Wendell Berry, a quiet and humble man, has become an outspoken advocate for revolution. He urges immediate action as he mourns how America has turned its back on the land and rejected Jeffersonian principles of respect for the environment and sustainable agriculture. Berry warns, "People who own the world outright for profit will have to be stopped; by influence, by power, by us." In a rare television interview, this visionary, author, and farmer discusses a sensible, but no-compromise plan to save the Earth.
This week on Moyers & Company, Bill Moyers profiles Berry, a man of the land and one of America's most influential writers, whose prolific career includes more than forty books of poetry, novels, short stories and essays. This one-on-one conversation was taped at Kentucky's St. Catharine College during a two-day conference celebrating Wendell Berry's life and ideas and marking the 35th anniversary of the publication of his landmark book, The Unsettling of America.
Berry, described by environmental activist Bill McKibben as "a prophet of responsibility," lives and works on the Kentucky farm where his family has tilled the soil for 200 years. He's a man of action as well as words. In 2011, he joined a four-day sit-in at the Kentucky governor's office to protest mountaintop mining, a brutally destructive method of extracting coal. Moyers explores Berry's views on civil disobedience as well as his strong opposition to agribusiness and massive industrial farms. They also discuss Berry's support for sustainable farming and the local food movement.
"It's mighty hard right now to think of anything that's precious that isn't endangered," Berry tells Moyers. "There are no sacred and unsacred places; there are only sacred and desecrated places. My belief is that the world and our life in it are conditional gifts."
"We have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it. And to take good care of it we have to know it. And to know it and to be willing to take care of it, we have to love it."
Wendell Berry: Poet & Prophet is a collaboration between Mannes Productions, Inc. and Schumann Media Center, Inc., headed by Bill Moyers, which supports independent journalism and media programs to advance the understanding of the critical issues of democracy for the benefit of the public.
Photo by Guy Mendes
Writer and Farmer
Wendell Berry is considered a master of many literary genres, renowned by critics and scholars alike for his poetry, fiction and essays. A key theme in his writing is the importance of living in harmony with nature and protecting the Earth. For Berry, small-scale farming is critical for the survival of local communities, which in turn are essential for the survival of mankind and the health of the planet.
His landmark 1977 book, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, in which he criticizes many failures of modern life, including the dominance of agribusiness in American society, is considered a key text of the environmental movement. Environmental activist Bill McKibben calls Berry "a prophet of responsibility."
Berry learned about farming first hand while growing up in rural Kentucky. After spending time in California, Europe and New York City, Berry returned to his home state and taught for many years at the University of Kentucky. Eventually he returned to farm life, using horses to work his land and employing local farming methods while creating strong community ties. Many of his stories are set in Port William, an imaginary town modeled after Port Royal, the Kentucky town in which he lives and farms.
Long before organic produce became the mainstay of local farmers markets, Berry was farming with the purity of food in mind. His writings on healthy farming and our relationship to food have found acoytes in the slow food movement. Quoting Berry's "eating is an agricultural act," Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, said there was little in his own work that could not be found decades earlier in Berry's writings.
The author of more than 40 works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, Wendell Berry has received numerous awards and honors, including the National Humanities Medal, which he received from President Obama in 2010.
In 2012, he delivered the Jefferson Lecture, the government's highest honor for "distinguished intellectual achievement" in the humanities. This year, he was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Freedom Medal from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Awards.
His books include the novel Hannah Coulter(2004), the essay collections Imagination in Place (2010) and What Matters? (2010), and Leavings: Poems (2010). Berry's latest works include This Day (2013) and A Place in Time (2012), the newest volume in his Port William series.
He lives and works with his wife, Tanya Berry, on their farm in Port Royal, Kentucky.
Comment: For an in-depth review of our historical and modern agriculture systems, its control, distribution, toxic tinkering and the overall mass degradation (for profit) to our planet, read SoTT's article on Lierre Keith's 'The Vegetarian Myth
Wendell Berry would not help us, when we experienced abuse at the hands of Organic Valley, primarily over the extremely large tanker milk hauling semis Organic Valley was sending directly to our farm (for on-farm milk pick-up) and the damage and havoc these ultra-large rigs did to our property and to my workload and mental health.
Anyone who knows or drives these rigs, knows how inefficient, easily stuck and how cumbersome semis are on unpaved, unlevel surfaces and how much room they need to maneuver. Dealing with these trucks was a nightmare for our small dairy. Organic Valley did not care and would not concern themselves with correcting the trouble, in any way. Instead they merely cancelled our contract with them, when I insisted that they do something. This 'cancellation' resulted in the destruction and slaughter of our dairy herd. Things have gone from bad to worse, to still worse on our farm since.
Organic Valley proved to be a complete sellout to modern industry and the overwhelming use of force and lucre (illicit, immoral monetary gain by industry for its own maximum short term benefit) at our family farm's enormous expense and when I explained this via letter to Mr. Berry he said he would and could do nothing to help. Likewise, his friends Gene Logsdon, Wes Jackson and David Kline, all also ignored my pleas.
I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I am with these so-called 'men' of sustainable agriculture. In each case, they have made money selling books supposedly supporting the existence and continued existence of farms such as ours. In my view, these men are immoral and shameful hypocrites. Cowards.
I invite any of them to write to me and explain their conduct.
Anybody who knows any of these 'men' may also contact me.
nedlud