Berry, Wendell

All movements have founders, and the greening of America is no exception. Alongside figures such as John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson, Wendell Berry deserves recognition as one of the founding members, although he is sometimes overlooked in this regard. His The Unsettling of America (1977) is arguably as important as A Sand County Almanac and Silent Spring for promoting a green ethic in America. Published during the time of Earth Day, the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Greenpeace, Berry's message came when American agriculture was moving away from its agrarian roots toward an industrial mode of farming. Berry sounded the alarm for the mechanization and rationalization of agriculture, with its emphases on specialization, efficiency, and intensification. Berry noted that ...