Beyond COP26 — a plea for Jubilee

The topics of food and agriculture made an appearance in several events at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference(COP26) in Glasgow, but their presence was still very much at the margins. This is surprising, given that the many dimensions of eating — such as fishing, farming, processing, transport, distribution, and food waste — are inextricably connected to climate change concerns like the burning of fossil fuels, methane release, (plant and animal) species extinctions, and deforestation. So, how should the conversations surrounding food and agriculture at future COPs proceed?

At COP26 I witnessed a radical disconnect between policy and finance folks, on the one hand, and the farmers and indigenous communities that fish, forage, hunt, and farm their food, on the other. The former (sometimes) spoke of the need for major investment in regenerative agriculture techniques that improve soil quality, reduce pesticide and herbicide use, and produce more nutritious food. They also highlighted the many policies that must be in place to create the processing facilities, distribution networks, and markets for the foods these farmers will supply. These are all important things to discuss, because the move from industrial to regenerative agriculture is a massive and difficult one.

But when I spoke to farmers and indigenous leaders, issues of land access, food democracy, and the right to practice traditional foraging and farming methods were front and centre. They spoke of farmer indebtedness and the many “land grabs” going on around the world, which are driving up prices and mining the ground to death. They reminded us that their methods have not only conserved forests, soils, and watersheds for millennia, they have also fostered environments in which plant and animal species can thrive.

By contrast, the merely decades-old practices of industrial agriculture and food systems, though producing mountains of cheap calories, regularly undermine ecosystem health and resilience, and push indigenous communities to extinction.

As I listened to farmer and indigenous concerns, it became clear to me that our government and finance leaders should adopt a Jubilee framework as they deliberate over how best to position agriculture in a world characterised by climate chaos. The idea of the Jubilee comes from ancient Jewish teachings about land management. It follows from the sabbath idea that every seventh day of the week, people, animals, and the land should observe a time of rest. They should not toil or labour because sabbath is the time when people contemplate and express gratitude for the fact that we live in a world that is saturated with gift upon gift. People need a constant reminder that they live in this life most fundamentally through the actions of receiving and sharing rather than grasping and hoarding. Put another way, the sabbath teaches that we should loosen the grip that is slowly strangling the life out of our fields, forest, and oceans.

The ancient Jews understood how easily land policy becomes unjust. The drive to acquire and control land goes hand in hand with the practices that put peasants and farmers in debt or displace them altogether. Once farmers are in debt, they can no longer practice the methods that conserve soil and water, and that treat animals and community members in a humane manner. This is why the Jubilee is so important and so radical. It states that in the fiftieth year — the sabbath of sabbaths — those farmers who had lost their land or come under the burden of crippling debt were to be restored to their ancestral lands and be forgiven their debts. Reinstalled to their land, they could start fresh, begin again, this time with a better awareness of the unjust practices that first put them into a desperate position. How would agricultural systems change if farmers had the freedom, and the support of consumers, to farm in ways that are good for the land and its eaters?

The debt owed to indigenous farmers and communities is enormous. Their lands have been spoiled and stolen, and their people have been disrespected, harassed, displaced, and murdered. Should not the financial institutions that have already profited massively from farmers and farmlands now forgive the debt that is destroying lands and communities alike? As one farmer put it, agrarian and indigenous people do not ask for or want our pity. What they need from world leaders is something much more like a Jubilee reset, in which stolen land is returned, debts are forgiven, and farm work is honoured.

Norman Wirzba is the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Theology at Duke University, and Senior Fellow at Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics. His most recent book is This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World.