The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture

By Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry is a farmer, poet, and visionary whose book The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture, written in the late 1970’s, is now an American classic. Berry addresses many issues that he perceives as cultural dysfunction in modern times, from human and soil health problems to the destruction of local economies, and ties them back to the industrial revolution of farming and the creation of agribusiness. He comments on almost all aspects of modern life, and predicted much of what came to pass in the last 30 years since the original publication of this book. It is impossible to read this book and to not think about how life might be different if we all lived closer to our local farmer, to our food, and to our earth.

Many of his viewpoints are controversial, and will make an excellent discussion at our next Nature’s Narratives Book Discussion group. Please join us tomorrow, Wednesday, January 11 at 5:30 pm, in the Scott Horticultural Library for what is sure to be an interesting discussion on agribusiness and its relationship to the problems that plague modern life.