Drew Marcantonio writes:

In the dry valley between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía del Perijá mountain ranges, in northern Colombia, former combatants in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerilla group, or FARC, are leading a surprising new revolution: regenerative agriculture.

The region was once plagued by violence between antagonistic groups, including FARC, and is currently under pressure from both climate crisis and deforestation. But through an agricultural cooperative called COOMPAZCOL, former FARC members are forming alliances with the community members who were once threatened or endangered by their operations. Linking intercropped feed production with free range chicken egg production, which are also looped back into the intercropping operation through natural fertilizer production, the cooperative is striving towards a sustainable, circular system of producing food. Although it may sound counterintuitive, the former FARC members’ communist roots, with their commitment to militant transparency and an equitable division of labor, are what make them so well-suited to an agricultural cooperative model—so much so that community members are consulting with them as they form their own cooperatives.

The project is an example of how regenerative agriculture can be used for peace and reconciliation, as well as environmental restoration.

With the support of a participatory peace organization called PASO Colombia, COOMPAZCOL was founded on the idea that the former combatants’ new lives in peace should reflect their concern for care for their land. Many members of COOMPAZCOL are from the Wayuu and other indigenous communities, as almost half of La Guajira Department identify as indigenous. In forming their cooperative model, the principles of sustainability and collective, shared action came naturally due to these roots—as well as the foundational communal ideology of FARC. Integrating surrounding community members was a simultaneous step toward reconciliation and collective bargaining power: an initially tentative, but so far enduring, win-win.

Globally, conflict and environmental risks are simultaneously on the rise—with one often exacerbating the other. Environmental stresses from extreme weather events like drought and floods and displacement caused by regional conflicts are increasingly challenging people’s ability to make a living and undermining human security. More than 20 million people are displaced by environmental threats annually; another five million (at least) are displaced by conflict. Agricultural productivity and environmental quality are decreasing in most areas of the world that people inhabit. Evaluating if—and subsequently how and under what conditions—these challenges can be simultaneously addressed is a critical area of research. Evidence of regenerative production as an intentional vehicle for peacebuilding in conflict contexts is scant, but early indications suggest it might at least begin to meet that tall order. [Continue reading…]