Eating with the fullest pleasure — pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance — is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living in a mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.–Wendell Berry
The American Poetry Foundation says of Berry: Critics and scholars have acknowledged Wendell Berry as a master of many literary genres, but whether he is writing poetry, fiction, or essays, his message is essentially the same: humans must learn to live in harmony with the natural rhythms of the earth or perish. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, which analyzes the many failures of modern, mechanized life, is one of the key texts of the environmental movement, but Berry, a political maverick, has criticized environmentalists as well as those involved with big businesses and land development. Berry strongly believes that small-scale farming is essential to healthy local economies, and that strong local economies are essential to the survival of the species and the well-being of the planet.
Wendell Berry was born in Kentucky in 1934. He has always promoted a responsible kind of agriculture that is fully integrated into one’s everyday life. Because he promoted this vision of food and agriculture long before the Slow Food movement started, he is considered by many to have laid the foundation for the American Slow Food movement and the move toward a more sustainable and ethical agriculture.
You can view his books and biography on the official Wendell Berry site.
Click here to listen to the 2-part series “Building a Slow Food Nation,” including an interview with Wendell Berry.
Photo courtesy of Corbis common license photos.
Related articles
