Wendell Berry's Another Turn of the Crank

Wendell Berry's book, "turning another crank," makes us far beyond the sustainability of agriculture. This is a book about the community, but of course it is a book on economics. John Dewey wrote as follows. "Although the natural community is a condition for the existence of the community, the community enhances the function of communication, sharing emotions, ideas, and common causes of participation.

A versatile poet, novelist, essayist Wendelberry is the fifth generation in the North Kentucky State. Berry taught at Stanford University, went to Italy and France with a Guggenheim scholarship, and taught at New York University and Lexington University in Kentucky State, then headed to Henry County. Berry owns and operates the Lanes Landing Farm in a small hilly area along the Kentucky River. He used full-time agriculture as a profession and used horses and organic methods to cultivate the land. Living in harmony with nature, especially agricultural tradition is the central theme of Berry's diverse work.

Berry is the founder of Newcastle's Berry Center. The mission of the Berry Center is to make Wendellberry's work work by advocating farmers, land protection communities, and healthy regional economies. They tried to do this through many different projects. One is to archive, publish, and share Wendell Berry's work to stimulate and educate more people. The other is to make a sustainable organic farm that can serve as a model for local farmers. They also hope to establish a regional peasant cooperative to protect farmers in the market. Berry wants Kentucky State to begin processing more of its beef and organic cereals. They are opening up land libraries for people of all ages in the region, collecting funds to book clubs and discussing major issues. Finally, they recently collaborated with the wonderful Stirling University in Vermont to incorporate Kentucky state college student and adult learning programs into ecological agriculture.