Amish also feel strain of high fuel costs

…The Amish, widely known for their horse-drawn buggies and a lifestyle that shuns many modern conveniences, are as susceptible to the sting of rising oil prices as anyone else.

From the diesel fuel for tools used in milking cows, building cabinets and sawing timber, to the gasoline used to power washing machines and freezers, the pinch is real.


Amish are banned from driving cars and trucks because Amish leaders worry that faster transportation could “pull the community apart.” The prohibition, however, does not extend to fuel-powered motors and engines such as those used to run power tools and washing machines, says Donald Kraybill, a scholar on the Amish at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pa.

“I don’t know that there ever was a categorical taboo on the engine,” Kraybill says. “They used steam engines in the late 19th century.”

USA Today