Morning Show with Mary Jacobsen – Green Burials

This week, Mary Jacobsen speaks with Candace Currie and Lisa Groves about “green” burial, also called natural burial. Currie is Clerk for Green Burial Massachusetts, a statewide nonprofit whose mission is to educate the public about green burial. Groves chairs the Westford Cemetery Commission, which began offering green burial as an option in the town in 2019. Currie and Groves discuss the benefits of green burial, in which the body and everything that accompanies it into the ground are nontoxic and biodegradable. Currie and Groves also compare and contrast green burial with conventional burial and with cremation. Sometimes also referred to as traditional burial, natural burial was the predominant method used in the U.S. prior to the Civil War, and is still used by much of the world’s population. Currently, the option of green burial in Massachusetts differs from town to town, and cemetery to cemetery. Green Burial Massachusetts Cemetery, a nonprofit organization, is actively searching for land along with land trust partners to establish at least one conservation cemetery in Massachusetts, to offer anyone in the state who wants natural burial to have the option. Watch here or listen here.