[Newfie]

Belize (nee British Hondorus) has a large Mennonite/Amish community. About 20,000 or 10% of the population.

From what I understand they moved from Europe through Canada to Belize. The area called Spanish Lookout has been highly developed by them. Looks a little funny to see a horse and buggy under banana trees and bamboo.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'B')elize (nee British Hondorus) has a large Mennonite/Amish community. About 20,000 or 10% of the population.
From what I understand they moved from Europe through Canada to Belize. The area called Spanish Lookout has been highly developed by them. Looks a little funny to see a horse and buggy under banana trees and bamboo.

[wisconsin_cur]

There are conservative Anabaptist communities in many places in the Western Hempsphere: Canada to the Amazon (there maybe some further South, I just can not think of any off the top of my head). The Amish are just one (but perhaps the most readily identifiable).

Less conservative groups can also be found through out Africa (they are Africans not European) and even some small pockets in Asia as well as North and South America.

[Pretorian]

i recall one sect from eastern europe ... supposedly they all live in usa now..... so they are forbidden to touch any form of money, or have any ids.
Overall, I reckon any kind of sect is a perfect business plan. Look at Christians for example...

[Ayoob]

If they were more aggressive, they could have bought more land and given their children the opportunity to farm like their fathers did.

This is a problem of parents not seeing what's coming and preparing for it. Have three children? Buy more land!

[rangerone314]

I wonder if the Amish will be overrun when TSHTF... I do believe they will be unless they compromise their peaceful beliefs... they have a lot of good growing land...

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AAA', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', 'F')or example, did you know that the Amish are the only Americans who do not have to pay into Social Security? The Supreme Court granted them this exclusive right, which applies to the farmers (the town workers have to pay into SS). The whole reason for this is because the Amish religion forbids them from accepting SS checks, and they take care of their elderly on their own.

[mos6507]

They are not the perfect model of sustainability that some make them out to be. They just represent a pre-industrial-revolution european lifestyle which has a slower burn-rate than BAU, but as long as they reproduce above replacement, they are going to have long-term issues. Likewise, any post-peak transition town that follows a neo-Amish model will have similar long-term issues if they don't also push for steady state population.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rangerone314', 'I') wonder if the Amish will be overrun when TSHTF... I do believe they will be unless they compromise their peaceful beliefs... they have a lot of good growing land...

[Windmills]

A smart group of bandits will set up a protection racket and siphon off the right amount of food from them to make sure the farmers don't starve or get too rebellious. But there are always great examples of dumb groups of people, so I could see such a group raiding and taking more than they could even use, causing the farmers to lose production from all the effects of not being left with enough food to sustain their village in its previous state.

Just when you think people can't get any stupider, they will surprise you.

[mos6507]

I think the idea that farmland will just be left untouched because the brutes out there don't know agriculture is wishful thinking. When you've got the ability to outgun, you can pretty much do whatever you want, whether doing a one-time raid of their harvest, enslaving the farmers, or killing most of them except for one or two "teachers". I mean, once you've dispensed of any sort of respect for human life other than your own, the options for your survival open up quite a bit. Certainly many "zombies" will be busy raiding the cities for the remnants of canned food and twinkies with 30 year shelf lives, but I expect some will venture outward once the cities are sucked dry.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')here's a pic of a banana Amish:

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', ' ') I mean, once you've dispensed of any sort of respect for human life other than your own, the options for your survival open up quite a bit.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Windmills', '
')Just when you think people can't get any stupider, they will surprise you.

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'O')r do you know a bunch of people like that? Personally, I have never met anyone like that in real life, only here on the Internets of Doom.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gnm', '
')Ludi, I have met several. Scary people. At least 2 of which I know met a bad end..

[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gnm', '
')Ludi, I have met several. Scary people. At least 2 of which I know met a bad end..

[coyote]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'B')elize (nee British Hondorus) has a large Mennonite/Amish community. About 20,000 or 10% of the population.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rangerone314', '
')If things get ugly, as in Chilean-soccer-team-stranded-in-the-Alps ugly, almost anything is possible.

[highlander]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '
')Is the Zombie Horde actually that stupid? (I wouldn't know, I've never met any zombies )