Page 14 RAIN December 1977 The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, Wendell Berry, 1977, $9.95 from: Sierra Club Books 530 Bush Street San Francisco, CA 94108 There are many figurative and perceptive slices to be taken out of the cultural and technological pie we now find ourselves sharing. Wendell Berry has taken a slice through agriculture (apple pie, if you will). In his typically beautiful way, he examines the land and the nature and mindset of the people who farm it. Many of his perceptions are grim. In fact, I first put the book down in disgust over what I took to be his pessimism. There is much to be pessimistic about, however. The reality of the predicament of our loss of knowledge and understanding of how to maintain the health of our soil and therefore our communities is grim. The circuitous and short-ranged thinking of the powers that be may yet do us all in. It is well not to lose sight of the dangers. But there is hope here too. People still exist who understand how to nurture rather than exploit all our resources. The knowledge of traditional means of tilling with horses, using manure fertilizers, and carefully rotating crops is not yet totally lost (despite the best efforts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agricultural extension service, and the corporate world). One can still find old-timers and a few communities of Amish families who farm healthy green oases in the midst-at the margins-of the agribusiness pillage. The message here is to join the growing number of people who are getting out and doing it. Live- and farm (or garden)-in a healthy way, and we will each be restoring our own piece of the planet to health. My favorite part-that which actually struck the strongest chord in me-was one on fidelity in relationships. It is the first time in a long while I've read something with some truly new perceptions about how our energy and resource gluttonous ways are affecting us at our most basic levels at home. Not how we eat, but how we care for each other. It will take several Culture and Agri-Culture The American Farm, A Photographic History, Maisie and Richard Conrat, 1977, $9.95 from: Houghton Mifflin Co. 2 Park St. Boston, MA 02107 Wendell's words are beautifully echoed in this photographic history of the American farm put together by the Conrats. You can see the life and soul ebb slowly out of the people, the life and the land as our industrialized society transforms this basic wellspring of our life. Strong images, strong people and an eloquent testimonial of disdain for what makes our life possible. -TB
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