An 18 year old Amish farmer may be the last person you would expect to be behind one of the country’s leading agricultural consulting firms, but John Kempf is helping to revolutionize organic agriculture.

Even some of the best organic farmers can’t escape the damage of crop destroying pests, which is what Kempf plans to change.

With only a grade 8 education, John Kempf was moved to brush up on his biology, chemistry and agronomy in the hopes that research could save his family’s crops.

It was not long before he made a groundbreaking discovery – literally and figuratively!

While studying the plants immune system, Kempf found that healthy plants produce a combination of compounds which can be lethal to intruders. In much the same way human immune system works to combat viral strains, a healthy plant is capable of fighting off some of the most powerful fungus.

Upon further investigation, Kempf was able to identify the exact deficiencies of his crops and instead of feeding a generalized fertilizer (as modern agriculture teaches) integrated the lacking minerals directly into the soil to rejuvenate the plants natural defence system.

Kempf promises consistent harvest results from these high energy plants and even under extreme weather and seasons of less than ideal conditions, these nourished crops yield growth.

The average harvest of most modern crops is only 10-25% of their natural potential.

In contrast to the methods used to produce organic certified produce, this process will help restore the balance to the natural ecosystems which have been damaged from years of abuse and deprivation.

Testimonials support the effectiveness of Kempf’s science.

Samuel Zook is also an Amish farmer who struggled to grow crops without the use of pesticides, but has now seen his farm flourish using Kempf’s eco-agriculture.

He claims he has succeeded in growing crops that are healthy using plant nutrition alone and that the biggest hurdle was erasing the concept that bugs are bad: “I’d see a couple bugs out there and feel like I had to immediately do something about it.”

Although not all his problems have vanished, Zook is confident that this system of specific trace minerals will soon succeed on fully fortifying his crops and eliminate what pests do remain.

Initiatives like these by large groups of farming communities will without a doubt influence the larger operations, if even simply by proving that quality can be achieved without the use of any chemicals.