Jeff Smith

Jeff Smith is a journalist and editor who has written extensively about the environment, outdoors and lifestyle during the course of his 30-plus year career. For 20 years he edited Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine, an award-winning monthly regional publication focused on life near the shores of the northern Great Lakes. In his previous position, Jeff wrote for nearly a decade about federal and state environmental law and policy related to the world of hazardous and low-level radioactive waste. Currently he works for Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, a nonprofit focused on environment, economy and community. His book "Becoming Amish" was named by the Mennonite Information Center of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as a Top 5 read for learning what it's truly like to live an Amish life. Jeff first wrote about his lifelong friends the Mosers during the economic crash of 2008. The magazine story folded into the national conversation about people looking for simpler and more meaningful ways to live balanced and fulfilled lives. Jeff wondered what perspective the Mosers, who had left one of America’s wealthiest communities to become horse-and-buggy Amish, could bring to that conversation. The book Becoming Amish grew from his belief that, though few modern families would ever become Amish, there were many aspects of the Amish life that could inform today’s families as they contemplated shaping more intentional lives. He also saw that the Mosers, as people who grew up in modern, everyday America, brought unique perspective to the topic because they were both insiders and outsiders in the Amish world, and their observations would resonate with their contemporary peers. Jeff and his wife Linda have four children and live in Cedar, Michigan, near northern Lake Michigan and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. In his spare time, Jeff kayaks, canoes, cycles, hikes, cross-country skis, snowshoes and attempts to grow vegetables.