Berry poses the conflict between "the industrial and the agrarian, the global and the local" that the book documents and elucidates with words and images. Athough we currently seem to be loosing that battle to multinational corporations and a global economy that ignores the inherent value of people within nature, Berry concludes the book with his essay "Hope," stretching us to imagine and invent a better world for all.
Over a decade ago, I left a 20 year career of college teaching to return to the work of my mother's family - farming. I changed my life's work partly because I wanted to be able to feed myself, friends, and customers healthy good-tasting food - not the imitation white eggs, flavorless tomatoes, and toxic berries that prevail in America's super-markets.
After ten years of organic farming, I am sorry to report that the state of American agriculture is much worse than I realized from my academic studies. Our industrial practices not only damage people, crops, animals, the soil, water, forests, and the air, but their accumulated harm now threatens the survival of the Earth as a place that can sustain human life. Agriculture is at the roots of our environmental problems.
"Farm without Harm" is the motto that guides my own farming. Factory farms in search of maximizing profit no longer follow this ancient farmer's code.
Over a decade ago, I left a 20 year career of college teaching to return to the work of my mother's family - farming. I changed my life's work partly because I wanted to be able to feed myself, friends, and customers healthy good-tasting food - not the imitation white eggs, flavorless tomatoes, and toxic berries that prevail in America's super-markets.
After ten years of organic farming, I am sorry to report that the state of American agriculture is much worse than I realized from my academic studies. Our industrial practices not only damage people, crops, animals, the soil, water, forests, and the air, but their accumulated harm now threatens the survival of the Earth as a place that can sustain human life. Agriculture is at the roots of our environmental problems.
"Farm without Harm" is the motto that guides my own farming. Factory farms in search of maximizing profit no longer follow this ancient farmer's code.