Joshua Slocum is an author and executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA), a national non-profit organization dedicated to informing the public and protecting the rights of funeral consumers. He recently discussed the history of the death industry, and the history of his organization, with SevenPonds.

Hello, Mr. Slocum. Could you please give us a short history of the American death industry? How does your organization fit into it?

The real genesis of the funeral consumer movements was the founding of an organization called the Peoples’ Memorial Society in Seattle, Washington in 1939. This was basically a group of people (of mostly Unitarian faith), who were tired of being ripped off by funeral providers. Back then there were no rights for consumers, and the PMA set about creating them for funeral buyers. They wanted an option for creating their own death services, not a so-called “one of everything” funeral, a funeral package, including caskets, flowers, embalming, everything that had come to be associated with traditional funerals. And of course, the word “traditional” was a real marketing coup concocted by industry insiders. The truly traditional funeral, dating back most of human civilization, was a family-centered affair. The family would lay the body out and celebrate their passing in the home. The undertaker might carve the coffin, provide the chairs, but that was just about the extent. Family care of the dead was about as accepted and revered as family care for childbirth. Embalming didn’t come into practice until the Civil War, for preserving and transporting dead soldiers back to their homes — the procedure was seized upon and aggressively marketed, and Americans quickly forgot the old way of doing things. New funerals, now called traditional funerals, with all their accoutrements, were part of the image of national “modernization,” a very clever marketing tactic when you think about it. Things stayed like this for some time.

So when was it that public perception started to change?

Like I said, up through the ‘40s there were periodic rumblings, here and there, about overpricing, about market fixing by funeral homes, but it wasn’t until 1963 and the publication of Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death, that the topic exploded in public conversation. Mitford’s book, in essence an exposé of unscrupulous practices within the death industry, was a sensation. There were already activists working at the local level, but Mitford’s book really gave us momentum, and helped to start a national dialogue. There was a huge surge in the membership and formation of memorial societies.

And this is where the FCA came from?

Right. The FCA, originally called the Continental Association of Funeral and Memorial Societies, formed in 1963, when local memorial societies from around the country came together to seek national representation. Originally memorial societies were little more than co-op buyers clubs, staffed by volunteers, where people would pool their money and purchase funeral services and products in bulk in order to get discounts. The Continental Association took this to the next level, acting as a clearinghouse for information and as a public advocate for consumer rights. We met a good deal of resistance, too. Politicians called us socialists. The funeral industry fought us tooth and nail back then.

So there was a political discourse as well?

Well politicians certainly had an interest, because the funeral industry was so well heeled, and Mitford’s book had caused such a scandal. Our organization continued to apply pressure, and starting in the 1970s the FTC started researching the lack of price controls, and in 1984 enacted the Federal Funeral Rule, which was in essence the first consumer protection tailored specifically to funeral consumers.

Did all of this have any effect on the way people cared for their dead?

Certainly. Back in 1963, cremation, for instance, accounted for only about 3% of all dispositions. This started to change back then, and now the cremation rate is up to around 33% and still rising.

What is the main function of the FCA today?

Today we act as an information resource, and as a voice for consumers at the public policy level. When there are lawsuits, or when a person is wronged by the industry, this person gets in touch with us, and the FCA jumps in, pushes back against the lobbyists and the funeral industry’s friends in high places. We’re the only group around these days that advocates for funeral rights. We’ve helped to enact a number of state laws and regulations, such as the Cemetery Care Act in Illinois, 2009, and I personally worked on a committee tightening the oversight laws protecting preneed consumers in Missouri, 2007, and a number of legislative drafting sessions in Washington, 2006, Minnesota, 2009... The list goes on.

As a national organization, what does the FCA look like? Who are your employees? How many people work for you, etc?

We’re a recognized 501(c)3, a non-profit which relies on donations from outside sources and affiliated groups. And we’re run almost exclusively through volunteer effort. You know, there are only about five chapters around the country that have paid staff, and most of them are part time. Our entire annual budget isn’t much higher than $200,000. It really is passion that fires our efforts; people join because they want to improve the death industry. Our main goal is to help people to feel in control. People are in a fragile state when they come to us. Death is a traumatic experience, and we all need emotional protection when we’re making funeral purchases, but funeral directors don’t see it that way. For them it’s a business transaction, and an opportunity for profit. Consumers need someone in their corner who can counter this. Education and dialogue is so important. If people know what they’re getting into beforehand they can save themselves $1,000s of dollars. We can’t afford to be intimidated by the taboo nature of the topic.

Where are you located? Where are your affiliates?

Our national office is in Burlington, Vermont, and we have about 90 affiliated groups around the country. There are a handful of states without groups, but no one should feel that there’s no help out there. Anyone can go to our website (www.funerals.org), or call our national office.

How can people find a group near them?

They can reference the directory on our website, or just check your local listings. Most use the Funeral Consumer Alliance of XYZ city moniker.

If somebody wants to join the FCA, how do they go about doing it?

They should call their local chapter, or e-mail or call the national office. If someone wants to join and finds there is no local chapter they can call or e-mail the national office, and, if they want, they can even form a chapter themselves. In fact that’s how a lot of them come about.

Thanks for speaking with us about the FCA, Mr. Slocum.

My pleasure.

As a final thought, where do you personally think the death industry is heading? Are you optimistic or pessimistic? Do you see developments such as home funerals and green funerals as having a large impact?

Well, it’s hard to say. Certainly there is an exploding interest in green burial, but it remains to be seen how far that will go. I see the cremation rate continuing to rise, just like it has in the majority of industrialized countries. Along the way, I think there will be a massive culling of funeral homes. Cremation is far cheaper than full-service funerals, and as the cremation rate rises, the whole industry will come to look radically different. People will be asking for simpler, cheaper services, and the funeral homes that can’t change or adapt will either go out of business or merge with the more successful homes that can. Then there’s green funerals and home funerals, but while those are certainly gaining in interest, in my opinion it’s too early to say what effect they’ll have in the long run.

Our founder, Suzette Sherman, has been watching your group closely. She attended one of your bi-annual conferences and she’s very supportive of your philosophy and mission. More people should be aware of the help that’s out there.

Well, thanks. We’ll be following SevenPonds as well. We wish you good luck with your launch, and we look forward to working with you in the future.