Brazil’s 1968 constitution promises that government-owned (Union) land will be distributed to landless farmers—but much of that land is currently occupied by powerful ranchers: megawealthy, megapowerful squatters who oppose redistribution. Landless farmers set up camp on the edge of a piece of Union land and begin the long process of trying to gain title, but with the ranchers and corrupt law enforcement against them, the odds are slim and the threat of death high.

Glenn Alan Cheney spent time in the company of Sister Leonora Brunetto, a nun who advocates for the poor and landless, research which put his life at risk—as hers is, daily. The result was published in the June 2013 issue of Harpers as “Promised Land.” This book is an expansion on that article, giving more details about the farmers, the struggle, and more on Brazil’s modern-day slavery and environmental issues.

These extras I found fascinating. Some, as you might imagine, are terrifically depressing. Cheney observes, at the start of a chapter entitled “The Way the World Ends,”

I have the feeling that in Mato Grosso I am glimpsing a microcosmic view of the end of the world. This is how it will end: The last of the resources peter out. A minuscule sliver of society owns virtually all assets and exploits for itself the last that the earth has to offer. The poor huddle at the edges of highways, occupying the least space physically possible, consuming barely enough to sustain life. Eather’s most abundant resources—land and water, the very stuff of the planet—are contaminated, depleted beyond use, or precious beyond the reach of all but a few.

But Cheney does manage to pull back from that abyss, talking, for instance, about one farmer who did manage to get title to some land, and who now grows a multitude of fruit trees, all without chemical fertilizers, and about other farmers, still landless, but hopeful:

People have things planted all over the camp in all kinds of containers: food cans, paint cans, soda bottles, crates, curved bark, plastic tubs, old juice pitchers, tires, a section of a tire, a cracked tea pot . . . little pieces of farm perched everywhere.

And I was stirred by his description of Sister Leonora’s approach to solidarity economy—an alternative to greed-based capitalism. Wikipedia has an entry on it; the term apparently began gaining traction around 2001.

Also cheering is the fact that Cheney’s own journalism may have had a salutary effect. In his epilogue, he writes,

I was very worried that the article would make its way to Brazil, with repercussions falling on Sister Leonora. Heedless of such a possibility, Leonora cast the article far and wide along with a translation. In August [2013] I received email from her. She said [the relevant authorities] were reaching an agreement to distribute land to 250 families, with other cases to continue in the courts . . . She said it wasn’t easy, but that it seemed the article, which is to say international attention, was helping.

This is a theme that’s dear to my heart: the power of people in different parts of the world to speak up for one another—a power that social media vastly enhances.

Cheney’s especially interested in the work of activist nuns; this interest also has taken him to Timor-Leste (which is how I became acquainted with him), and he’s also written on nuns’ work fighting HIV in Swaziland. ( )

Brazil’s 1968 constitution promises that government-owned (Union) land will be distributed to landless farmers—but much of that land is currently occupied by powerful ranchers: megawealthy, megapowerful squatters who oppose redistribution. Landless farmers set up camp on the edge of a piece of Union land and begin the long process of trying to gain title, but with the ranchers and corrupt law enforcement against them, the odds are slim and the threat of death high.

Glenn Alan Cheney spent time in the company of Sister Leonora Brunetto, a nun who advocates for the poor and landless, research which put his life at risk—as hers is, daily. The result was published in the June 2013 issue of Harpers as “Promised Land.” This book is an expansion on that article, giving more details about the farmers, the struggle, and more on Brazil’s modern-day slavery and environmental issues.

These extras I found fascinating. Some, as you might imagine, are terrifically depressing. Cheney observes, at the start of a chapter entitled “The Way the World Ends,”

I have the feeling that in Mato Grosso I am glimpsing a microcosmic view of the end of the world. This is how it will end: The last of the resources peter out. A minuscule sliver of society owns virtually all assets and exploits for itself the last that the earth has to offer. The poor huddle at the edges of highways, occupying the least space physically possible, consuming barely enough to sustain life. Eather’s most abundant resources—land and water, the very stuff of the planet—are contaminated, depleted beyond use, or precious beyond the reach of all but a few.

But Cheney does manage to pull back from that abyss, talking, for instance, about one farmer who did manage to get title to some land, and who now grows a multitude of fruit trees, all without chemical fertilizers, and about other farmers, still landless, but hopeful:

People have things planted all over the camp in all kinds of containers: food cans, paint cans, soda bottles, crates, curved bark, plastic tubs, old juice pitchers, tires, a section of a tire, a cracked tea pot . . . little pieces of farm perched everywhere.

And I was stirred by his description of Sister Leonora’s approach to solidarity economy—an alternative to greed-based capitalism. Wikipedia has an entry on it; the term apparently began gaining traction around 2001.

Also cheering is the fact that Cheney’s own journalism may have had a salutary effect. In his epilogue, he writes,

I was very worried that the article would make its way to Brazil, with repercussions falling on Sister Leonora. Heedless of such a possibility, Leonora cast the article far and wide along with a translation. In August [2013] I received email from her. She said [the relevant authorities] were reaching an agreement to distribute land to 250 families, with other cases to continue in the courts . . . She said it wasn’t easy, but that it seemed the article, which is to say international attention, was helping.

This is a theme that’s dear to my heart: the power of people in different parts of the world to speak up for one another—a power that social media vastly enhances.

Cheney’s especially interested in the work of activist nuns; this interest also has taken him to Timor-Leste (which is how I became acquainted with him), and he’s also written on nuns’ work fighting HIV in Swaziland. ( )