In the late evening of Aug. 31, 2026, I missed a call from Jennifer, a seventh-generation cattle rancher in Georgia. She was one of more than 70 family farmers and ranchers across the rural U.S. South and Midwest whom I'd gotten to know through my research over the past five years. We still kept up from time to time, but a late-night call had me worried that something had gone awry on her farm.
I sent a quick message to ask what was happening. Her response: "Wendell Berry passed."
I immediately knew the depth of grief behind her solemn text. Berry, a prolific Kentucky farmer, writer and activist, served as an inspiration for many environmentally minded people. But as an environmental anthropologist, I'd seen firsthand the specific impact he had on the rural producers I studied. Like Jennifer, they farmed land that had been in their families for generations. They had used conventional, industrial practices for decades, but in recent years they had transitioned toward sustainable or regenerative methods.
Berry was an outspoken proponent of both environmentally minded farming and its connection to his own Christian faith. In a climate in which people in these farmers' communities are increasingly told that those two values are not politically aligned, sustainable farmers of faith told me that Berry validated their own sense of morality.
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