A Serious Undertaking

In 2005, the FCA filed a class-action lawsuit against Services Corporation International, Stewart Enterprises, Hillenbrand Industries and Batesville Casket Company, accusing them of breaking antitrust laws. According to the suit, the funeral-home chains conspired with Batesville Casket Company (which makes 50 percent of the caskets sold in the United States) to boycott smaller casket companies and pressure consumers to buy caskets at artificially inflated prices.

"The funeral-home defendants are charging about double for caskets that are identical to what you can get elsewhere," says Gordon Schnell, an attorney representing the class-action defendants. "You can buy caskets privately, on the Internet, at Costco—we want to get the word out that consumers have options."

Attorneys representing the defendants declined official comment, but one attorney affiliated with the defense (who spoke on condition of anonymity) said the case was "a typical example of entrepreneurial plaintiff-lawyers" pushing a suit without merit. "Batesville wants to control the distribution of their caskets," he said. "Lots of businesses use a selective distribution system: Rolex, Nike and every car manufacturer." He dismissed FCA as "just two employees in Vermont with an email list."

Despite the FCA's grim assessment of the American way of death, the mood at the convention was optimistic. Rates of cremation—a thrifty, environmentally sound option preferred by FCA members—are skyrocketing. According to the Cremation Association of North America, 32 percent of Americans who died in 2006 were cremated. CANA predicts that by 2025, 57 percent of Americans will choose cremation.

The "green burial" movement, which eschews embalming, metal caskets and concrete grave liners, is also growing and is finding an unexpected symbiosis with the land-conservation movement. Imagine 100 acres you want to preserve, says Mark Harris, author of Grave Matters, and you carve off 10 for a natural cemetery. The preserve could very well pay for itself—or even turn a profit.

"I tend to see the glass as half empty," Slocum admits, sipping a glass of wine at the FCA awards banquet. "But in the last five years, the number of calls I've gotten about green burial and home funerals have grown more than I could've even hoped."

"Still," Slocum adds, "there's a lot to do." He has, you might say, miles to go before he sleeps.

© 2008