Wendell Berry and Sustainable Cities

Here are a few quotes from the Essay “Out of your car, and off your horse,” by Wendell Berry.  In this essay Berry lays out propositions for making sustainable cities.

“If we want to keep our thoughts and acts from destroying the globe, then we must see to it that we do not ask too much of the globe or any part of it.  To make sure that we do not ask too much, we must learn to live at home, as independently and self-sufficiently as we can.  This is the only way we can keep the land we are using and its ecological limits always in sight.”

“The real work of planet-saving will be small, humble, and humbling, and (insofar as it involves love) pleasing and rewarding.  Its jobs will be too many to count, too many to report, too many to be publicly noticed or rewarded, too small to make anyone rich or famous.”

“To make a sustainable city, one must begin somehow and I think the beginning must be small and economic.  A beginning could be made, for example, by increasing the amount of food bought from farmers in the local country side by consumers in the city.”

I find these quotes to be moving and inspiring for those of us who take on the challenge of urban farming.  Wendell Berry is insightful and visionary in his writing and if you are interested in the culture and politics of agriculture and food, I would encourage you to check out his works.