Starving the Land: How Banking Turns Soil into Profit

🌱 Starving the Land: How Banking Turns Soil into Profit

A Theological-Economic White Paper

By Daniel J Henry

Executive Summary

This paper examines how modern banking practices systematically starve farmland, rural communities, and ecosystems in pursuit of profit. Land, soil, and farmers — the foundational elements of human sustenance — are increasingly treated as financial assets rather than living, regenerative systems. By prioritizing short-term returns, banks incentivize debt cycles, overproduction, monocultures, and consolidation, undermining the health of both humans and the land. This paper analyzes these dynamics, draws connections to theological principles of stewardship, and proposes models for protecting both land and livelihoods through alternative finance, insurance, and advisory systems.

1. Introduction: Land as Collateral

• In the modern financial system, farmland is primarily collateral, not a source of life or community sustenance.

• Banks view land in terms of value on a balance sheet, not its ecological or social contribution.

• This inversion prioritizes profit extraction over long-term stewardship, creating cycles of environmental and economic starvation.

  
  

2. The Cycle of Extraction

1. Debt Funding: Farmers take loans for seeds, machinery, fertilizers, or land acquisition.

2. Profit Pressure: Debt schedules force high-yield, short-term crop production, often at ecological cost.

3. Asset Seizure: Failure to repay leads to foreclosure; banks acquire land for financial gain.

4. Consolidation: Large investors or corporations buy up land, reducing smallholder farming and community stewardship.

5. Ecological Decline: Soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and overuse of chemicals degrade the land permanently.

Case Example: Industrial-scale farming in the U.S. Midwest often requires heavy borrowing. When commodity prices drop or weather fails, farmers lose land, while banks maintain profits via collateral and interest — a zero-loss system for finance, high loss for humans and land.

3. Humans and Ecosystems Starved

• Rural communities collapse as family farms disappear, schools close, and local economies hollow out.

• Food insecurity rises, even as global food markets are dominated by industrial producers.

• Generational knowledge is lost, as smallholder farmers cannot pass land stewardship practices to the next generation.

• The land itself is impoverished, treated as a financial instrument rather than a living ecosystem.

4. The Theological Perspective

• Scripture emphasizes stewardship: humans are called to care for creation (Genesis 2:15), and to honor the labor of others.

• By treating land as collateral, banks violate principles of justice, care, and sustainable provision.

• Jesus’ teachings on debt forgiveness, communal sharing, and care for the marginalized directly oppose the mechanisms that starve both land and humans for financial gain.

  
  

5. Alternative Approaches

1. Advisory Insurance for Land & Crops:

   
   

   • Protects farmers against debt traps and crop failure while incentivizing regenerative practices.

   
   

2. Cooperative Land Ownership Models:

   
   

   • Shared stewardship reduces vulnerability to foreclosure.

   
   

3. Regenerative Finance Principles:

   
   

   • Redirect capital to long-term ecosystem health, soil restoration, and sustainable yields.

   
   

4. Debt Forgiveness & Jubilee-Style Programs:

   
   

   • Reset cycles of extraction, allowing farmers and communities to thrive again.

6. Conclusion

Banks have created a system where profit extraction trumps life, starving the land and the humans who care for it. Without structural change — through advisory systems, regenerative finance, and stewardship-based insurance — both ecosystems and rural communities will continue to deteriorate. Aligning financial practices with ethical, ecological, and theological principles is not only a moral imperative but a practical necessity for sustainable human survival.

Author

Daniel J Henry

Theological Economist & Writer

Exploring the intersection of faith, economics, and human ecosystems.