Mennonite Farmers: A Global History of Place and Sustainability

This remarkable book is a comparative study of Mennonite communities in seven disparate locations: Friesland in the Netherlands; Washington County in Iowa in the United States; the Rhineland municipality in Manitoba, Canada; Apollonovka district in southwest Siberia in Russia; the village of Margorejo on the island of Java in Indonesia; Matopo Mission in Matabeleland in Zimbabwe; and Riva Palacio colony in the Santa Cruz department in Bolivia. The successive chapters examine the historical origins of each community, their experiences with and in some cases resistance to agricultural modernization in the twentieth century, the differing attitudes toward religion and agriculture, the status and role of women, their knowledge of and attitudes toward a changing climate, and the varying international and global connections of each community.This book is the result of years of research by a team led by Loewen at the University of Winnipeg. It relies on a wide range of sources, from recent theoretical approaches to local publications, archives, diaries and memoirs, and periodicals. The study also uses numerous oral history interviews conducted by Loewen's students and colleagues in each region, based on a standard set of interview questions listed in the book's appendix.Loewen emphasizes that agriculture is based on local environmental conditions, but he also emphasizes the role of culture and “lived religion” in people's relationships to those environmental conditions (265). In his descriptions and analyses of these communities and their agricultural, religious, social, and political experiences, these different components carry different weights, based on their agricultural, economic, social, and political contexts.The Mennonite farmers in Iowa and Manitoba, for example, were much more willing to accept and apply modern mechanized and chemicalized farming techniques than the other communities. They were hesitant in the early decades of the twentieth century, but World War II, the competition of neighbors, and the increasing effectiveness of new technologies led most of them to modernize. They acknowledged Mennonite religious doctrines that emphasized simplicity and traditionalism, but by the 1970s traditional knowledge had become “nostalgia” and “cause for amusement” (82). By contrast, farmers in Riva Palacio tried much harder to hold onto traditional practices until these began to cause serious problems. For example, one of their traditions required them to use steel-wheeled tractors and reject rubber tires, until it became clear that steel wheels compacted the soil and reduced production.Attitudes about climate change also varied considerably. In Matabeleland and Riva Palacio the farmers were very aware of increasingly frequent and severe droughts and had a long tradition of remembering climate conditions that proved to them that their climate was changing for the worse. They attributed these changes in part, and in some cases assigned blame, to “greedy” outsiders who eliminated trees and extracted resources, but many of them understood at least in a basic way the global patterns. By contrast, farmers in Iowa and Manitoba were less affected, and while some recognized the problem, others minimized or denied the existence of climate change, viewing weather patterns as no different from the past and often as the result of divine interventions.The character and intensity of religious attitudes varied considerably. In northern communities, farmers maintained their religious beliefs but interpreted them in ways that rationalized their reliance on science and modern technologies. In Siberia, however, because of a history of harsh state repression of religion, arrests and removal of many men from their communities during the 1930s, World War II, and to a lesser extent during the post-Stalin period, the community's religious beliefs were quite intense even when they used modern farming practices. In Matabeleland and Margorejo, by contrast, Mennonite religion was syncretic and included traditional attitudes and practices from preexisting religious cultures, and their beliefs reassured them in dealing with changing weather, the introduction of modern farming, and social and political conflicts.The status and roles of women in these communities was particularly varied and often served as a greater challenge to religious doctrine. In all of these communities, religious doctrine tended to subordinate women and confine them to the household and peripheral activities. Yet in all of them women often resisted these constraints, taking on larger economic and social roles in their communities, especially in Siberia because the Communist government removed so many men. In Margorejo, women had considerable autonomy and class was a more important social division than gender; in Matabeleland, women had to struggle against traditional male domination and social and political conflicts.The communities also varied in their connections to the outside world. Iowa and Manitoba farmers, like their neighbors, early on were producing for international markets, and some of them went to Riva Palacios to help their fellow Mennonites modernize their work. Frisian farmers were incorporated along with other Dutch farmers in the European Union and subjected to its regulations. Riva Palacios farmers, as they came around to accepting modern techniques, sent representatives north to obtain more modern equipment as well as chemicals and seed. Post-Soviet Apollonovka became a capitalist farm and for the first time began receiving foreign visitors and advisers. Matabeleland farmers were increasingly impoverished and often viewed outsiders as vestiges of former colonial powers, although they also received financial and technical support from fellow Mennonites. Margorejo farmers were incorporated into the growing international Green Revolution and generally accepted it.Overall, this study presents vignettes of the evolution of farming in several of the main world agricultural regions. They show that these “Mennonite” farmers, regardless of their varying religious views, are fully part of their farming regions. Their religious-agricultural views, particularly their emphases on simplicity and traditional methods, were overwhelmed by new technologies such as mechanization, fertilizers, pesticides, and antidisease measures for livestock, and by environmental transformations, especially climate change. Most of these farmers had to accept and rely on such nontraditional measures because of increasing agricultural difficulties and a need for high production for their growing communities and markets.This book provides vivid grassroots views of these farmers' experiences in the process of modernization. It could be a very useful book for courses on regional and world agricultural history, for undergraduate students to expose them to farming in different parts of the world, and for graduate students as background and inspiration for their own research.

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