Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Geography Another Turn of the Crank Another Turn of the Crank Wendell Berry’s Another Turn of the Crank is about sustainability of the environment. He believes that you must first start at a local level then sustainability can be accomplished at a global level. This is the same idea that was expressed at the start of this course, “think globally, act locally,” which means the consequences of our actions effect the world. As I address the some of the chapters in the book I will associate how Berry’s ideas link into the material discussed in this class. Farming and the Global Economy is the first chapter of the book. He starts with the history of farmers during WWII. The farmers were quickly becoming a minority because the nation was not supportive of its farmers. They wanted to mass produce and buy cheap industrial goods. Farmers can’t buy cheap machines, fertilizers, chemicals, and produce crops cheaply without losing any money. Wendell recommends two efforts to help the survival of the farmer. The first is up to the farmers, which they need to minimize their dependence on industrial supplies. Farmers need to replace purchased goods and services with natural health and diversity and with their own intelligence (5, Wendell). The second concern is for cooperation between the farmers and the local community. The community needs to see that a sustainable local food economy is appealing. The human population cannot live on imported food. Someone has to grow it, why not let the people in our own community do it. The topic of the farmers has to do with decentralization. We talked about this in class time and time again. We need to let the local communities take control. We need more self reliance in our own communities, and not in the big corporations. This is one of the main steps to attaining a sustainable environment. The next chapter, Conserving Communities, opens with surprising numbers. Times magazine reported in 1910 there were 32 million farmers living on farms and in 1991 32 percent of farm managers and 86 percent of farmers did not live on the farm that they took care of. Now there isn’t even an agricultural class. The book goes on to talk about “rape and run” logging in Montana. We talked about the “fly by night” corporations in class. Both are the same just different terminology. In Montana, the Champion International Corp. went on a tree cutting binge in Montana, which leveled forests. They then left leaving behind million of people unemployed and over 1,000 square acres stripped. This leaves people poor and the land trashed. This is only one case, but I know we talked about this in class. These corporations suck everything they can out of a community until there isn’t anything left for them. They decided to leave one day and never think twice about the people. That’s why Berry has come up with a list of actions a community can do to help their own community flourish. I won’t list them all, but I will name a few important ones like: always put local needs first, develop small scale industries, strive to produce as much of the community’s own energy as possible, see that the old and young take care of each other, and so on. These actions would help a community grow stronger in many ways. Conserving Forest Communities deals with forestry in Kentucky. Berry is from Henry County, Kentucky and talks about forestry in Henry County. The landowners have the choice to sell or not, but often times they can’t afford not to sell to the timber companies. It is also much like the tobacco industry here in Kentucky as well. That is one of the two views that Berry describes. The other is the large scale corporate version. The corporations strip the land to build a factory on and advertise that is a “job opportunity.” This kind of business isn’t good because it is on such a large scale. It is a huge company in a small town that threatens the idea of decentralization. A good forest economy doesn’t call for a huge corporation nor does it call for stripping all of the land. A good forest economy calls for local interests, local economic health concerns, and local educational needs. Berry’s main argument is that we should live with local concerns in mind. Decentralization is the only way that we will be able to live on a local level and help the local economy. The chapters in which I choose to discuss in this paper were the one that linked to our class discussions the most. Berry goes on to discuss the Conservation of Nature and the Preservation of Humanity, which he touches topics like stereotypes of Kentuckians, religion, sin, and abortion. He also discusses health issues in Health is Membership. He talks about the spirit and the mind. He goes on about love and death; these are very deep issues that we would never discuss in class. He questions morals and values in the last two chapters. I have thoroughly enjoyed the book. It has helped me to learn more about sustainability and how to live locally. I found Berry’s book to very interesting and he seems to know a lot about the subject matter. The book is great because it discusses Kentucky. Farming is another issue that I can relate to because my family grows tobacco. After reading this book, and with our class discussions, I now realize the extent to what trouble the environment is in, globally and locally and how we can make a difference. Bibliography: Berry, Wendell. Another Turn of the Crank. Counterpoint, Washington D.C. 1995. Word Count: 982
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