Green/Natural Burial Survey
Funeral Consumers Alliance of Minnesota has conducted a survey of Green/Natural Burial options available in the Twin Cities Metro area.
Prairie Oaks Memorial Eco Gardens in Inver Grove Heights is Minnesota's first all-natural burial site. Mound Cemetery in Brooklyn Center is certified by the national Green Burial Council as a"Hybrid" green cemetery, that is, a conventional cemetery that offers the option of burial without a vault or other |
outer burial container, and allows for burial in a shroud.
Roselawn Cemetery in Roseville has recently begun offering natural burial anywhere in it's conventional cemetery.
Our Green/Natural Burial Survey provides comparative information in chart form for these three cemeteries. We've also compiled Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Green/Natural Burial.
The Survey and FAQs are HERE.
Roselawn Cemetery in Roseville has recently begun offering natural burial anywhere in it's conventional cemetery.
Our Green/Natural Burial Survey provides comparative information in chart form for these three cemeteries. We've also compiled Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Green/Natural Burial.
The Survey and FAQs are HERE.
Follow Up to Our Direct Cremation Price Survey
The national rate of cremation is projected to surpass that of burial in 2015 according to a report released in July by the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA). The 2015 NFDA Cremation and Burial Report: Research, Statistics and Projections an in-depth analysis of consumer attitudes toward cremation, as well as statistics on the projected rate of cremation in the U.S.
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By the end of 2015, the rates of cremation and burial are projected to be 48.5 percent and 45.6 percent respectively. Should the 2015 projections bear out, the cremation rate will have more than doubled over the last 10 years.
Source: 2015 NFDA Cremation and Burial Report: Research, Projections and Statistics
In addition to statistical information, the 2015 NFDA Cremation and Burial Report also contains data about consumer perceptions of end-of-life ceremonies and cremation.
- There are many reasons why consumers choose cremation, including cost considerations, environmental concerns, fewer religious prohibitions, and changing consumer preferences, such as a desire for less ritualized funerals.
- The majority of families who choose cremation also commemorate their loved one’s life: 28 percent choose to have a funeral with viewing before cremation and 37 percent have a memorial service after.
- When talking about their own funerals, more than one-half of adults 40 and older would encourage their loved ones to plan a funeral or memorial ceremony. Only 17 percent of adults would discourage their loved ones from commemorating their life.
KARE 11 Story on Family-Directed After-Death Care
Multimedia Photojournalist Ben Garvin of KARE 11 News is looking for someone in the final weeks/months of life, who has chosen family-directed after-death care (a home funeral), and is willing to share their story.
Ben says, "KARE11 would love to find a way to respectfully tell this important story." Garvin, an Emmy Award winning multimedia journalist, joined KARE 11 this year after 10 years with the Pioneer Press. Visit Ben's website to learn more about his work. |
If you or anyone you know might be interested, please contact Ben at bengarvin@gmail.com or 612-910-1499. He's happy to meet informally for coffee or just to chat.
Minnesota Threshold Network (MTN) members Linda Bergh and Anne Murphy have met Ben and support this project.
Minnesota Threshold Network's mission is "Advocating family-directed after-death care, including home vigils and green burial choices."
Minnesota Threshold Network (MTN) members Linda Bergh and Anne Murphy have met Ben and support this project.
Minnesota Threshold Network's mission is "Advocating family-directed after-death care, including home vigils and green burial choices."
Corpses to Compost: The Urban Death Project
Innovation in the final disposition of dead human bodies is rare. There is a growing acceptance of Alkaline Hydrolysis (also known as Green Cremation, Resomation, or Aquamation) as an alternative to so-called flame cremation. And the rise of the green burial movement encourages a return to simplicity in how we lay our dead in the ground. But consider this:
Instead of accompanying their dead loved one to a cemetery or crematory, family members bring the body to a facility for a "laying in" where they say goodbye before covering the body with a high carbon mixture of wood chips and sawdust. |
In a few months' time, with the help of aerobic decomposition and microbial activity, the body decomposes fully, leaving a rich compost.
Welcome to the Urban Death Project. It's not yet a reality, but if Katrina Spade, the Seattle founder and executive director of the Urban Death Project, is successful in raising funds and meeting logistical and regulatory challenges, it will be. According to Spade, the Urban Death Project is not simply a system for turning our bodies into soil-building material. It is also a space for the contemplation of our place in the natural world, and a ritual to help us say goodbye to our loved ones by connecting us with the cycles of nature. [The Urban Death Project is] a meaningful, equitable, and ecological urban alternative to existing options for the disposal of the dead. The project is a solution to the overcrowding of city cemeteries, a sustainable method of disposing of our dead, and a new ritual for laying our loved ones to rest. |
For more information:
▪ Check out The Urban Death Project website.
Further Reading:
▪The July 15, 2015 Slate essay "From Compost You Came, and to Compost You Shall Return."
▪ The April 13, 2015 New York Times article "A Project to Turn Corpses Into Compost."
▪ The September 4, 2014 Atlantic article "The New Urban Cemetery."
▪ Check out The Urban Death Project website.
Further Reading:
▪The July 15, 2015 Slate essay "From Compost You Came, and to Compost You Shall Return."
▪ The April 13, 2015 New York Times article "A Project to Turn Corpses Into Compost."
▪ The September 4, 2014 Atlantic article "The New Urban Cemetery."
Katrina Spade, founder and executive director of the Urban Death Project, has focused her design career on creating human-centered, ecological, architectural solutions. She earned a BA in Anthropology from Haverford College, and a Masters of Architecture from University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture to build and monitor a compost heating system, a project which helped initiate the Urban Death Project. She lives in Seattle.
S U M M E R B E A C H R E A D I N G
"Who Owns the Dead?"
For decades, Americans have been increasingly distanced from the dead. A small group of women is working to change that.
"Who Owns the Dead?"
For decades, Americans have been increasingly distanced from the dead. A small group of women is working to change that.
Interested in how the Home Funeral movement began?
Want to learn from the first-hand experience of families who were directly involved in caring for their own dead?
Read "Who Owns the Dead?" (The New Republic, June 24, 2015), a long (5,800+ words) and fascinating essay on the origins of the American home funeral movement.
Want to learn from the first-hand experience of families who were directly involved in caring for their own dead?
Read "Who Owns the Dead?" (The New Republic, June 24, 2015), a long (5,800+ words) and fascinating essay on the origins of the American home funeral movement.
Here's how the essay describes those who are trained to assist families in after death care:
"...women—and they are almost universally women—guide families in the process of caring for their loved ones immediately after death, before the body is disposed of. In doing so, they are helping the bereaved take back some of the control, respect, and intimacy they believe has disappeared from the modern approach to death." Locally, members of the Minnesota Threshold Network (MTN) are available to assist and guide families in caring for their own dead. |
A N N O U N C I N G
"The Good Funeral" Conference
"The Good Funeral" Conference
A one-day conference for clergy, funeral directors and all interested participants, featuring Thomas Lynch and Thomas G. Long, co-authors of The Good Funeral: Death, Grief, and the Community of Care (Westminster: 2013).
Wednesday, September 23, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
House of Hope Presbyterian Church
797 Summit Avenue, St. Paul
FREE but registration required
House of Hope Presbyterian Church
797 Summit Avenue, St. Paul
FREE but registration required
Thomas G. Long, a Presbyterian pastor and author, and Thomas Lynch, Michigan funeral director, author (The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade), and poet, have both been in the forefront of recent conversations about end-of-life issues, especially as those impact Christian churches.
In their book The Good Funeral: Death, Grief and the Community of Care, Long and Lynch have written a personal and scholarly commentary on contemporary death-related practices. Each contributes a chapter to each of five sections: "Why We Do This," "Caring for the Dead," "Funeral Directors and Clergy," "The Funeral," and "The Grieving," weaving personal narratives with analysis of recent attitudes toward dead bodies, disposition of remains, undertakers, and religious rituals. Both reference the impact of Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death in shaping societal views, and respond to her criticisms with candor and insight. They argue in favor of a full funeral with the body (presumably embalmed) present. In Lynch's oft-cited words: "A good funeral gets the dead where they need to go and the living where they need to be." |
Help Us Continue Our Work
Why Support Us?
Our mantra at FCA of MN is: "Your Right, Your Choice, Your Decision." We provide information and tools to help you make after-death decisions that are right for you. Through our website, group presentations, price surveys, and the personal care we take when you call or email us, we strive to bring you a breadth and depth of information about after-death choices you won't find any place else. |
If this website - and the work we do - has helped you, please consider a donation of $5, $10, $20 (or more) so that our all-volunteer organization can continue this work. Thank you for your support.