Micro-rant moment: I just received a phone call from ANOTHER person whos been completely confused by the certified green burial thing - so much so that I simply have to complain! This person is making a casket for his wife, whos near to passing away. Hes a builder, and asked for the best wood to use. I explained that soft woods were good; he asked about cedar and I told him that cedar, like oak, took awhile longer to decompose than pine but was fine to use, especially in the US where our grave rights are still issued perpetually. He then asked where he could get information about what the approved wood for natural burial was because the cemetery needed something in writing before they would accept the casket from him. I almost hit the roof!! I cant imagine what cemetery would be confused about whether or not to accept a handmade wooden casket without some written approval unless it was a cemetery that didnt know the first thing about natural burial OR the cemetery has been bamboozled into thinking that the only products that COULD be used are those certified by some outside party defining the rules for natural! I get calls and emails like this all the time, from funeral directors AND from families who believe that they cant get a natural burial unless they live near a certified green cemetery and only use approved products. I cant imagine how many people are NOT getting natural burials today because of the greed of a few who want to lock up the natural burial movement for their own ends. Pay attention, people!!! Natural burial does NOT require certified ground, or certified wood, or certified anything! I appreciate the right of the Green Burial Council to persist in its support of its (paying) members who pay them money to promote THEIR products and THEIR cemeteries - thats just marketing, and theyre a business association, after all - but I am NOT happy when I see the effect their marketing has had on the general public and the funeral directors themselves, especially when I realize that hundreds - or maybe thousands - of people arent getting a natural burial or funeral today because they think they have to go down a narrow road (certified cemetery and approved products) or do nothing at all. When I was a natural foods grocer, I promoted certified organic but I NEVER wanted people to think that they shouldnt eat if they couldnt find certified produce; I always encouraged using local, and neighbor, and buying from the people you know, certified or not...or even growing their own; even though that sometimes lost me sales, it made sure that people got something that was better for the planet and for them, and that was the most important thing. Natural burial is no different. If you go into the ground, in a biodegradable container, without preservatives that bioaccumulate, then youve had a natural burial, whether or not its been inspected, or approved, or certified, or whatever. This isnt rocket science! Its digging a hole and returning our loved ones respectfully, back into the soup of elements from which we came. With 2 million of us dying every year, the priority for those dying now is a quantity thing, and not supporting a single trade associations membership or no-one at all! sigh. OK - micro-rant off...
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 19:25:46 +0000
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