Wendell Berry receiving National Humanities Medal today

Today at 1:45 p.m., President Barack Obama will award the 2010 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal to 20 honorees at an East Room ceremony in the White House. Kentucky farmer, author and KFTC member Wendell Berry is among the honorees.

Wendell Berry speaking at I Love Mountains Day on  February 14.

The medals to be presented by president Obama are the U.S. government's highest honors given to scholars and artists.

This event will be live streamed at www.WhiteHouse.gov/Live.

Oscar winner Meryl Streep, music producer Quincy Jones, singer-songwriter James Taylor, To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee and National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Oates also are among this year's recipients.

More information from the White House here.

Wendell Berry, 76, has spent his career exploring our relationship with the land and community. He has been an outspoken critic of strip mining for 45 years, and was one of 14 KFTC members who sat in outside the governor's office earlier this month.