The Unsettling of America critiques the destructive impact of industrial agriculture on the environment. The theme of land degradation underpins much of Berry’s argument, presenting industrial agriculture as a system that prioritizes short-term gains and profit over the land’s long-term health.

Berry contrasts traditional, sustainable agricultural practices with exploitative industrial methods, which have led to the depletion of soil fertility (resulting in less nutritional food), environmental degradation, and a loss of connection to the land. Berry discusses the transformation of agriculture from a nurturing practice to an extractive industry: “Husbandry will become an extractive industry; because maintenance will entirely give way to production the fertility of the soil will become a limited unrenewable resource like coal or oil” (12). This shift, Berry argues, indicates the mentality within industrial agriculture: It views Earth not as a living system requiring care but as a resource to indiscriminately mine. This perspective devalues the soil, treating it as something to be used up rather than nurtured, which ultimately threatens the very foundation of human survival.

Further exacerbating the degradation of land is the reliance on synthetic fertilizers and chemical inputs, which disrupt natural cycles and contribute to the gradual exhaustion of soil fertility.