Putting Wendell Berry's writings to work by advocating for farmers,
 land conserving communities, and healthy regional economies.

Newsletter | March 2016

 
Protecting Farmers in the Marketplace
Response to the Recent New York Times Op-Ed on the Green Revolution

Mary Berry
Executive Director
The New York Times published an op-ed written by Phillip A. Sharp and Alan Leshner and entitled " We Need a New Green Revolution" on January 4, 2016 (page A19).  My father Wendell Berry, friend Wes Jackson (The Land Institute), and I wish to share our response to this op-ed submitted to the New York Times with each of you.  It reads:   
 
Phillip A. Sharp and Alan Leshner, in their call for "A New Green Revolution" in agriculture, display an astonishing lack of reference to the time and the negative consequences, both ecological and social, of the Green Revolution. Of course, grain yields more than doubled here and there, but beyond the geneticist's contribution there were traditional methods largely ignored but available to meet essential human needs at once more ecologically sound and socially just. Norman Borlaug won a Nobel Prize in 1970 for his leadership in that venture. Even the Nobel Prize, however, did not disguise or alleviate the serious problems imposed by his work upon farmers, their farms, and their communities.
 
The concern of Prof. Sharp and Mr. Leshner, both eminent scientists, is occasioned by reference to sensational events, in this case climate change, the California drought, and the much belated public anxiety about water. They mention also the increase of "invasive weeds, pests, and pathogens," which is at least potentially sensational.    Read More.


A Modern-Day Iteration of The Producer's Program 
Katie Ellis | Managing Director

The Berry Center is developing an equitable local food economy that supports farmers and provides them with essential protections in the marketplace.  We understand that much work remains to be done to put an economy in place that supports a healthy and diversified agriculture.   A local food economy demand analysis conducted in Louisville in 2012 by Seed Capital Kentucky indicates that consumer demand for fresh local sustainably raised food is five times greater than the existing supply.  The study demonstrated that some of our long-held worries about local food such as price point were not the primary factor in purchasing decisions.  When given the choice, consumers reported that they were more concerned about purchasing local and sustainably raised food than they were with the price.  While the demand study is encouraging to many, those of us who live in rural places in the Louisville foodshed have not seen the same level of enthusiasm around local production.  Why haven't farmers taken this up?  We know that our neighbors are not interested in growing for a market they do not trust and do not understand.
 
To this end, The Berry Center partnered with the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD), and Louisville Metro Government to conduct the region's first supply-side study.  This study asked farmers of all scales, particularly those we would identify as "farmers in the middle," the essential question, "what would it take for you to be willing to produce for a local market?"  This quantitative and qualitative supply-side study of the Louisville foodshed is nearly complete.   Read More.

 
The Berry Papers
Lessons Drawn from "It All Turns on Affection:  
The Jefferson Lecture & Other Essays"
MIchele Guthrie | Archivist


During February The Berry Center posted excerpts from Mr. Berry's 2012 speech, "It All Turns on Affection," The Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities.   It has been published by Counterpoint Press in It All Turns on Affection: The Jefferson Lecture and Other Essays (Counterpoint, 2012).

I was particularly interested in another essay in that book,  "Starting From Loss," which is also Mr. Berry's foreword to the book Kentucky's Natural Heritage:  An Illustrated Guide to Biodiversity (University Press of Kentucky, 2010). In the essay, Mr. Berry discusses the changes, positive and negative, that he has noted in agriculture in the area and at his farm by the Kentucky River in Henry County, Kentucky in the fifty years he's been there.  

The essay relates the history of the loss of the small farmer, his capabilities and knowledge, the family farm, precious farmland, the continuing exhaustion and erosion of soil and the loss of rural communities. Its suggestion and even insistence that we remain hopeful, in spite of lost opportunities through the years to develop a culture of land stewardship and the diminished condition in which we continue, is what gives me certainty that things can improve.    Read More.  


Creating a Culture of Good Farming and Land Use
Succinct and Tangible Connections
Dr. Leah Bayens |  St. Catharine College 
Berry Farming and Ecological Agrarianism Program 
PBS Correspondent Judith Valente Interviews BFP Students for Religion 
 and Ethics Newsweekl

The Berry Farming Program at St. Catharine College is working hard to "[d]raw succinct and tangible connections between education and communities and the land." [i] Recent publications illustrate this effort.
 
On February 7, 2016, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly featured PBS correspondent Judith Valente's interviews with SCC students and faculty, Mary Berry, and Dominican Sister Claire McGowan. This segment offers a glimpse at how "an ethical and spiritual relationship to land stewardship [is] the center point, not something out on the periphery" of the Berry Farming Program. [ii]

On February 9, 2016, The Whole Horse Project: An Editorial Collective published part 1 of 2 of BFP Coordinator Dr. Leah Bayens's article "'  A Way of Thought Based on Land: Institutionalizing Agrarian Thought."  Below, you'll find an excerpt of this piece about the prospects and perils of institutional agrarianism.

SCC professor Dr. Tara Tuttle responded to this article in " Flint and the Need for Institutional Affection." Dr. Tuttle offers a thoughtful assessment of the prospects for institutionalizing agrarian thought--and the travesties that result from a dearth of neighborly affection. Using the Flint water poisoning as a case study, she asks:

"Could Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) have supported the decisions of the emergency manager responsible for Flint's polluted water supply-the decision to switch from a safe water source to a polluted one-if he were exposed to agrarian values at some point during his path to higher education? Optimistically, perhaps naively, I think he could not." [iii]

 We hope you'll take time to read and view these pieces.   Read More.

Home Place
March is National Reading Month
Mary Jane Yates | Bookstore Manager

This is a great time for you to grab your favorite book and dive right in!   Or, if you haven't read in a while, check out some titles you can find on our shelves AND receive a 10% discount on a single purchase during this month.  You may make purchases in the bookstore or place orders by phone at 502-743-1820.  
Here are a few titles to begin with:  
                • Great Possessions: An Amish Farmer's Journal,by David Kline 
                • This I Believe: Kentucky, edited by Dan and Mary Jo Gediman
                • Fanny at Chez Panisse, by Alice Waters 


The Berry Center and Carmichael's Bookstore Partner to Offer Online Sales

We are pleased to announce a partnership between The Berry Center and Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky.  In cooperation, we are making Wendell Berry's books available online here.  All books written by Mr. Berry are autographed!  


Mr.  Berry w rote about Carmichael's Bookstore in My Bookstore:  Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop :

"...when I am in Louisville, Kentucky, I like to visit Carmichael's Bookstore.  Sometimes I go to buy a certain book.  Sometimes I go with no purpose but to see what books may be there and to visit a little while with the people who work there.  The place has the quietness, the friendliness, the smell, and the tangibility that a bookstore ought to have.  It is a fair incarnation of the manifold life of books.  To go there and find a book I didn't expect or didn't expect to want, to decide I want it, to buy it as a treasure to take home, to conduct the whole transaction in a passage of friendly conversation - that is in every way a pleasure," (Rice, 2012).  

We invite you to find expected and unexpected treasures at Carmichael's Bookstore and help support the work of The Berry Center.  A portion of the sales made through this partnership will allow us to continue to put Wendell Berry's writings to work by advocating for farmers, land conserving communities, and healthy regional economies.   Purchase autographed copies of Mr. Berry's books online at Carmichael's Bookstore 

 
Upcoming Events
Mary Berry is honored to deliver keynote addresses and talks at the following events in March:



Fourth Annual Conference
March 3-5, 2016
Danville, IN



Fourth Annual Central Louisiana Foodapolooza
Presented by the Central Louisiana Economic Development Alliance
March 10-11, 2016
Alexandria, LA

 
SXSW Film Festival
March 12-16, 2016
Austin, TX
"The Seer" Film Screening
Conversation with Mary Berry and Producer Laura Dunn



Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
March 24, 2016
Washington, D.C.
"The Seer" Film Screening
Conversation with Mary Berry and Producer Laura Dunn

 
Become a Friend of The Berry Center Today

Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to support The Berry Center.  Together we will continue to put Wendell Berry's writings to work by advocating for farmers, land conserving communities, and healthy regional economies.   Donations may be made online here.   


Planter $1 - $249

Planting the seeds of change for small farmers.

 

Producer $250 - $999

Producing programs and policies that protect farmers in the marketplace.

 

Cultivator $1,000 - $2,499

Cultivating agrarian thought.

 

Harvester $2,500 - $4,999

Working for a harvest that does no damage to the ecosphere.

 

Sustainer $5,000 +

Sustaining our long-term work to create a national model of rural-urban connectedness.