Martha, Allan and all, I was lucky enough to get to see Wendell Berry give the talk that you have quoted from. An audience of about 400 was captivated. I see Wendell Berry occasionaly, he is not a personel friend, but since we live in Kentucky, and are active in agricultural and environmental events, we do see him, and are certainly aquainted with him.
I have found him to be a beautiful combination of a true country person, mixed with a wise philosopher. His daughter and her family have become one of the leading role models for local, orgainc agriculture in KY, and the county where Wendell is from is also the leading county in our state in regards to developing a local food economy. This tells me that all of his philosophies are much more than just words on paper, he is part of initiatives to develop local meat markets, he is very invloved with the the Sierra Club and is helping them to understand that protecting wild places does not just include natural spaces where people only go to visit, but must also include the space where people are every day; farms, urban natural spaces, etc...His tireless efforts to promote local, and develop this sense of place beyond the written word are extremely visible in KY. He does much more than just write about it. I am sure he is tired, he has seen this coming for so long, and people are so slow to wake up to it! I have found his latest lectures to be very new and contemporary. I just saw him on a panel debating GMO's. The last time I saw him I had the chance to talk to him some about my concerns relating to our KY Organic Certification program and the NOS. In so may words, he said it didn't matter, because it all has to be based on trust. In his talk that afternoon, he went on to speak about the USDA takeover of the word orgainc. Some of the point he shared: (In my own words!!) *Organic as a word is no longer useable- it has now been co-opted by the government. Once a word becomes legally defined, we know longer have to think about what it means, it ceases to be alive. *There is still hope for the word 'sustainable'-but 'through careful conversation', we have to 'continually re-define' what these words mean. Because the meanings change, farms are living things. *He then went on to present a definition of sustainability (he did not call it as such) Nothing is Wasted Diversity Perenniality- (People making long term commitments to the land, and also agriclutural perenniality, such as grassed based management that physically preserves land.) Lastly, another profoundly simple point he has made on more than one occasion, as a short but concise argument against the industrialization of agriculture- 'You have to farm to the farm'.This means that each farm is unique, and that we can't apply a cookie cutter ago-corporate-paradigm across the board. Allan, the quote you gave below is the economy that dictates most of what we do on the farm here. Christy
