Wendell/Fasenfast Writings

          Wendell Berry, is a man of many talents. He is a farmer, poet, activist, and critic, known for his many writings on sustainability and resourcefulness in the natural world. In this essay he proposes that agriculture shouldn't be dealt with as an industry. Berry focuses on the fact that we treat agriculture as an “industry” where the materials that are non living versus a true agricultural perspective where we are dealing with living and breathing things . Berry states that farmers who don’t farm on the basis of just making money are more nurturing, and are less likely to rape the land of its resources (industry).  Agricultural farms are workplaces and homes, so things are cared for with greater detail, thus farming for agriculture serves purpose and has a direct connection to the farmer, and  serves as the farmers craft. Berry denies the perspective that the soul purpose of agriculture should be to export and make money, and believes growing for consumption as well as sustainability (food, shelter, fuel etc). Berry believe agricultural farming helps diversify local farming, increase local employment,  and is environmentally friendly (125).
We cannot see the true value of agriculture in a free market because agricultural productivity has no direct or stable relation to value (126), which he blamed on the fact that humans live artificially. The American market is also hard to work in as the costs and loss of agriculture are constantly overlooked and the price to run a farm at the governments rate are pricey. Good American farmers are thrifty and that is how production and money are made. Berry states a common misconception of the agri-business is that there are too many farms, an ideology I am unfamiliar with and can’t really explain.  Farmers are constantly being driven towards industry which results in the loss of handwork. Also there is the belief that that farm work is often mislabeling as hard unrewarding work, which effects the ideology that agriculture has to be co-dependent on industry.
Overall Berry stresses less emphasis on agriculture as a industrial and capitalistic process. He encourages people to  look at the multidimensional resourcefulness of agriculture, “from the topsoil to the dinner table and beyond”, to encourage sustainability and survival.  He wasn’t specific on what political movements have formed his ideologies but did compare farming our current way of farming to how commercial farms were established in communist Soviet Union.


Harriet Fasenfast was Born and raised in the Bronx, but now resides in Oregon. she is a firm believer in the economic resourcefulness of using the qualities of the garden within the home. She teaches classes on food preservation and organic home economics at place called Preserve and and is a published author inspired by the works of Berry Wendell. Her book, householders guide to the universe, is a cookbook based on resource and sustainability. This book was formed when her small business was forced to make changes due to the globalization of the American work market. As a result she was forced to be a multi-faceted preserver and found a new home in the natural world more than the industrial. Fasenfast is a firm believer that the earth calls the shots, thus if the earth is sick we will all suffer in one way or another. She believes we are all being fooled by an market based economy. From her works and beliefs she redefines the term “householding”, stating, “Householding is in form and function the foundation for a home-based economy because it is in our homes, gardens, and Communities that the work needs to be done” .  Overall, Fasenfast promotes a move away from a consumer culture and toward a culture of producers.  It is a reclaiming of skills that were once common among people who lived in simpler times.
I feel that both Wendell and Fasenfast are really inspiring and offer a new ideology that everyone should take into consideration. Both uphold my ideas on resource and sustainability and offer more inspiration for the foundation of my project. I look forward to reading more from both since I’m feeling the need to move away from the ideology of large scale consumerism and globalization.