Wendell Berry, 92, Dies; Agrarian Movement Leader

Wendell Berry, the Kentucky farmer, poet and essayist, died peacefully at 92 after a career devoted to defending sustainable agriculture, rural communities and the dignity of working people. At his Lane’s Landing farm, he practiced the principles he advocated, using draft horses, crop rotation and natural fertilizers while rejecting industrial agriculture’s pressure to expand and mechanize. Through more than 50 books, including “The Unsettling of America,” Berry argued that large-scale farming damaged both the land and the communities that depended on it. His environmental ethic was rooted in his Baptist faith and the belief that humans are caretakers—not owners—of creation, a conviction that led him to oppose mountaintop-removal coal mining and other destructive practices. Berry’s legacy combines literary influence with a life deliberately centered on farming, family, local community and responsibility to the land.