The world of genetically improved agriculture just got a little bit bigger. The Associated Press reported yesterday that biotech farming has a new ally, and it’s just about the last group you’d expect to embrace new technologies: the Amish. Members of the traditional, austere sect will begin growing genetically-enhanced tobacco this year; the trend could grow to include food crops in the near future.
One Amish farmer in the town of Gap, Pennsylvania told an AP reporter, “I myself like biotechnology. I feel it’s what the farmers will be using in the future. There’s a lot of technology out there that I feel we’re just right on the edge of. … I think it’s exciting.”