“The 'environmental crisis' has happened because the human household or economy is in conflict at almost every point with the household of nature. We have built our household on the assumption that the natural household is simple and can be simply used. We have assumed increasingly over the last five hundred years that nature is merely a supply of 'raw materials,' and that we may safely possess those materials by taking them.... And so we will be wrong if we attempt to correct what we perceive as 'environmental' problems without correcting the economic oversimplification that caused them.”
Quote by Wendell Berry
Work
What Matters?: Economics for a Renewed Commonwealth
This book explores alternative approaches to economic thinking that prioritize the health of communities and the natural world over purely financial indicators. Drawing on agrarian and ecological perspectives, it questions standard assumptions about progress and prosperity, proposing instead frameworks for economic life that support long-term communal resilience. The text engages with themes of local self-reliance, environmental stewardship, and the moral dimensions of economic decision-making, offering a critique of industrial and consumerist models while suggesting more measured, place-based alternatives. more
Author
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry, an American novelist born on August 5, 1934, is renowned for his profound descriptions of rural life and his critical views on modern industrial civilization. more
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