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"Green" Death

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photoA new organic movement is taking hold of the country's death industry, as baby boomers push to reinvent what will define them in death. The so-called "green burials" or "eco-burials" combine simplicity with environmental conservation.

Instead of being buried in cemeteries with manicured lawns and granite headstones, a growing number of Americans would rather be buried in biodegradable "seed pod" caskets or shrouds and in cemeteries that look like nature preserves with rolling hills and wild woods. These environmentally-correct final resting places attest in a way to these Americans' desire to conserve in death as in life.

Hear more about the "eco-burial" movement and the new "back-to-nature" approach to death.

Guests:

Dr. Billy Campbell, pioneer of the eco-burial movement in the United States. He opened the first of the U.S. green burial grounds, the 350-acre Ramsey Creek Preserve in Westminster, S.C. in 1998.

Jerrigrace Lyons, director, Final Passages. She has worked for 10 years as a home funeral guide.

Gary Laderman, professor of religious studies, Emory University and author of "Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America".

This program aired on August 23, 2005.

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