“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.” (Leviticus 25:2-4)

I’m unusual in being rather quite fond of reading the book of Leviticus – disliked by many due to its long list of sometimes obscure rules and regulations. While it’s true that, as Christians, we don’t follow all of them now, it is my belief that, even now, each has something to say to us, whether as individuals or as a society. However, it’s also true that our interpretation of them is likely to be influenced by both the New Covenant that Jesus brought, or by changing times.

The Greens’ downfall

Is it possible that this ancient piece of writing might even be relevant to the European Parliament elections that took place last Sunday?

Let us consider two things. Right across the board, those political parties which espoused a rapid drive towards Net Zero have taken a real thrashing in the polls – as have those that have promoted high immigration levels. The European Greens experienced the second largest decline of all parties, dropping to just 7 per cent. As one UK correspondent put it, “This speaks to one of the most enduring mysteries of European politics: with so little evidence of public support for radical environmentalism, why does the climate agenda dominate political decision-making both at the EU and national level?”

Instead, for most Europeans, other issues have been seen as far more pressing. Farmers have resented being forced off their land or to slaughter livestock; homeowners have resented being forced to install expensive and noisy heat pumps; workers have resented the effective lowering of their wages as more competition for housing and jobs takes its effect; while on top of all this, we must take into account the impact on culture that rapid change brings.

Sabbath rest

Now let’s look at one of the more obscure verses in Leviticus: “For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards” (Lev 25:3). What on earth could that have to do with Europe’s problems?

Care of the land is a God-given mandate and one that we as Christians should play our part in.

Well, it points to God’s concern about the burden placed on the soil by agriculture, (and, now, in particular, industrial agriculture). Now, don’t get me wrong – we need to cultivate land, grow crops, raise livestock, and so on. It is the most effective way of feeding the world’s population – there is no place for advocating a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, which would starve us all in months. But God knew that if the Israelites were to sustain a fruitful life in the Promised Land, then that land would need a rest every seven years.

It's really quite crucial. Verses 18-19 in that chapter state, “Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety.” Now, it’s quite reasonable to assume that this means following all of God’s decrees, and that is clearly important. But the following verse makes clear that God is talking about resting the land each Sabbath year, as it says, “You may ask, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?’”

Quite evidently, as well as challenging them on trusting Him, God was preparing His people to understand how best to manage the land, in that time, in that place. (Time for land to be left fallow is one that farmers here practised for centuries, and it is beginning to be reclaimed as an idea – but there are other factors at play too, which we need to understand.)

A lesson hard learned

Of course, His chosen people disobeyed – 2 Chronicles 36:21 suggests that this procedure was rarely, if ever, put into practice: “The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfilment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.” And we know that Israel went through many episodes of famine, so much so that large areas of wilderness became evident.

We can see the same thing having developed across the world over time – the Sahara was once green and fertile. Middle America was turned to a dustbowl by over-farming a century ago – the novel The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, illustrates the devastation, human suffering – and mass migration – caused across the United States during the ‘Dust Bowl’ years by the failure to look after the soil properly.

Improving our soil

Now to bring this to the current times. We have seen food production multiply by more efficient farming techniques, sophisticated machinery, and chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Yet these, too, despite their merits, have come at a cost. The soil’s quality and biodiversity has plummeted – it is widely considered that foodstuffs produced today don’t have the same level of vitamins and minerals in them as they once did. Various people have estimated that the UK – and perhaps even the world at large – has only sixty harvests left, though that is likely to be exaggerated, in the way that eco-zealots do. Nonetheless, there is clearly a major issue at stake.

Yet, significant data exists to show that improving the soil across the world would be enough to halt the increase in temperature probably caused by more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

At the same time, billions of pounds are being poured into ‘Net Zero’ measures, in an attempt to reduce carbon emissions, which may or may not be accelerating climate change, to little effect for the cost. What’s much more certain is that these measures are serving to impoverish countless millions of individuals worldwide.

Yet, significant data exists to show that improving the soil across the world would be enough to halt the increase in temperature probably caused by more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It’s not just sceptics pointing this out – a Guardian article last year suggested that marginal improvements to agricultural soils around the world would store enough carbon to keep the world within 1.5C of global heating.

Additional benefits

If we could place much greater focus on achieving this, across the world, it would have the added benefit of ensuring better food, as crops grown in more arid soils have fewer minerals. Increased crop yields would also reduce poverty in third world countries, slowing the need for economic migration. Clearly, these factors need to be taken seriously by agriculturalists, economists and world leaders - for, unlike many other net-zero measures, it becomes a win-win measure, with additional benefits, rather than significant downsides.

It is even possible, utilising the right methods, to reverse desertification and reclaim deserts.

It is even possible, utilising the right methods, to reverse desertification and reclaim deserts. Some of this is already happening, such as the African Union's Great Green Wall, but it needs to be given even greater focus by developed nations. I also watched a TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talk a number of years ago, by biologist and ecologist Allan Savory, which explained and advocated for the use of brief periods of intense grazing, mimicking herd behaviour, for use in land that was rapidly turning to desert. He demonstrated how this method swiftly turned the patches of land back to being green, lush and fruitful once more. He claims that using this method across all areas facing desertification could reverse climate change, in and of itself. It would also feed people in these areas, which are prone to significant violence, in part due to the scant and declining resources.

Care of the land is a God-given mandate and one in which we as Christians should play our part. And it is vital that we direct our efforts in the areas that have the potential to make the most difference to human flourishing. By working to reclaim deserts, through this method and others, such as better irrigation and farming techniques, we can solve many of the problems facing the world today.

Making a difference

So, how can we make a real difference? There are a number of options that we can take, and this list is not exhaustive:

• Listen to, rather than dismiss, the concerns of eco-activists, most of them mean well, and the environment is crucial to us all – but try to point them in the direction of how best to focus their efforts on climate mitigation methods that bring much wider positive benefits.
  
• Care for our own gardens in a way that improves the soil quality. Keep pesticides and herbicides and chemical fertilisers to a minimum, don’t dig when it’s not needed, and put on plenty of compost – making our own if we can. We can often tell if the soil is good by how many worms live in it.
  
• If we can, look to buy food¹ that has been grown using Regenerative Farming techniques, ones which seek to farm in a way that improves the environment, with a particular focus on the soil (such as those highlighted recently in Clarkson’s Farm (an Amazon Prime TV documentary about Jeremy Clarkson and his farm in the Cotswolds). Organic produce is also good – but it’s harder to make this affordable and sustainable to feed 8 billion people. We need to encourage local farmers to look into ways to improve their soil.
  
• The biggest challenge is in the developing world. We need to support charities that are helping farmers in the worst hit areas to improve their farming techniques, such as Practical Action, who say, “Our work in Sudan isn’t just about adapting to climate change. It’s about overcoming it, counteracting it and helping people thrive in the face of it. From water capture to irrigation, knowledge building to reforestation, we can work with communities to transform their world – using ingenious ideas to turn deserts into green, and disaster into hope.”
  
• In the same way, we can support Africa's work to build the Great Green Wall, a strip of land encircling the entire Sahara desert, aimed at reclaiming land and preventing the further spread of the desert.
• Encourage our MPs to get behind the most effective use of our foreign aid budget – by developing resilience and improving soil in developing countries, ideally also diverting money from less cost-effective ‘green’ solutions.

Notes

1. e.g. Marks and Spencer is working with farmers to increase use of regenerative farming techniques.