Alternative Funeral Monitor

Gerard Lemos: No More Vultures Circle the Towers of Silence

Link: Gerard Lemos: No more vultures circle the Towers of Silence.

The Parsi community of northern India have a unique burial tradition. They put their dead out at the sacred Towers of Silence and the vultures that constantly circle, sometimes turning the sky dark by their numbers, devour the flesh on the bodies until the bones are picked clean and white. This tradition dates back centuries but is shortly to end if we're not careful.

Since the 1990s the vulture population all over South Asia has rapidly depleted to the point where 99.9 per cent of them have died. For several years no one understood the phenomenon, but in 2003 a scientific study of the post mortems conducted on vulture corpses in Pakistan made a breakthrough.

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Going green - Green to the End

Link: CBC News In Depth: Going green.
Environmentally Friendly Burials by Georgie Binks
April 25, 2008
 

In an era when people spend more time sorting garbage than creating it, what better way to end your days on earth than in an environmentally friendly resting place?

Instead of a metal casket placed in a vault lined with concrete, environmentally aware Canadians will soon have the opportunity to choose to be buried in biodegradable boxes or cloth shrouds. That's because green burials have finally arrived in Canada.

Later this year, Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria opens its natural burial site, believed to be the first of its kind in Canada. Executive director Stephen Olson explains that the company is responding to the community's wishes: "There's a tremendous amount of interest around green burials."

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The Undertaker's Racket - Originally by Jessica Mitford, 1963

PUBLISHED BY THE ATLANTIC
June, 1963
Jessica Mitford

Link: The Undertaker's Racket.

In 1960, Americans spent, according to the only available government estimate, $1.6 billion on funerals, setting thereby a new national and world record. The $1.6 billion is, as we shall see, only a portion of what was actually spent on what the death industry calls "the care and memorialization of the dead." Even this partial figure, if averaged out among the number of deaths, would amount to the astonishing sum of $942 for the funeral of every man, woman, child, and stillborn babe who died in the United States in 1960. This is a record unmatched in any previous age or civilization.

The $1.6 billion figure that is given for our national burial bill is furnished by the U.S. Department of Commerce census of business under the heading "personal expenditure for death expense." Since it includes personal expenditures only, it does not include burial expenditures by cities and counties and by private and public institutions for the burial of indigents, welfare recipients, and persons confined in public institutions, nor does it include burial expenditures by the armed forces for military personnel. How much do these public expenditures amount to annually? Nobody knows, for there is no centrally maintained source of information. The burial of indigents, for example, is a matter of city or county concern. There is a wildly disparate variation in costs and procedures. Some counties contract with funeral directors for casket, service, and burial for as little as $70; some pay as much as $300 for casket and service alone.

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Green burials go mainstream — Plenty Magazine

Link: Green burials go mainstream — Plenty Magazine.

Green burials go mainstream
An expert in natural burials offers insights on the industry, and simple tips for making funerals more eco friendly.
By Giovanna Dunmall

As far as trends go, this one is macabre. Literally. The popularity of green funerals has increased significantly in recent years. These events can incorporate everything from biodegradable coffins, to eco-friendly clothing for the deceased, to using fuel-efficient cars for the procession instead of gas-guzzling limos, to a burial plot in a natural setting (as opposed to traditional cemeteries or churchyards). In the United Kingdom alone, where the first natural burial ground opened 15 years ago, today there are 228 such sites.

The UK’s Natural Death Centre (NDC) is just one of many groups that offers advice on green burials. On April 19, Mike Jarvis, the organization’s director, spoke at London’s Green Funeral Exhibition, where those in the business showcased their services and products. The center projects that by the year 2010, natural burial will account for 11 to 12 percent of all burials in the UK.

To help educate people about the benefits of natural burials, the NDC publishes The Natural Death Handbook (an updated version will come out at the beginning of next year), which contains tips, legal advice, and case studies on how to arrange a “dignified death in harmony with nature.” Plenty caught up with Jarvis, who broke down the nuts and bolts of green burials.

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Leading churchmen add their backing to cemetery group protest - Kirkintilloch Today

Link: Leading churchmen add their backing to cemetery group protest - Kirkintilloch Today.

FAMILIES for the Right to Mourn in Peace, the cemetery action group, has received welcome support from leading church figures. The group is leading a campaign to convince East Dunbartonshire Council to change their present cemetery rules, and instead adopt the Charter for the Bereaved - a document that is used by over 100 local authorities in Britain. Group members recently contacted a number of churches, asking for their support on this sensitive topic, and received an immediate response. The Scottish Episcopal Church's Bishop of Glasgow, Reverend Idris Jones, contacted the group to give them words of encouragement. He said: "I will be making enquiries to see if any of my clergy are aware of this issue. "This is a matter of great sensitivity and it is clear that there has to be consultation and discussion between all those involved. "Only then will we be able to achieve what must surely be possible, and that is a solution that helps meet the two needs. "Firstly, there is the need to have a secure and environmentally pleasing area for the respectful deposit of human remains. "There is also the need to respect the desire of the bereaved to express the respect and affection for those whom they have lost.

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After You're Dead - Home Funerals, Natural Cemeteries, and the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Humboldt

Link: North Coast Journal April 10, 2008 :
By Bob Doran

What happens after you're dead? The exact nature of the afterlife (if there is one) is debatable and far from certain. What is certain is that we leave behind a body, a mass of flesh and bone that someone has to deal with.

Have you made plans for the disposition of your remains? Chances are you have not. People don't like to talk about death, particularly their own. Offering directions to family and friends regarding what to do with your corpse is not typically high on the to do list — it's left until the end is near.

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Australian cemetery to offer carbon-free funerals | Environment | Reuters

Link: Australian cemetery to offer carbon-free funerals | Environment | Reuters.

Australian cemetery to offer carbon-free funerals Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:59am

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian cemetery has unveiled plans to take the carbon out of cremations by offering new green funerals to help combat global warming.

On the day Australia's formal ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on Greenhouse emissions comes into force, the Centennial Park cemetery in the South Australian state capital of Adelaide said it had studied the carbon impact of burials and cremations.

Seven Days: Dead Wrong

(This article is from January, 2007)

Link: Seven Days: Dead Wrong.

The sense of closure that comes from doing a home funeral should make sense to anyone who has lost a close friend or family member. During a time of mourning, especially after a sudden, unexpected death, people want to feel useful. But all too often, the expression of condolence — “Is there anything I can do?” — has no response. In this country, where 99 percent of all deaths are handled by funeral directors, there’s rarely anything of substance for friends and family todo. But, as Knox explains, giving people a task — picking up the death certificate, buying more dry ice, building the coffin or digging the grave — provides a physical way to work through grief.

Life: Dead? No problem – you, too, can be green | burial, natural burial, cemetery, dying, died, embalming - OCRegister.com

Link: Life: Dead? No problem – you, too, can be green | burial, natural burial, cemetery, dying, died, embalming - OCRegister.com.

By JAY LEVIN The Record (Hackensack N.J.) Comments 4 | Recommend 0

HACKENSACK, N.J. - Genevieve Maiberger is excited about her burial.

When the time arrives, the retired schoolteacher from Teaneck, N.J., will be placed in a linen shroud and planted in the earth of a hilltop in a lovely meadow, along with the ashes of her husband, Leo, now on the bedroom dresser.

Golden daffodils will mark the grave in the spring.

"This is how we all should end our existence," said the 81-year-old Maiberger, who shudders at the thought of her chemically preserved body being displayed at a wake and of going to her reward in a tightly shut casket in a cemetery chockablock with engraved granite headstones.

Maiberger has chosen natural burial – an environmentally friendly throwback to how Americans bade farewell before the advent of embalming a century and a half ago.

Link: read more on cite.

The State | 01/03/2008 | Dust to dust: Green burials turning death into healer of land

Link: The State | 01/03/2008 | Dust to dust: Green burials turning death into healer of land.

By KIRSTEN SCHARNBERG - Chicago Tribune ERIK S LESSER/MCT
Pallbearers carry the casket of Jeff Miller, 53, to his burial site at the Ramsey Creek Preserve in Westminster, S.C., in November. ERIK S LESSER/MCT Pallbearers carry the casket of Jeff Miller, 53, to his burial site at the Ramsey Creek Preserve in Westminster, S.C., in November.

* Green option often less costly

When Billy Campbell’s father died a number of years ago, the family did what was expected at the time: Bury him in a historic cemetery behind the family’s Methodist church.

The setting was lovely and bucolic, but Campbell, a devoted land conservationist, couldn’t stop thinking, “With what we spent on that funeral, I could have bought 5 or 10 acres and created a more permanent memorial to him.”

With his father’s death in mind, Campbell in 1998 decided to try to marry the multibillion-dollar U.S. funeral industry with the nation’s growing land conservation and environmental movements...

Link: The State | 01/03/2008 | Dust to dust: Green burials turning death into healer of land.

Green Burial - It's Only Natural by Joe Sehee

Link: Green Burial.

By Joe Sehee

Green burial may sound like another trend of the eco-chic, but it’s actually the way most of humanity has cared for its dead for thousands of years. The idea calls for returning to the earth without the use of non-biodegradable toxins or materials—no embalming, no metal caskets, no concrete vaults. Remember that “ashes to ashes” thing?

Though green burial is not a new concept, what is new is that it is being done in conjunction with restoration planning and conservation management techniques, providing a powerful new tool for protecting endangered habitat at a time when innovative, market-based solutions are sorely needed.

'Green funerals' feature biodegradable coffins - CNN.com

Link: 'Green funerals' feature biodegradable coffins - CNN.com.

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) -- Cynthia Beal wants to be an Oregon cherry tree after she dies. She has everything to make it happen -- a body, a burial site and a biodegradable coffin. art.green.coffins.ap.jpg

Cynthia Beal with an Ecopod, a biodegradable coffin made out of recycled newspaper.

"It is composting at its best," said Beal, owner of The Natural Burial Company, which will sell a variety of eco-friendly burial products when it opens in January, including the Ecopod, a kayak-shaped coffin made out of recycled newspapers.

North Carolina Targets FCA

Link: North Carolina Targets FCA.

11/06/2007 ---

Which of these is a threat to consumer safety:

    * A. A funeral director who dips into customers' prepaid funeral money to buy a new hearse

    * B. Funeral homes that rent out their embalming rooms to fly-by-night tissue brokers who dissect bodies and sell them for profit

    * C. A retired woman volunteering for a nonprofit organization that helps protect grieving consumers from overspending and fraud

TwinCities.com - Your rights to last rites just got narrower

Link: TwinCities.com - Your rights to last rites just got narrower.

Your rights to last rites just got narrower Revised Minnesota law makes home death care, green funerals more difficult, activists contend BY RICHARD CHIN Pioneer Press Article Last Updated: 10/14/2007 11:42:25 PM CDT

Is it beneath the dignity of a dead man to ride in the back of a pickup truck?

It is now, according to recent changes in Minnesota law that prohibit using a pickup truck, even one with a cap, to transport a corpse.

The change, approved in the last legislative session and made effective Aug. 1, is among several new funeral restrictions drawing the criticism of consumer advocates.

They say the new laws make it harder for ordinary people and religious communities to conduct home funerals and home death care.

In Minnesota and the rest of the country, a growing number of people are seeking to care for their own dead as a way to save money, protect the environment and find a more meaningful way to grieve.

'Green' Burials Try To Preserve Cycle of Life - washingtonpost.com

Link: 'Green' Burials Try To Preserve Cycle of Life - washingtonpost.com.

In life, Lou Tafuri loved to fish in the waters off the New Jersey coast. In death, he sleeps with the fishes. His family couldn't be happier.

Tafuri, who died in 2005, was cremated after donating his body to science. Shortly before the ashes were returned to his daughter Susan Tafuri, she learned of a program that could provide her father with an eternal resting place better-suited to him than an urn.

Save Me!

Link: Save Me!.

Embalm, v.: To cheat vegetation by locking up the gases upon which it feeds. By embalming their dead and thereby deranging the natural balance between animal and vegetable life, the Egyptians made their once fertile and populous country barren and incapable of supporting more than a meagre crew. The modern metallic burial casket is a step in the same direction, and many a dead man who ought now to be ornamenting his neighbour's lawn as a tree, or enriching his table as a bunch of radishes, is doomed to a long inutility. We shall get him after awhile if we are spared, but in the meantime the violet and the rose are languishing for a nibble at his glut�us maximus.

- Ambrose Bierce

Embalming

The practice of embalming has existed since early history throughout many lands and cultures.  In the United States, the vast majority of bodies are embalmed, yet few people understand how and why.  Embalming disinfects, temporarily preserves and restores, to an acceptable physical appearance, a dead human body.  As human remains begin to decompose almost immediately after death, thereby offering an ideal environment for microbial growth, untreated remains pose a public health concern.

Biodegradable coffins - Salford City Council

Link: Biodegradable coffins - Salford City Council.

Environmental Issues

Veneered coffins, when used for cremation, give off pollutants into the atmosphere and it is understood that formaldehyde is used when making the chipboard, which is also harmful to the environment. In recent years other coffin options have been developed and there is now a choice of environmentally friendly coffins available to both the public and funeral directors, which meet the beliefs and needs of the bereaved.

Green-burial movement gets more ambitious | By Gregory Dicum | Grist | Main Dish | 27 Jul 2006

Link: Green-burial movement gets more ambitious | By Gregory Dicum | Grist | Main Dish | 27 Jul 2006.

"I'd prefer to be put in the ground, under a tree," says Joe Sehee, contemplating his inevitable demise. "But I don't want to go in the ground with anything, I just want to be buried in a simple pine box or shroud, and that's it."

If Sehee has given his preferences a lot of thought lately, it's not that he's planning to shuffle off this mortal coil any more imminently than the rest of us -- it's just that, as executive director of the Green Burial Council, it's his job.

The "anything" Sehee wants to avoid going into the ground with is the embalming fluid, concrete, steel, and hardwoods that typically get buried along with the dead.

African American Cemeteries

Link: African American Cemeteries.

Chicora Foundation was the first organization to take the threat to African American cemeteries seriously. Our work here in South Carolina during the 1970s clearly revealed the increasing number of cemeteries being lost to development.

Issue 4

• The New Funeral Movement
  
  • Modern Funerals Celebrate Life: the era of the traditional, gloomy transition to the afterlife is rapidly dying... Read Article
    
• Business Beat: Natural Burial Highlights
  • Dedication of 100 acre Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve,  May 21, 2006, just south of Ithaca, NY, one of a handful of natural cemeteries in the USA... Read Article
• The Arts of Memory
  
  • Computer generated memory-tributes become more common...Read Article
• Consumer Issue Focus -
  
  • Consumer advocate can give funeral advice without a license, Texas Court rules; Cemetery board's regulations governing casket sales too restrictive... Read Article
  • Michigan House bars individuals from making their own funeral arrangements... Read Article
  • "The Watchdog Sleeps; FTC goes easy on industry" -- Joshua Slocum, Executive Director of the Funeral Consumer's Alliance, points out bias in enforcement of the Funeral Rule that favors industry at the expense of consumers... Read Article
    
• Venues and Exhibits-
  
  • FUNERIA announces the long-awaited Call for Entries 2006, for their internationally acclaimed Ashes to Art Exhibit, the 3rd international juried exhibition of original, contemporary funerary urns, vessels, reliquaries and personal memorial artwork, in Philadelphia this October... Read Article
    

• The New Funeral Movement
  
  • Modern Funerals Celebrate Life: the era of the traditional, gloomy transition to the afterlife is rapidly dying... Read Article
    
• Business Beat: Natural Burial Highlights
  • Dedication of 100 acre Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve,  May 21, 2006, just south of Ithaca, NY, one of a handful of natural cemeteries in the USA... Read Article
• The Arts of Memory
  
  • Computer generated memory-tributes become more common...Read Article
• Consumer Issue Focus -
  
  • Consumer advocate can give funeral advice without a license, Texas Court rules; Cemetery board's regulations governing casket sales too restrictive... Read Article
  • Michigan House bars individuals from making their own funeral arrangements... Read Article
  • "The Watchdog Sleeps; FTC goes easy on industry" -- Joshua Slocum, Executive Director of the Funeral Consumer's Alliance, points out bias in enforcement of the Funeral Rule that favors industry at the expense of consumers... Read Article
    
• Venues and Exhibits-
  
  • FUNERIA announces the long-awaited Call for Entries 2006, for their internationally acclaimed Ashes to Art Exhibit, the 3rd international juried exhibition of original, contemporary funerary urns, vessels, reliquaries and personal memorial artwork, in Philadelphia this October... Read Article
    

Why dad's eco-funeral went horribly wrong | the Daily Mail

Link: Why dad's eco-funeral went horribly wrong | the Daily Mail.

My father was buried in a cardboard coffin and placed next to a pet cemetery miles from our family home. Read about the 'green' funeral that went horribly wrong:

As his final statement, a 'green' burial seemed the perfect way for my father to take his leave of planet Earth.

Not only would it avoid rare tropical hardwoods being felled and carted halfway around the world for a coffin that would be seen for only a few hours, but the burial would cost fraction of the amount of a more conventional send-off - which was particularly pleasing for a man who would re-use every Styrofoam cup and piece of string.

Issue 3

• Business Beat - Death Care Industry reformer Lisa Carlson caters to home-funeral needs in Vermont
  


• Funeral Artist Spotlight - Mark Hallert of Glass Mementos
  


• Home Funeral Stories - Alternative Funeral Rites education by Beth Knox of "Crossings"
  


• Featured Service Provider Group - The Green Burial Council, working to set standards for green burial cemeteries in the US.


• Service Provider Spotlight - Mike Salisbury, Spiritual Landscapes and Natural Cemetery Design
  

Crematorium, natural burial grounds proposed for St. George

Link: Crematorium, natural burial grounds proposed for St. George.

Crematorium, natural burial grounds proposed for St. George Unique project would accommodate do-it-yourself funerals

By Greg Elias
Observer staff

The town of St. George wants to attract development to 75 acres of land it owns. But is it ready for a one-of-a kind project that includes a crematorium and gives families a place to bury their loved ones without using a funeral home?

Lisa Carlson, a nationally recognized gadfly on the funeral industry and a Hinesburg resident, has proposed using roughly two-thirds of the land the tiny town owns in St. George Town Center to construct a garden park, crematorium and conference center. A nonprofit organization would be formed to manage the garden park, a natural area where bodies could be buried and ashes scattered.

Carlson’s business would operate the crematorium, leasing the facility to defray operating costs for the garden park. And a conference center would attract nonprofit organizations and perhaps provide space for civic functions.

Unusual proposal

She met with town officials last week to discuss her proposal. While not ruling out the idea, officials suggested it will take time to digest the details and decide if the unusual use is appropriate for a site that was intended for commercial development.

Issue 2

Funeral Wire Highlights

Funeral Wire collects cemetery, funeral and other industry news. We've listed some of their more interesting articles from the past several months and hyperlinked them for our readers:

• Link: Writing About the Dead and Loving It
  • Like members of an outlaw cult, obituary writers have been gathering annually in quiet, out-of-the-way places for the last seven years to discuss their craft and commune with fellow newsroom misfits
• Link: Community changing face of funerals
• A family in Fort Collins recreates traditional Hindu funeral for Stateside mother; diversity-sensitive community supports non-Christian last rites with local crematorium and funeral directors' assistance...
• Link: US company builds 2,1m wide coffin
• 
  
• Link: Hotel construction could blight Zoroastrian cemetery in southern Iran
• 
  
• Link: Funeral celebrant offers fresh outlook, unique service.
• 
  
• Link: Taipei: Tree burials help conserve space.
• 
  
• Link: Green Burials Offer Unique, Less Costly Goodbyes
• 
  
• Link: New trends challenge local funeral homes
• 
  
• Link: The Women behind the Funeral Ceremony.
  
  
• Link: Dying in Idaho
  
  
• Link: Travel Urn Project Update.

Issue 1

• Business Beat - Funeral Consumers' Alliance files major anti-trust lawsuit
  


• Natural Burial Focus - The Emerging Natural Burial Movement


• Funeral Artist Interview - with casket painter Alegria of Folk Art Inspiration
  


• Funeral Arts Venue News - Funeria(tm); Where Art Honors Life
  


• Featured Service Provider Group - Temple Beth Israel's  Chevra Kadisha Society
  


• Service Provider Spotlight - The Eugene Masonic Cemetery

About the Alternative Funeral Monitor

Welcome to the Alternative Funeral Monitor, an aperiodical online e-zine of news and clues around natural death and dying in the modern American 21st Century.

A small team of volunteer folk are exerting effort to point you in the direction of web-based articles on the funeral arts and services, and the environmentally-conscious natural death movement as it takes the UK's lead, unfolding in Australia, the USA and elsewhere.

* Funeral Artist and Provider News
* Green Business Beat
* Funeral Consumer Resources

We've discovered a host of web-based resources on these topics and more, and we want to share. We'll bring them to you over the next few months, as we get them set up to peruse. The more we know, the faster things can change to meet our needs.

Our simple e-zine-blog is designed to hold reviews and citations of material published elsewhere on the web. We're building a map, as it were, to resources we think some of you'll find useful and interesting, like we do.

Contact Us at this link: http://remblogs.typepad.com/afm_articles/2005/09/contact_the_alt.html

Enjoy and learn. Feel free to suggest links and to leave useful and sincere comments in the areas provided below open posts, but please forgive us for not replying directly at this time. We love the idea of having a record of your thoughts about these articles as we construct them over time, however. We've provided a trackback feature so that you can leave a reciprocal link to your site; that way we can come visit YOU sometime!

As we publish over time, the relevant sites and your feedback will accrete - (growing like a garden if we get it right) - and, the web being what it is, we'll eventually find a strong collection of articles on funeral artists and traditions, ceremonial and service providers, consumer, business and regulatory affairs, green cemeteries, biologically-appropriate burial, and the movements toward an environmentally dignified death for all.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR RSS FEED ...Our first publication date is September 22, 2005, the Autumnal Equinox. We've provided an RSS Feed and a podcasting link in the top left corner for your subscription convenience.

LEARN ABOUT RSS: If you don't know about this personal info-management tool, please google for the self-tutorials or find a friend to help you set yourself up.  RSS and other feeds are a great organic spam solution, much better than excessively restrictive regulation. Besides, if you're on a feed, we tiny publishers don't have to run mailing lists and can keep our day jobs.

Finally, if you would like to become more active and add your efforts to ours, you can visit the Funeral Arts and Service Providers Directory for more information on how to do so.