Wendell Berry-Connection to English class, Laura Boleyn

The ideas of Wendell Berry as discussed in class and expressed in Chapter 9 of Making Nature Sacred connect to a New York Times article that we were required to read as a class assignment. In the book, we learn that Berry feels that it is important to “embrace a spiritual component” of North American landscape, “as well as a concern for social justice across the common landscape of North America.” We also learn that through his retreat to farm life, Berry adopted a serious passion for agricultural reform, the practice of moral economy, and the preservation of community. He believes it is the responsibility of the community to “sustain the planet’s environmental health and to make oneself ‘responsibly at home both in this world’ and in one’s ‘native and chosen place’.”
This also connects to a video of a lecture we were required to watch. The speaker, Carlo Petrini, stressed the importance of local agriculture and culture. He was against globalization and also stressed the importance of knowing where your food comes from. Like Berry, he supports the community, small farmers and is against commodity farms.
Through this section on Berry and the articles from my English class, I have gained an even deeper understanding of farming. Also, Berry offers a different view and side of agricultural reform. I also understand with the idea that “’nature’ is a place of human labor and livelihood, not merely of recreation and observation,” because of Berry. Not only do I understand this idea now, I support and believe it too and am interested in reading some of Berry’s work.