Guanay Cormorant

Corruption in the earth

Original photograph by Patrick Ingremeau, design by Wietske Merison

A mere 700 years ago, the Incas had laws to preserve seabird ecology. These laws made it illegal to kill, harm, or interfere with the breeding of a Guanay Cormorant. The Incas did not adopt these laws because they perceived these birds to be holy or because they had a special position in their folklore. Rather, they did so because they understood that ecological preservation equals economic thriving. If these birds would perish, so would their agricultural system. In fact, the Guanay Cormorant was so important for the economic welfare and expansion of the Inca Empire that its territories almost perfectly overlapped with the natural habitat of the birds.

Why were these birds so important that they determined the borders of an empire? It wasn’t their feathers or their flesh, nor their songs. Rather, it was their poop. Guano, the feces of Guanay Cormorants, is also known as ‘white gold.’

Birds do not urinate, so unlike most other animals, they get rid of their bodies’ excess nitrogen in their poop, which causes it to be white. Because the habitat of Guanay Cormorants, which stretches along the South American west coast, has a very dry climate, unlike in other places, rain does not wash out the nutrients of their feces. Rather, the guano dries out and accumulates in solid white piles on islands and rock formations the birds frequently visit.

The Incas collected guano from such islands and rock formations and used this nitrogen-rich fecal matter in agriculture. When a farmer plants corn, grains, potatoes, or tomatoes, these plants extract nutrients from the soil, most importantly nitrogen, to produce protein for growth and chlorophyll for photosynthesis. Most natural topsoil is rich in nutrients and life because of the interactions of the ecosystems of which it forms a part. Topsoil is the place where the circle of life is completed, as decaying, dead matter is transformed into nutrients to sustain life once again. But when topsoil becomes the site of intensive agricultural practices, and it is only used to generate life, without decaying or dead matter being returned to it, it runs the risk of being exhausted and becoming barren. Incan farmers practiced traditional, sustainable agriculture, resorting to techniques such as regular crop rotation and the regular use of nitrogen-fixing crops, like beans, to restore and protect the fertility of the soil. In addition to this, they would regularly use guano, bird poop collected from their local sea birds, as well as llama dung and fish heads, as fertilizer to enrich the soil and improve the quality of their crops.

Guano was such a powerful fertilizer that historians credit its availability and organized use as one of the main causes for the thriving of the Inca Empire. The use of guano made land that was not previously suitable for agriculture fertile and farmable and made the topsoil that was already in use bear opulent harvests, supporting population growth, stability, and the creation and expansion of an empire. Upon the arrival of European settlers on the American continent, epidemics, wars, and colonial exploitation killed up to ninety percent of the Incan population. When the Inca Empire collapsed, the knowledge and systems of use of guano were mostly lost, except on a small scale by indigenous farmers.

In the wake of modernity, European chemists discovered guano as a potent fertilizer. Then, yet again, hell broke loose. Increasingly intensive farming in Europe and unsustainable colonial farming practices in America had depleted the soil and halted population growth and development. Rather than being bound to this natural limit of growth, the mass-scale use of guano provided an opportunity to continue unsustainable practices without reaping their immediate consequences. In the 1850s alone, the United Kingdom imported over 300,000 tons of guano, and 175,000 tons of guano were shipped to the United States. The demand was so high that ships had to sometimes wait up to 8 months in Peruvian harbors to get a load of guano. With dazzling speed and intensity, the international guano industry arose, millionaires were created overnight, and local workers, the land, and birds were exploited in a capitalist, imperial race for easy wealth.

In 1856, the Guano Islands Act was enacted in the United States, enabling its citizens to take possession of any newly discovered, unclaimed, and guano-rich islands, and empowering the US president to use military force for their protection. This law remains in effect to this day. In 1865, Spain went to war against its former colonies of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia to seize control over its guano-rich islands, resulting in the death of over a thousand soldiers. When, inevitably, guano ran out in 1872, Peru nearly went bankrupt.

In the end, what became known as the ‘Guano Age’ came to an end not because of diplomacy, initiatives for global justice, or environmental concerns. Instead, it was a technological innovation, a new craze, that outshone guano in ease and short-term efficiency: artificial fertilizers.

With a booming population growth based on unsustainable, soil-depleting, and colonial agricultural practices, millions of people around the world were set up for starvation. Urban working-class populations who now, as consumers, had come to rely on industrialized, capitalist food production were the most vulnerable group set for starvation, as they were fully at the mercy of market prices they soon would be unable to afford as soil fertility collapsed and famine began. The invention of artificial fertilizer provided a way out of the collapse of intensive agriculture and, as such, prevented the deaths of millions. Having found yet another way to grow further beyond the natural limits of the land, intensive agriculture using artificial fertilizer has since supported a global population growth of billions of human beings. In fact, half of the world’s population today is fed using artificial fertilizers. The world’s population is currently estimated at around 8 billion souls as compared to the 1 billion in the nineteenth century. That is a growth of 700% in two centuries’ time, which is in large part due to the Third Agricultural Revolution of artificial fertilizers, industrialization, and chemical pesticides.

It is easy to perceive our contemporary challenges as unique, as though we somehow inhabit a different planet and different bodies than our ancestors did. But in fact, time and again, humanity faces the same substantial challenges. In Surah Al-A‘raf, ‘The Elevation’, the seventh chapter of the Qur’an, God warns us: “Do not cause corruption upon the earth after it has been set in order. And call upon Him in fear and in hope. Indeed, the mercy of God is always close to those who do good. He is the One Who sends the winds as tidings heralding His mercy. When they bear heavy clouds, We drive them to a dead land where We send down rain to bring forth fruits of every kind. Similarly, We will raise the dead. Perhaps you will be mindful. Good land raises its vegetation in abundance, by the will of its Lord, but bad land does not raise anything except with difficulty. As such, we expound Our signs in diverse ways for a people who are grateful.” (Qur’an 7:56-58)

I have often been baffled by the ways in which certain passages of the Qur’an or narrations of the prophets, peace be upon them, are interpreted either literally or metaphorically, depending on the preconceived ideas and interests of those who interpret. Verses that, when approached with ill spirit and contextual laziness, allow one societal group to claim superiority over another, are often interpreted ‘literally.’ On the other hand, there seems to be less care to literally interpret or apply verses and narrations that call for social, economic, and environmental justice.

The commandment not to cause corruption upon the earth is often interpreted in a religious manner, and used as a way to control and conserve what is perceived as religious orthodoxy. At times, it is interpreted beyond that scope as a general commandment not to spread immorality on the face of the earth, including immorality towards ‘the environment’. I do not wish to claim that any of these interpretations are wrong or that there is only one right way to read this commandment since I believe much of the beauty of the Qur’an is discovered in her multifaceted layers of meaning. But if we dare, for a moment, to interpret this verse literally, it commands us not to cause corruption in the earth (fasad fil ard) after God has arranged it in perfect order. How on earth did we fail to see this literal commandment not to deplete our soil or corrupt its natural balance? The soil is not just a dead stage on which we perform the play of our lives; she herself is a main character. In fact, in Surah Al-Zalzalah, ‘The Earthquake’, the Qur’an introduces her to us as a conscious, spiritual being who will testify for or against us (Qur’an 99:1-8).

Keeping this interpretation in mind, we can read Surah Al-A‘raf as a lesson in sustainable and faithful agriculture, acknowledging the role of divine mercy in the natural cycle of life, and the importance of good soil for the cultivation of good food.

Through the use of artificial fertilizer, humanity’s footprint was able to grow far beyond the natural limits of our soil. This is especially true for the economic growth of the Global North, which is generated and sustained not only by exploiting and exhausting its own lands and peoples but also the lands and peoples of the Global South. Many believe that through the use of artificial fertilizer, humanity did not ‘corrupt’ the natural order but rather found a way to make it ‘better’ - to generate, in the language of the Qur’an, even better soil that raises even better fruits. However, the problem is that artificial fertilizer is not actually good for our soil.

Artificial fertilizer adds nitrogen directly to the soil for plants to use. In resorting to this solution, we show that we have failed to understand soil for what it truly is. Soil is not just a dead resource, it is a web of being. Fertile soil is soil that is rich with life, in which bacteria, microbes, fungi, macroinvertebrates, and insects co-exist and thrive. Bacteria, fungi, and worms are as vital to the nitrogen cycle as nitrogen itself. They are the ones that transfer nitrogen from the air and fecal matter into the soil, and they are the ones that enable plant roots to absorb them. Traditional fertilizers did not simply add the ingredient of ‘nitrogen’ to the soil but rather helped provide a habitat for earthworms, good fungi, and good bacteria to thrive.

Artificial fertilizer is a quick fix for exhausted soil, much like caffeine is a quick fix for exhausted human beings. The occasional, moderate intake of caffeine might prove to be beneficial to those who have found their night to be barren of sleep. However, as we all know, an over-reliance on caffeine will, in the long term, have the opposite effect. When caffeine is used to allow for structural overworking and insufficient sleep, as is nowadays commonly glorified in capitalist ‘grind culture’, the underlying problem, our exhaustion, only grows, as we sleep less and become increasingly more dependent on caffeine to stay awake and alive. The only way to truly address the problem of exhaustion is through rest and the restoration of balance in our lives. True goodness is a destination without a shortcut.

Similarly, whereas artificial fertilizer quickly boosts the nitrogen levels in the soil, in the long term, its use irritates and kills earthworms, disrupts the natural processes of fungi, and makes the soil inhospitable for bacteria. Devoid of its natural goodness, richness, and balance, there is a need for increasingly more artificial fertilizers to keep plants alive. Because the soil ecosystems did not only provide the plants with nitrogen but also with other invaluable nutrients like iron, copper, zinc, and phosphorus, farmers using artificial fertilizers have now become dependent on mineral fertilizers as well. All of these processes through which the soil has slowly been exhausted, exploited, and polluted have caused the nutritional value and mineral content of our vegetables to decrease significantly. Research has shown that the amount of copper, a mineral essential for bone strength, heart health, and immune health, that is found in regular supermarket vegetables has decreased by as much as 76 percent from 1940 to 1991. In addition to that, artificial fertilizers have been a great source of pollution for vast bodies of water worldwide, and their use releases potent greenhouse gasses, such as nitrous oxide, into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.

Surah Al-A‘raf teaches us to call upon our Creator “in fear and in hope” and highlights that “the mercy of God is always close to those who do good” (Qur’an 7:56). It is tempting to resort to despair when we become increasingly aware of the corruption that has infested the earth and its resulting threats of global famine, ecological destruction, genocide, and mass conflict. Amidst all of its beauty, this world is an ugly place because of sin and transgression. But amidst that ugliness, we are reminded of the power of the Most Merciful, and of the fact that we will all be raised in accordance with the soil we cultivated on the lands of our lives. Perhaps, then, we will be mindful and turn to Him in fear and in hope whilst we do whatever little we can to stop the corruption and restore the balance. Perhaps, then, we will be mindful of the fact that once prosperous and protected populations of Guanay Cormorants are rapidly decreasing in numbers, nearly threatened with extinction. And perhaps, then, we will be mindful of the endless signs, revealed and created, sent our way so that we may be warned. So that we may be grateful.