John Christian Phifer, the founder of Larkspur Conservation, a conservation burial nonprofit in Tennessee, asks us to consider: When a person dies, what would Mother Nature do? In beautiful reflections shared with Willow Defebaugh, Phifer recounts his upbringing, early connection to death, and years working in the conventional funeral industry. Today, as a passionate advocate for natural burial—placing bodies directly into the ground without embalming, vaults, or even biodegradable containers—he encourages people to look beyond the mainstream options of coffin burial and cremation. He even suggests that some eco-friendly alternatives, like human composting and mushroom coffins, still place unnecessary materials between our bodies and the earth.
There was a phrase we used to use—a “straight drop.” That’s when someone was buried in a simple box, without embalming, no vault. It was seen as a less-than thing. It was classist. It implied that these people couldn’t afford anything. But now I think to myself, “Those people are free. They’re not trapped.”
Her family will meet us at the preserve. We will walk with them into the woods, and we’ll come around and have this circle of time with each other. And they will be able to do whatever in ceremony they wish, whether that’s telling stories or singing a song. And then we’ll pick her up with our hands. When I say we, I mean the family and our staff, pick her up and lower her with ropes into the grave. We allow these ropes to pass over our hands, and this textural experience of something passing through occurs.
More picks about eco-friendly burial
Weave Your Own Coffin
“Green burial, she said, ‘offers so much for the person being buried, for the family saying goodbye, for the community surrounding the cemetery, for the very earth itself.’”
The Mushrooms That Ate Luke Perry
“When actor Luke Perry died in 2019, he was buried in a compostable mushroom suit. The only problem: it didn’t work.”
To Be a Field of Poppies
“The elegant science of turning cadavers into compost.”
