Old Fashioned Burial Coming Back Into Style

Old Fashioned Burial Coming Back Into Style SPECIALTY/SERVICES Specialty/Services 31-5-43 Just when you began to think you couldn't afford to die, "natural burials" have started coming back into style. The idea is to eliminate embalming, fancy caskets and concrete vaults. "A lot of people don't see the point in paying $15,000 for a cherry and brass casket that people will see for a few hours, and then it's put in the ground," says Kimberley Campbell, vice president, Memorial Ecosystems. The company is a consulting firm that helps organizations and people establish "green burial" cemeteries or memorial parks. In 1998, she and her husband, Dr. Billy Campbell, opened Ramsey Creek Preserve in South Carolina, the first "green cemetery" in the U.S. It is a 33-acre area that is being restored to its natural state with the sale of plots. With natural burial, the body is placed in a biodegradable casket of wood or cardboard or wrapped in a cotton shroud and placed in a shallow grave. Nature takes its course, decomposing the casket and the body naturally and safely. And, it's all legal. "People are becoming more educated about what the legal requirements are for burial," says Campbell. "Often funeral directors aren't aware of the laws themselves. You have to go in armed with information." She says some funeral directors may say you can't have an open casket if the body isn't embalmed, or that the body must be buried within 24 hours. None of that is true because bodies can be refrigerated until the funeral is held. She points out that Jewish people have never allowed embalming. As states have different laws, she suggests checking the consumer alliance website www.funerals.org for information. Not all funeral homes resist natural burial, notes Campbell. "We work with a funeral home that picks up the deceased, keeps the body refrigerated until burial, takes care of the death certificate, and then delivers the body to Ramsey Creek, all for $1,280," she says. "Our charge for the plot and natural burial, which includes opening and closing the grave and a plain marker, is $2,225. Engraving the maker stone costs from $85 to $175. A shroud or cardboard casket costs less than $200, and a wooden casket costs $800. All together, it costs less than $5,000." Campbell stresses that the cost can be much less, as legally the family can handle all the green burial details the funeral home takes care of, if they wish. Of course cost isn't the only factor, or even the most important for many people. For them a green burial is a more natural and peaceful process. "It involves the family in the process, instead of keeping them separate," says Campbell. "We have family members who want to help dig the grave, lower the body and fill in the grave. It's how we used to do it and how it is still done in cultures throughout the world." Campbell says Memorial Ecosystems has been approached by nature preserves and individual landowners about developing green cemeteries. The green cemeteries can be for profit or nonprofit. The Campbells are currently developing a nonprofit preserve in Georgia for a monastery. "We have had contacts from families whose farm has been in the family for many years," explains Campbell. "They want to preserve it from development. They can develop part of it for a green cemetery and maintain an income flow. As many municipal cemeteries are running out of room, you can even partner with a city or town to protect green space, yet offer a service." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Memorial Ecosystems, Inc., 111 West Main St., Westminster, S.C. 29693 (ph 864 647-7798; cell 864 324-2647; kimberley@memorialecosystems.com; www. memorialecosystems.com).

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