In 1979 the United Nations was sponsoring a World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (WCARRD). The purpose of this Rome-based conference was, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, "the transformation of the rural areas of the world from backwardness and poverty into healthy environments capable of contributing fully to national progress." Conferences of this kind have been long on words and short on concrete suggestions for overcoming the structures which keep the poor in bondage to hunger and oppression.
The problem, in part, is that few countries want their internal problems or injustices to be the focus of international attention. It is hard to imagine a representative of the Philippines martial law government going to Rome with a position paper critical of that government's land reform policies. The fact that land reform has actually forced hundreds of thousands of peasants off the land, while providing incentives to large landowners and foreign agribusiness corporations such as Del Monte and Castle and Cooke (Dole), will not be discussed at the conference. Closer to home, representatives from AID and the State Department have made it clear that the structural problems leading to the demise of black farmers in the South, or of the family farm system in general, are not on the U.S. agenda.
If we measure the importance of WCARRD only by what happened in Rome we will likely be disappointed. The significance of WCARRD is that it presents people of faith with the opportunity to reflect upon the spiritual, social, and economic significance of land and land use. It is an occasion for remembering.
Land and Justice
How long has it been since we reflected on the fact that God created the earth and that each time we take a step we are walking on sacred (or once sacred) turf? Or how long since we humbly acknowledged that while being an important part of creation we are intimately bound to its survival as a whole? The answer is, I think, too long. In fact, our forgetfulness helps to explain why our dominion over the earth is often destructive of nature and contrary to the loving purposes of God. We are guilty of selective amnesia which allows us to accept dominion and yet ignore the context which gives our dominion meaning, namely, that we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27).
The basis of humankind's spiritual and social well-being is acceptance of the fact that "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" (Psalm 24:1). When we accept with humility and gratitude this fundamental biblical truth we open up the possibility of authentic faith and responsible stewardship. As sons and daughters of God we are to be loving stewards of creation. This call goes beyond responsible stewardship of our possessions; we have no ultimate claim to ownership of anything. The resources of the earth are God's gift to present and future generations and are to be used to bless the whole human family.
Of special importance is proper stewardship of land. When the people of Israel were enslaved in Egypt they were forced to work the land for others. Their poverty and oppression led to God's intervention on their behalf. They were led out of Egypt into a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:7-8).
For the people of Israel, land was significant because it was a gift from God and because it opened up possibilities for new social relationships based on equity and justice. The biblical writers insist that the way in which God's gift of land is used reflects the spiritual and social fabric of the nation. Just land use was evidence of faithfulness to God on whose blessing the people depended. Spiritual health was intimately tied to the health of the soil and to the economic health of the community. Unjust land use, on the other hand, was accompanied by spiritual, social, and environmental decay.
The biblical teachings on jubilee and the sabbatical year underscore the spiritual and social importance of responsible stewardship of land. Every 50th year was to be a jubilee in which land was returned to its original "owner" (Leviticus 25:10). This prevented concentration of land ownership and assured a high degree of equality.
The theological justification for the redistribution of God's gift, which in effect constituted the wealth-producing resources of society, was that God owns the land: "The land shall not be sold forever, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall grant a redemption of the land" (Leviticus 25:23-24).
The provisions of the sabbatical year were also meant to serve as leveling mechanisms to prevent wide gaps between the money and power of rich and poor. Every seventh year slaves were to be freed and debts forgiven.
To use God's gift of land for private enrichment rather than for the benefit of the community was irresponsible stewardship and had profound spiritual and social repercussions. Amos describes the destruction of small farmers who were exploited by urban upper classes and merchants who "trample upon the poor and take from him exactions of wheat" (5:11).
Concentration of land ownership and unjust land use had the obvious social consequence of exploitation of the poor. It had an equally profound spiritual corollary: a broken relationship with God. "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your ... cereal offerings, I will not accept them ... But let justice roll down like waters ..." (Amos 5:21, 22, 24). The prophet says forthrightly that because of massive injustice the people's worship and sacrifice actually multiply their sin (Amos 4:4).
In addition to these social and spiritual consequences, injustice and unjust land use also affect the environment. These are the words of Amos' successor Hosea: "There is no faithfulness or kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land … Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air; and even the fish of the sea are taken away" (4:1-3).
The New Testament affirms the spiritual and social significance of land use. Jesus announces his mission in terms of jubilee (Luke 4:18 ff), and the Lord's Prayer may well be a jubilee prayer in which "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" was to be taken quite literally. Jesus' teachings on the dangers of wealth (many wealthy people in New Testament times were absentee landlords) indicate the spiritual and social significance of equity and justice.
It is increasingly clear today that without agrarian reform which takes place in a broader context of social change there will be no authentic development within countries. A mid-1970s World Bank study indicates that in 83 countries just over three percent of the people own or control 80 percent of the agricultural land. This small minority of large landowners, often including or cooperating with foreign agribusiness corporations, uses land for private profit while victimizing the poor.
As a nation which imports nearly $10 billion of agricultural products yearly from poor countries, we must critically examine the impact U.S.-based corporations and U.S. foreign policies have on the poor. Our willingness to undertake such a critical evaluation has both spiritual and social significance.
The United States is in need of agrarian reform and a reassessment of our stewardship of resources. Five percent of our country's farmers control more than 50 percent of our agricultural land; the eight largest energy companies own 65 million acres; timber companies control 43 million acres; railroads, 23 million. In Appalachia, nine corporations own 34 percent of the land surface and all but one of these companies are controlled from outside the region. In California, 52 percent of the crop land is owned by corporate farms (many of which are illegally exploiting federal water subsidies). I seriously doubt that responsible stewardship of God's land is possible with such concentrated ownership.
The spiritual, social, and environmental costs so evident in the U.S. today seem to confirm such doubts. More than half of our country's farms have been eliminated since World War II. The decline of family farms is accompanied by the destruction of rural communities and urban sprawl. Black farmers are on the verge of extinction, Indians have been robbed of water rights, and entire regions have seen their farm base disappear.
We are dreadful environmental stewards as well. Diversified agricultural systems have been replaced by monoculture, and chemical-intensive fence-row-to-fence-row agriculture leads to soil erosion (four billion tons yearly) and to the poisoning of underground water supplies. Two million acres of U.S. farm land are lost to "development" each year. Hundreds of thousands of acres more are destroyed by strip mining which devastates the land while utilizing and in many cases contaminating precious water supplies.
The spiritual consequences of poor stewardship are equally important. By and large we are not a happy people. We would be naive, I think, to easily dismiss the correlation between the spiritual and cultural crisis so much in evidence in the U.S. today and our lack of rootedness in the soil. Agriculture, that delicate interface between creation, soil, and human labor, has been replaced by agribusiness, with its narrow focus on short term economic returns. As we recover the spiritual and social importance of responsible stewardship of God's land we will discover new hope for the hungry and for ourselves as well.
Jack A. Nelson was coordinator of the Politics of Food Program of Clergy and Laity Concerned and the author of a forthcoming book Hunger for Justice (Orbis) when this article appeared.
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