business enterprises
Birhor Leaves for Dinner Plates
Birhor women have traditionally collected the leaves from saal trees in northeastern India to use as dinner plates for their families, but they have recently been trained to also fabricate them into commercial products. Ratan Kumar, the Deputy Commissioner for the Lohardaga District of Jharkhand state, is taking credit for initiating the training project among […]
Amish Bed and Breakfast Operations
Ben Riehl, an Amish farmer in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, operates his farm, installs solar panels for extra income in his spare time, and has opened his home near the town of Intercourse as a bed and breakfast establishment. According to an article last week in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Mr. Riehl’s Beacon Hollow Farm B & […]
Pepper and Honey from Kerala
The Hindu, a leading newspaper in India, recently reported on alcohol problems among the Kadar. The same paper last week published two more articles about them, the first of which focused on their new venture—the cultivation of pepper. The reporter indicates that the Kadar of Pokalapara, located in the Vazhachal Forest District of Kerala, decided […]
Montana Hutterite Fish Farms
A couple Hutterite colonies in Montana are hoping to make some profits from a new agricultural business that has the virtue of being, they feel, both sustainable and environmentally sensitive. It appears from a news report as if environmental considerations are very important to the colony. The Miller Colony near Bynum, Montana, and the East […]
New Ventures for the Yanadi
The government of India, a research foundation, and a volunteer organization have teamed up to help an impoverished Yanadi community begin an eco-friendly, low-input crab farming operation. According to a news report in The Hindu on Friday, the new project, fostered by the cooperating agencies, is located in the village of Sorlagondi, near Nagayalanka, in […]
The Amish Like to Work
It may be hard for non-Amish Pennsylvanians to appreciate the fact that their peaceful, hard-working Amish neighbors may have other things to do than spend money on consumer goods. The Amish disinterest in consumer spending, combined with their habit of working hard, may be starting to sour some attitudes toward them in the Philadelphia suburbs […]
Treatment of Hutterite Manufacturing Firms Questioned
While the pacifist beliefs of Canadian Hutterites have been controversial in the past, so have their communal living patterns, especially when they appear to pose problems for non-Hutterites. Last week, the CBC reported that some Canadian business people have been complaining about the colonies, which they feel are allowed unfair competitive advantages by the provincial […]
Amish Enterprises and Religious Practice
The Amish in Lancaster County are slowly moving into new business ventures as old ones cease to be profitable, but they have to cope with issues of growth, time, and technology that outsiders often don’t face. The Pottstown, PA, Mercury carried a feature story on Saturday that explored these issues. The reporter, Eric G. Stark, […]
Hutterite Colonies Accept Change
The Billings, Montana, Gazette has had two noteworthy stories about the Hutterites in the past few weeks. On Monday this week the paper carried a story about the way the United States Postal Service is running passport fairs at Hutterite colonies around the state. Since many Hutterites often travel to Canada to visit family members […]
Wal-Mart Conquers the Zapotec
A front page story in Monday’s Wall Street Journal describes in glowing terms the success of a new Wal-Mart in the Zapotec city of Juchitán, near the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca. The author, John Lyons, sets the tone for his story in the opening sentence: “For as long as anyone can remember, shopping for many […]
