Ask Cynthia about natural burials

This has been on my mind for over twenty years. It started on the animal burial ground upstate on my ex's property. I thought, "I would like to be buried here in this utterly, beautiful place." The whole natural wonder of it. The thought of my little body in a funeral home or cremation is beyond distasteful to me. It occurred to me at one point, I could go to the Town Hall and inquire about a family plot for the property which is 25 acres on the side of a mountain surrounded by huge tracts of pristine land. The events of 9/11 (I live in lower Manhattan) and the economy changed my life to the extent that what was once not very difficult is now much more so. I would love to know what is available now as I am getting up in years. You thrilled my heart, I must say. It is always nice to know other minds are singing the same song. Thank you.

posted by kandinskydog on 10/18/2008 2:36 pm

Hello Kandinskydog,

I'm glad the idea of 'being a tree' thrills your heart. It does mine, too!

With respect to learning what's available now, the field of natural end-of-life alternatives is growing more rapidly than we can track. But no matter where you are, the most important thing involved in getting a natural funeral or a natural burial these days is PLANNING.

The high funeral costs that many people complain of are largely a function of too many decisions having to be made too quickly, with no time to process the choices - and it's usually too late to ask what someone wants. Environmental considerations go out the window. Options are reduced to what's immediately available on short notice. Stress for the family comes with confusion about what you want, compromises because of a lack of funds or clarity, or values conflicts between survivors that weren't resolved prior. And last-minute fees drive the price of everything up.

Planning solves for a lot of this. Consequently, I'm big on what's called 'pre-planning', especially where a natural burial or funeral is concerned, and I recommend thinking carefully through both Plan A and Plan B:

Plan A is your optimum strategy, and you can be working on it over the long-run; finding the perfect "spot" (try Greensprings Natural Cemetery in upstate New York, www.naturalburial.org), funding your funeral, passing naturally at home with the help of a home funeral guide, acquiring a biodegradable coffin, and living the rest of your life in a manner that reinforces the legacy you wish to leave behind.

Plan B is what your friends and family will need to do if something unanticipated happens to you -- tomorrow. Plan B ensures you get something as natural as possible, even given very short notice. It can be as basic as a no-embalming funeral with a biodegradable coffin/shroud and burial in a vault-free plot in a municipal cemetery located conveniently nearby.

Start with Plan B to cover emergencies and begin the conversation with your family and friends; elaborate and refine to outline your optimal scenario in Plan A. Don't keep it a secret, either - tell your extended family circle what you want and ask for their opinions and suggestions, too. You'll stimulate them to start thinking, and it will be a healthy thing for all concerned.

Using a funeral director is usually not required, but it's helpful to most. In the state of New York, a funeral director IS required to transport a body; consequently, you may want to connect with an FD or home funeral guide earlier rather than later so that you can be properly informed about all the rules in your area.

DO remember that a natural funeral and a natural burial are two different things, usually provided by two different entities. The cemetery is where you go to get the natural burial service. The funeral director is responsible only for the funeral but MAY be able to help you find a natural cemetery plot.

You can get more information about natural funeral service providers and natural burial locations on the Natural Burial Company's website - www.naturalburialcompany.com. The online excerpt of my book is available at www.beatree.com. It offers more in-depth guidance and will be updated regularly for the next few months, until final publication sometime in 2009.

Thank you again for adding your voice to the many who are helping to expand our choices in North America - every time you let a funeral director or cemeterian know you want a natural burial you become the evidence that proves the 'demand,' and that's what it will take to create natural choices that will be accessible to everyone who wants them.

in trees,

Cynthia

posted by Cynthia Beal on 10/21/2008 4:35 pm

Amazing to find this today. Just had a conversation with a good friend on this very topic. She and I were in agreement about a much more natural burial and afterlife feeding trees and other "relatives." I thank you for the wonderful information especially the planning suggestions and speaking with family regarding wishes. My late brother-in-law, who died after a long battle with renal cell carcinoma, was reluctant to follow through on his decision to be cremated due to the toxins released into the environment during that process. However, he was also saddened that his body, if buried, would not become a part of the Earth that he had worked so hard to perserve in our area. Can you weigh in on the natural burials and bodies that have been ravaged by chemical or radiation treatments? Greg was depressed that his decision to pursue harsh, experimental chemo therapy had rendered his body quite toxic. It was a painful dilemma for him I remember and one that he wrestled with a long while. In the end, he was cremated. Thank you and as much for your work in this emerging area.

posted by jjstewart on 10/22/2008 2:00 pm

Hello jjstewart --

You ask [in effect] "What problems are associated with burying a body that's contaminated with radiation and synthetic chemistry?"

What an excellent question, and thank goodness we have this opportunity to trade thoughts in writing (thank you, Ode Magazine!), because the answer is complex, and filled with provocative unknowns.

Your brother-in-law was right to grapple with the issue of the "trace he leaves behind." The emissions from, and energy usage during, cremation ARE an issue, especially when it's understood that few of the crematories in place around the world today have the sophisticated (and expensive) filters designed to trap mercury from fillings or have multiple-burners that thoroughly consume combustibles.

Energy efficient cremation systems are on the rise, matching energy prices, and the market is beginning to address those concerns on economic terms alone. But it will take emissions regulations to establish filtration requirements across the board that mandate the expensive filters, and those may be years in coming, so actively shopping for a cremator that has the proper filters (or changing out your mercury fillings beforehand) is advised.

However, a number of as-is cremation industry proponents claim these objections -- emissions and energy consumption -- are red-herrings, and irrelevant when set against the energy consumed and emissions spewed in the course of a modern western life.

If quantitative factors were the only thing of import here, I'd be inclined to agree, except for two things:

1) The end of a life is also a time when, for many, it's not the "what" but the "how" and the "why" that are the important things, and how you move on from this 'mortal coil' becomes a statement of principle and a summation of life, using your visible end as a "Last Act" that is capable of expressing and embodying the guidelines you tried to employ during your living

and

2) Why burn the dinner?

To this last point, my forthcoming book, "Be a Tree", goes into greater depth. In it, I work hard to illustrate the layers of life that populate a healthy soil web, painting the picture of how those hardworking microbes -- under the right circumstances (that include unburned "dinner", i.e., an uncooked YOU) -- can take apart just about anything edible.

Edible, BTW, tends to mean things that are made up of starches, carbons, cellulose, lignins, sugars, or stuff with protein coats (viruses, like HIV, have protein coats).

Elements (like mercury, copper, or iodine) are generally NOT edible because they are "elemental" - they are already completely broken down -- though they can be carried around, from place to place, and used in ways other than consumed as food.

A healthy forest floor is amazingly adept at trucking elements through the root system from place to place, via the mycelial mat just under the surface of the ground, and the "underground economy" that shares the goodies around is a eco-cultural wonder, in and of itself.

The key to effective decomposition -- i.e., putting your "stuff" back -- is to NOT kill the critters, those natural decomposing bacteria in your gut that take over when you die, in either yourself or the soil web that initiate the process, so that they can do their work of breaking you down and turning you back into the dirt from whence you (and your vegetables) originally came.

And lots of things used in the funeral industry - chemical based embalming fluids, cemetery herbicides and artificial fertilizers, mold inhibitors in chipboard and plywood coffins, metals and salts leeching from plastic and metal coffins and grave liners - destroy the soil web, often in the name of PREVENTING DECOMPOSITION.

Not everyone wants to be preserved. Not everyone is afraid of compost.

THE GOOD NEWS: according to creative people versed in underground sciences like mycologist Paul Stammets (www.fungiperfecti) our friends the fungi and bacteria, in the right balance, can actually digest bone, deconstruct toxic chemistry and even de-commission radioactive waste!

www.boingboing.net/2008/02/29/ted-2008-paul-stamet.html How Mushrooms can Save the World! (A TED talk - great video at: www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html)

111 2003-02-21 Mycoremediation Uses Mushrooms to BioRemediate Contaminated Soils.

Scientists have long known that fungal masses secrete extra cellular enzymes and acids that break down lignin and cellulose which are formed of long chains of carbon and hydrogen. Recently, mycologist Paul Stammets noted that the chains are similar enough to the base structure of all petroleum products, pesticides, and herbicides so as to make it possible for fungi to break down those as well. Stammets partnered with Battelle on an experiment conducted on a site owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation and contaminated by diesel oil. The soil was inoculated with oyster mycelia collected from old growth forests in the region. After eight weeks, oyster mushrooms had formed and 95% of the hydrocarbons had broken down leaving the soil clean enough for landscaping. Further, fungus gnats moved in to eat the mushroom spores, attracting insects, then birds, then seeds. Ecological restoration was underway.

So, even though we may have collected a lot of artificial, and even toxic, bits in our bodies throughout the course of our lives, the land we originally came from can take us back again. We just need to prepare the way properly, and ensure the ground is healthy enough to accept us.

From explorations like those of Stamets and others, it's not hard to imagine how earth-burial in a living soil web, where human beings take the necessary steps (while we're still moving) to turn ourselves back INTO the forest and re-join the web-of-life -- literally -- may end up being, in the longest run, the best, and cleanest, way to go.

REFERENCES:

Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, December 15, 2006 Link(s)*: www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=1571&UserNum=&Pass=&AdminPass=&dp=data_e.html

Reference(s): (Salon.com, November 25, 2002, Link(s)*: www.fungi.com/mycotech/mycova.html#REMEDIATION

Reference(s): (The Federal Network for Sustainability) www.federalsustainability.org/archives/SP/spcatresult.php

posted by Cynthia Beal on 10/30/2008 9:03 pm

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