Wendell Berry

We are DESTROYING our Country!


Wendell Berry preaches and I agree with this sentiments.  Berry emphasizes that once the land is destroyed the rest of our country, economy, lifestyle will crumble.  We depend on the land for our livelihood to access food, shelter, energy and clothing.  From the necessities we extract from the land we have created our present world with our lavish lifestyles and advanced technology. As well we are dependent on oil and other natural resources and minerals from the earth. We cannot continue our way of life and still expect to live in the fashion that we do.  Our country/land is being destroyed through many venues, some examples are: mining, mountaintop renewable, soil erosion, water and air pollution,  deforestation, logging, litter, urban sprawl.  

We are being pressured to help the economy by spend more on things that are generated by destroying the land.  So we are ending up in a vicious cycle of our economy being down due to the land being destroyed, then government pushes people to spend more to build up the economy but what we buy destroys the land so we are back in the same predicament.


It was a honor to have Wendell Berry in our class, I enjoying hearing his views on current issues. I like his idea that sustainability was once called thrifty, and should focus on making things last as long as possible.  I feel that my family it still thrifty or cheap in some way being sustainable.  I am Jewish and there is a stereotype that Jews are cheap and it usually have a negative connotation.  But  after hearing Berry speak being cheap or thrifty should not be a negative thing, but viewed as way to conserve.