My Food Hero: Ella McSweeney Meets Wendell Berry
The Food Programme
BBC
4.4 • 977 Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2015
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Wendell Berry has been described as 'An American Hero' but his work and teaching have inspired and influenced leaders, writers and campaigners around the world. Ella McSweeney had no hesitation in choosing him as her 'Food Hero' and travels to meet him at his farm in Kentucky. She explains why his work affected her so profoundly, even thousands of miles away in Ireland.
As a leading and respected farmer, writer, campaigner, philosopher and poet, he wrote that "Eating is an agricultural act" yet argues we have become disconnected from the land by the industrialisation of the food chain, that the growth of agribusiness has driven many small farms out of business with a loss of their 'moral fibre and wisdom' and is destroying rural communities. He argues we must acknowledge the impact of agriculture to society.
Yet despite his widespread influence he lives at a different pace to the majority - using horses to work the land and refusing to get a computer.
For those unfamiliar with his work Ella will explain just how significant he's been on politicians and game-changers and, for those who know him already, a chance to hear his thoughts on how to feed ourselves without destroying the land and plant we have.
Ella also visits the city of Louisville to see how people are putting his thoughts into action in projects that provide access to fresh food and but also unite communities otherwise divided.
Presented by Ella McSweeney Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello I'm Sheila Dylan and welcome to this BBC download of the Food Program. |
| 0:06.0 | For information on the BBC's terms and conditions of use, visit |
| 0:09.6 | www. |
| 0:10.9 | BBC.co. UK slash Radio 4. |
| 0:15.0 | And now, enjoy the podcast. Kentucky. |
| 0:27.0 | You are you are. It was only about six years ago that I first heard the name of Wendell Berry. |
| 0:46.7 | It's a name that may not necessarily ring a bell this side of the Atlantic, |
| 0:50.8 | but he's someone who's deeply influenced the thinking of how food should |
| 0:54.8 | be produced. |
| 0:57.1 | For decades he's grappled with a question that vexed me, that when it comes to people and |
| 1:02.1 | the ecological health of our land, |
| 1:04.0 | what is the acceptable price to pay for producing food? |
| 1:08.0 | Wendell Farms where five generations of his family did, |
| 1:12.0 | in Henry County, near the lower end of the |
| 1:14.8 | Kentucky River Valley. This is deep farming country as he fields of corn and |
| 1:20.0 | black and brown cattle grazing in the tall grasses. Men lounge on verandas in the sun. |
| 1:25.8 | The undulating road winds down to the valley floor towards the slow moving Kentucky river. |
| 1:31.5 | This is the landscape that is central to nearly all of Berry's |
| 1:35.0 | writings. His body of work, over half a century in the making, includes 50 books of |
| 1:41.2 | poetry, fiction and essays. |
| 1:43.7 | It's extensive, but with one deeply felt message, |
| 1:47.3 | that agriculture must be productive, |
... |
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