Brasil

[amazed]

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Brazil, a new agricultural superpower
...by Lorne McClinton
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Brazil, Brazil, Brazil...

In the past few years, Brazil has eclipsed the U.S. to become the
world's dominant agriculture superpower.

Brazil is the world's largest soybean producer, the largest coffee
producer and the largest sugar producer. With 160 million animals
it has the world's largest cattle herd and has just knocked
Australia out of the top spot to become the largest beef exporter.
Why? The short answer is cheap land and lots of it. Fifty thousand
acre farms are common on Brazil's central plateau and Brazilians'
technology and production methods are as advanced as Canadians'.
Many bought their land extremely cheaply. In the late 1980's, when
the first farms on the cerrado, or savannah, in western Bahia were
established, land could be purchased for 13 to 20 cents Canadian
an acre. Fifty thousand acres cost only $6,500. Even today, virgin
cerrado can be purchased for as little as $20/acre.

There is still a lot more land available for development. A 2003
study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that,
discounting the Amazon rainforest, Brazil has 170 million hectares
or more of undeveloped land suitable for commercial farming. If
Canadian farmers took every farm acre in Canada out of production,
Brazilian farmers could replace them three to one.

Labour is another big advantage. Unskilled farm labourers are
plentiful and paid the equivalent of U.S.$3.00 a day, plus meals
and sleeping quarters. Even the farm managers, often university
educated agrologists, are only paid U.S.$1,500 plus, food, housing
and performance bonuses. Labour is so cost effective that all seed
and fertilizer comes in bags and is loaded by hand. It's not
uncommon for even mid-sized farms to have 30 employees year round
and up to 70 for planting and harvesting.

Large scale farms, cheap labour and a great climate add up to very
low cost food production. Phil Warnken, CEO of AgBrazil, a
Columbia, Mo.-based company that facilitates international
investment in Brazilian agriculture says that today, soybean
production costs in Brazil are about half what they are in the
U.S., and corn production costs are less than 50 per cent. That
adds up to great margins; it is routine for Brazilian farms to
make a 28 per cent return on production investment.

Even cattle production is profitable at a fraction of Canadian
costs. Dianar Cassal, manager of the Ceolin farm near Posto
Rosario, Bahia says that, once a farm has more than 1,000 head,
then selling 3-year-old cattle between C$240 and C$320, is more
profitable than crops.

[cropduster]

Is this the new paradigm,C240 to 300 cattle/steers??

[magpie]

The most important outcome of the Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 2000 summit in Brasilia, is the official commitment by all the South American Presidents, to give priority to developing the regional transportation, energy, and communications infrastructure projects which would, finally, effect the physical integration of the South American continent.
Although few specifics were spelled out, the "Plan of Action for Regional Infrastructure Integration in South America," annexed to the final declaration of the Presidents, mandates the creation of technical coordination groups to assist the governments in developing continental "axes of integration" over the next ten years.

From what has been announced thus far, these axes of integration are envisioned as extensions of infrastructure already existing or planned in Brazil (railroads, waterways, highways, ports, transmission lines, and pipelines), connected to more daring, regional projects. The latter include the Northern Arc Highway, which is to link cities in the Brazilian states of Roraima and Amapa, by a highway which passes through Guyana, French Guiyana, and Surinam. Also under discussion is the completion of the Manaus-Caracas highway, which would link up with the waterways of the Amazon Basin (Manaus is on the Amazon River), and a Madeira-Mamore railroad, which would connect the Maderia River, an Amazon tributary, with the Mamore, which leads into the Parana-La Plata River system. Another proposed project is a Trans-Pacific highway, which would provide Brazil access to the Pacific Ocean, through a southern port in Peru.

According to officials of Brazil's Foreign Relations Ministry, the Andean Development Corp. (CAF) has been asked to organize a regional seminar to follow up on the commitments made at the Brasilia summit. The leading role given to the CAF in planning and coordinating the infrastructure drive, is promising. The CAF has been working, with little fanfare, on the physical integration of the South American continent for years. Its work reflects, in part, the influence of the ideas defended for decades by American statesman and economist Lyndon LaRouche and his associates, particularly, the influence of Ibero-American Integration, a book published originally in Spanish by LaRouche's associates in the Schiller Institute in 1985, and in Portuguese in 1988.




"The Great Waterway"

The CAF's report, The Rivers Which Unite Us, exemplifies the concept of physical economy which guides its work. The report outlines a unified project to integrate the South American river system, centered around a "North-South axis" formed by linking the Orinoco, Amazon, and La Plata river basins - an idea first proposed in 1800 by Alexander von Humboldt.
This great 10,000 kilometre-long project would connect all the countries of South America (except Chile), and thus would have a strategic significance similar to the Rhine-Main-Danube's importance in Europe.
The CAF report details various axes which would then complement the Orinico-Amazona-La Plata waterway. One would be to link the La Plata basin to three tributaries of the Amazon, Brazil's Tapajos, Xingu, and Araguaia rivers. Various intermodal connections looking to the Pacific are also proposed, the most important of which is called the Manaus-Pacific route, which would connect Manaus, via the Amazon and its tributaries, to the Peruvian cities of Iquitos and Saremiriza, and then cross the Andes by highway, to reach the port of Paita, on Peru's northern coast.

At the "Sixth Conference of Cargo Operators and Transporters of the Atlantic-Pacific Axis of Integration", held in July 2001 in Cuiaba, Mato Grosso (Brazil), and co-sponsored by the CAF, the Government of Mato Grosso and the Mato Grosso Federation of Industries (FIEMT), an ambitious project for improving the logistics of regional transport was proposed.

The area concerned by the project is encompassing the six Brazilian states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goias, Tocantins, Acre, and Rondonia, Brazil's Federal District, all of Bolivia, the south of Peru, the North of Chile, all of Paraguay, and the north and northeast of Argentina.

But the efforts of Ibero-American patriots to achieve a true integration of the physical economies of the continent, based on great infrastructural projects, have been met with a very powerful and high-level international opposition, reminiscent of the colonial period.

A representative of Executive Intelligence Review, speaking at the conference, demonstrated that the campaigns against the waterway and highway projects of South America run by Prince Philip's World Wildlife Fund and its satellite NGOs (non-governmental organizations), follow a geopolitical agenda designed in London with the aim, precisely, of impeding the physical integration of the South American countries. Such environmental campaigns are nothing more than a modern version of the old British geopolitics toward the La Plata river region, which led to the Triple Alliance War against Paraguay (1865-70) and the War of the Pacific against Peru and Bolivia (1879-81).


Not only will they be able to produce food cheaply but also get it to ports cheaper than we can. The Amazon if I remember correctly is the second largest water system in the world, 35-50 miles wide some 2600 miles long and avg’s 50 to 150 in depth allowing ocean ships accessibility to inland ports. Governments of the SA countries are working together so it seems for the global production of food for the future. What are our governments planning for the future here in North America? Will we have a future against this type of productivity? I wonder?

[cowman]

Absolutely no desire to live there, but would love to see it! Maybe next year as the plan is to sell off the cows.
The problem I have with all this globalism is who are we at the mercy of? I mean lets face it, if they can raise beef for 25 cents a lb., why are we bothering to fight 7 months of winter? But what happens when the day comes when they(whoever they are) run us all out of business? And then decide to turn the heat up? Do we starve?
The big picture shows that the people behind "globalization" are our old freinds Tyson, Cargill, ADM and all the other pirates involved in international food services! Do you really think they have your best interests at heart? The day may come, when push comes to shove, that we can't even feed ourselves? Globalism is the ultimate dictatorship!

[kato]

You've got that right!

[grassfarmer]

Well said cowman, the reason the new wonder ag economy of Brazil is being promoted so much is because it will be an even easier market to dominate for the multi-nationals. Imagine some of the poor uneducated peasants down there having to negotiate with Cargill and Tyson - they don't have a chance.
The rise of the landless majority, which will come I'm sure, could make a mess of any plans anybody has for Brazil however.

[cakadu]

Don't underestimate the people down there. Remember, that there are some North American beef producers that are setting up shop down in South America so that they can be on the cusp of beef export.

Even though they might not be paid all that much, many of them are willing to learn and will even - dare I say it - cooperate with one another in order to tap into the markets.

I was in Chile a couple of years ago and the way they are mobilizing and cooperating would put us in the developed world to shame. They know that it is one substantive way to get into the marketplace and provide customers with what they want.

They don't have huge infrastructures and barriers that they have to overcome - the way we do here. In some respects, their systems and ways of thinking are far more advanced than ours. AND their government is willing to help in whatever way it can.

[15444]

Well said Cowman! I have to admit that the idea of moving to Brazil myself to farm has been an idea I have tossed around before. Cheap land is a definite drawing card. The only drawback to this plan (even though many would not see it as a drawback) is the loss of low temperatures in winter season. Although I see South America as being a huge exporter and major competitor in the future, I see the climate as being their ultimate hinderance. Although they may be able to produce for less, I often wonder what would happen to them if (or more likely when) a major fatal disease transmissable to livestock through flying insects hit them. Although I grumble a times about the weather, I see winter and -40 temps as one of our greatest assets to our industry as we can avoid many such disease problems for more then half of the year, giving us time to amass possible cures without constant losses.

[cowman]

A local cattleman went down on an Ag tour a couple of years ago and he said it was pretty awesome. He said in one soybean field they had twenty brand new John Deeres out harvesting with the airseeders planting right behind them!
He also said the cattle herds are huge, mostly Brahmas. Volkswagon, the German carmaker, has over 2 million cows in Brazil! Apparently it is just like the wild west with the big cattle outfits employing "regulators" to kill off the squatters and intimidate the peasants!
It's a wonderful place if you have lots of money...not so great if you are poor?

[rsomer]

I have a friend in Brazil, a large cattle producer, who I have corresponded with for maybe 10 years. Yes Brazil is a marvelous country but he has his challenges too. The stability in our political system, our currency and our economy does not exist there. He lost a significant portion of his equity overnight with the devaluation of the Real, their currency. The system of land ownership that we take for granted here is different there and the landless poor are a big concern. Aftosa or foot and mouth is keeping their cattle out of the most profitable export markets. Their fortunes are very tenuous when compared to the stability we enjoy.