“I am here from the government, and I am here to help.” Conservation Agent with a sense of humor introducing himself to Plain producers. Plain farmers (people of conservative Anabaptist faith1 – which include Mennonite and Amish)2 are a growing segment of the agricultural sector in some key Midwestern and Northeastern states, due to their high birth rates and desire for rural enterprises, especially farming (Cross 2014; Cross 2015; Reid 2015). Therefore, it is important to establish effective methods for public sector agricultural professionals as they work with Plain farmers on increasing their adoption of soil and water conservation practices given the linkages between agricultural nonpoint source pollution and growing environmental problems like the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Currently, little information exists to guide public sector agricultural professionals such as Extension educators, county conservationists, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) district specialists, Soil and Water Conservation Extension agents (henceforth all are referred to as “public sector agricultural professionals” or “professionals”) on how best to work with this growing and diverse population of farmers who are considered underserved by the USDA (Hoorman and Spencer 2001).

Literature Review

Theoretical Background

Extension has largely relied on adoption-diffusion theory to focus their outreach programming since the 1940’s (Blackburn 1989; Rogers 1995). This theory describes how farmers adopt different innovations based on how the merits of these innovations are communicated by actors within a farmer’s social network. There is evidence that producers with more social networks are more likely to adopt conservation practices (Baumgart-Getz et al. 2012; Prokopy et al. 2008). Consistent with this theory, the literature indicates that access to information for small landowners is important for practice adoption (Barbercheck et al. 2014; Perry-Hill and Prokopy 2015; Perry-Hill and Prokopy 2014; Prokopy 2011; Trauger et al. 2008). In the case of Plain farmers, information access will likely be shaped by the more conservative groups’ restrictions on modern communication (Bergefurd 2011), including the internet, which many conservation agencies use as a vehicle for communication. The Amish and Mennonites may be particularly difficult to reach (Perry-Hill and Prokopy 2015), as they have less access to electronic resources due to church regulations (Bergefurd 2011) and are often averse to working with governmental agencies. Plain people often have distinctly different social networks from nonPlain groups as their family, church, and work-life networks are often highly integrated and overlapping. Thus, while adoption-diffusion theory may provide some insights into Plain farmer behavior and how public sector agricultural professionals might better reach them, some key characteristics of this population and their social networks mean that its application may be limited.