Foreword Farming and the Global Economy Conserving Communities Conserving Forest Communities Private Property and the Common Wealth The Conservation of Nature and the Preservation of Humanity Health Is Membership
Berry, a novelist, poet and essayist (What Are People For?), focuses here on the importance of small communities in this latest collection of thought-provoking pieces. The decline of agriculture, according to Berry, was brought about by corporations that induced farmers to rely on technology and artificial fertilizers, which destroyed topsoil and produced tainted crops. Berry believes small farmers should grow food primarily for the local population, without using fossil fuels or chemicals. In another article, he argues against abortion and for a sexuality related to fertility rather than to individual gratification. His closing essay, on modern health care, deals with the tendency of the medical establishment to view a patient as a machine that can be cured by technology rather than as a human being who must be healed by love as well as medical treatment. (Nov.)
Like Berry's previous books (What Are People For?, LJ 4/1/90), this wonderful new collection of essays concerns the order and harmony of the earth and its inhabitants. Here Berry focuses on the importance of local communities, arguing that "modern national and global economies have been formed in almost perfect disregard of community and ecological interests." Absentee owners have proven to be greedy and destructive. Similarly, a reliance on chemical technologies or the preservation of wild areas within otherwise exploited lands offers no solutions. Only local communities can provide the affection, care, and understanding essential to maintaining the wilderness. Berry offers an array of ways in which communities can become more self-sufficient and healthy, such as by supplying local needs primarily from local sources. Written with passion and conviction, this thoughtful book deserves to be widely read.‘Ilse Heidmann, Kyle Community Lib., Tex.
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