Pennsylvania Leads the Way in Promoting Agriculture.

[Ken]

2 square miles? That is far too small a sample size to be significant.

That's Belleville. The next larger census tract is Mifflin County which includes the county seat Lewistown the next valley over.

All of my family who aren't actively dairy farming have left the area as have their children. Because there is nothing to do. Unless you want to live there and commute long distances to jobs elsewhere. There was a New Holland assembly plant some time ago that closed and as far as I know, the factory just sits vacant and was not reused for any other purpose, or maybe it has since been torn down. There was also a big dairy processing plant that is now closed. The bustling IGA grocery that was right downtown when I was younger is long gone, replaced by a Dollar General on the highway on the edge of town and a Wal-Mart over in Lewiston. The HS closed a decade ago and was consolidated with the larger on in Lewistown.

It is a pretty place to be sure. But the population of the county is aging and slowly dropping and about down to where it was 50 years ago in 1970. Which makes it not very different from a lot of other parts of rural America. But unless they welcome new people, not much is going to change. Which is exactly how most people want it I suspect.

Not where I'd suggest young people go to try and make a start in farming.

[ohio jones]

The median age is 60 and there are 4x more people over 80 than in their 20s.

Mennonite farmers buying farms within the boundaries of the census area almost certainly has nothing to do with this census trend.
And 80 percent of the population moved in since 2000.

2 square miles? That is far too small a sample size to be significant.

And what might be located within those two square miles and account for at least 20% of the population? Hmmm...
https://vvrconline.org/

The bustling IGA grocery that was right downtown when I was younger is long gone, replaced by a Dollar General on the highway on the edge of town and a Wal-Mart over in Lewiston.

...and a bustling Sharp Shopper right downtown.

[Ken]

The median age is 60 and there are 4x more people over 80 than in their 20s.

Mennonite farmers buying farms within the boundaries of the census area almost certainly has nothing to do with this census trend.
And 80 percent of the population moved in since 2000.

2 square miles? That is far too small a sample size to be significant.

And what might be located within those two square miles and account for at least 20% of the population? Hmmm...
https://vvrconline.org/

The bustling IGA grocery that was right downtown when I was younger is long gone, replaced by a Dollar General on the highway on the edge of town and a Wal-Mart over in Lewiston.

...and a bustling Sharp Shopper right downtown.

Yes, the nursing home has been around forever. What has changed is that the area has been bleeding other jobs. Here's an article from 2010 that talks about the closure of the New Holland Plant and dairy plant and how that affected the town. https://www.pennlive.com/specialproject ... ellev.html

So what does a young person do if they want to stay in the area and don't have the millions in capital that it would take to buy a dairy operation? Change bed pans at the nursing home? Drive long distances to jobs in distant cities? We already know from Josh and Ken that opening winery and wedding venue is verboten. Can't have that sort of thing. The children of my cousins who still live there have mostly drifted off to the suburbs of Philly and Northern Virginia to find professional work.

And back to my original point. What would happen if today's current generation of immigrants. Say families from Sudan or Guatemala wanted to make their start in farming in this part of central Pennsylvania just like previous generations of immigrants. Or even just a young Black family from Philly as in the article? Would they be welcomed with open arms and would the community rally to help them get started? Or would doors be closed behind the scene to make sure that whatever land they had their eye on is no longer available? I suspect I know the answer but would be happy to be proven wrong.

[Ernie]

All of my family who aren't actively dairy farming have left the area as have their children. Because there is nothing to do. Unless you want to live there and commute long distances to jobs elsewhere.

Everything I hear coming from Belleville is that there are lots of jobs and barely enough people to do them. The Plain people stay, and the not-so-plain people are the ones who concluded there is "nothing to do".
"Nothing to do" is determined by the values of the surrounding society.
Society in general views manual labor and menial tasks as something to escape rather than something to pursue.

[Ken]

All of my family who aren't actively dairy farming have left the area as have their children. Because there is nothing to do. Unless you want to live there and commute long distances to jobs elsewhere.

Everything I hear coming from Belleville is that there are lots of jobs and barely enough people to do them. The Plain people stay, and the not-so-plain people are the ones who concluded there is "nothing to do".
"Nothing to do" is determined by the values of the surrounding society.
Society in general views manual labor and menial tasks as something to escape rather than something to pursue.

What are these "lots of jobs?" Nursing home work and home health care at near minimum wage? Plain people don't stay either. They are constantly seeking out colonies or opportunities elsewhere to send their younger generations because if you have 8 kids, only one can really inherit the family farm.

[Josh]

And back to my original point. What would happen if today's current generation of immigrants. Say families from Sudan or Guatemala wanted to make their start in farming in this part of central Pennsylvania just like previous generations of immigrants. Or even just a young Black family from Philly as in the article? Would they be welcomed with open arms and would the community rally to help them get started? Or would doors be closed behind the scene to make sure that whatever land they had their eye on is no longer available? I suspect I know the answer but would be happy to be proven wrong.

The last (and first) time I stayed in Belleville, I stayed with a black man originally from Haiti. He started a tyre shop, although now he is semi retired and works from home doing accounting type of work for Penn State.

As far as I know, he was welcomed with “open arms”, although he never tried to get into farming. His family did that back in Haiti.

I’m not sure what you mean by “the community rally to help them get started”. Does that happen anywhere, outside of immediate family? Anyone can go to a farm auction and bid. I was at a farm auction and got outbid by a group of (I think) Ukrainians or some other kind of Slavic people for a 62 acre place, who also owned large amounts of land next door. I just checked and Belleville has had plenty of auctions.

[Ken]

And back to my original point. What would happen if today's current generation of immigrants. Say families from Sudan or Guatemala wanted to make their start in farming in this part of central Pennsylvania just like previous generations of immigrants. Or even just a young Black family from Philly as in the article? Would they be welcomed with open arms and would the community rally to help them get started? Or would doors be closed behind the scene to make sure that whatever land they had their eye on is no longer available? I suspect I know the answer but would be happy to be proven wrong.

The last (and first) time I stayed in Belleville, I stayed with a black man originally from Haiti. He started a tyre shop, although now he is semi retired and works from home doing accounting type of work for Penn State.

As far as I know, he was welcomed with “open arms”, although he never tried to get into farming. His family did that back in Haiti.

As long as he doesn't try to turn that tire shop into a wedding venue, right?

[Josh]

As long as he doesn't try to turn that tire shop into a wedding venue, right?

We regularly hold weddings at our church there (and presumably all the other plain people do, too).

What I objected to was creating playgrounds for rich people to host expensive weddings, which would (obviously) be serving out-of-towners. That kind of thing hollows out and destroys a community.

[Ken]

As long as he doesn't try to turn that tire shop into a wedding venue, right?

We regularly hold weddings at our church there (and presumably all the other plain people do, too).

What I objected to was creating playgrounds for rich people to host expensive weddings, which would (obviously) be serving out-of-towners. That kind of thing hollows out and destroys a community.

So it wasn't the closing of the New Holland plant that hollowed out and destroyed Belleville. It was this place? https://brookmerewine.com/

[Josh]

As long as he doesn't try to turn that tire shop into a wedding venue, right?

We regularly hold weddings at our church there (and presumably all the other plain people do, too).

What I objected to was creating playgrounds for rich people to host expensive weddings, which would (obviously) be serving out-of-towners. That kind of thing hollows out and destroys a community.

So it wasn't the closing of the New Holland plant that hollowed out and destroyed Belleville. It was this place? https://brookmerewine.com/

Replacing strong manufacturing jobs for a blue-collar middle class with low wage service jobs being waiters to rich people is not what I consider “progress”.