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BRAZILIAN DIALOGUE ARCHIVE
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Brazilian Dialogue
April 28
Starry-eyed folk approach me frequently to relate some Brazil agriculture
story they've just seen on TV or read in the Western Producer or heard on
the radio, in the coffee shop or even in church!
"There's this big frontier, untilled. Somebody from America or Europe buys
up the land, huge chunks of land, and then comes in with rows of tractors
all lined up followed by air seeders. Wow! Can you just do that?"
Of course you can, if you have enough capital, and we've created a world
in
which capital now reigns supreme.
Two states, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil's "far west") are
particular targets for such exploitation.
Just as John A. MacDonald did with Canada's "far west," Brazil has
declared
all lands without title to be public domain. And so a large chunk of
capital
changes hands, a large chunk of land follows suit, and in come the
tractors
and air seeders seeding soybeans.
And we all stand in awe.
But there have been Indians living on these lands since time immemorial.
And, more recently, squatters, refugees from the landlessness in the more
settle parts of Brazil.
Where shall they go? But that is of no concern to mega-capital, which
thinks
of people as commodities, not as human beings with inherent dignity and
rights.
Our media don't ask about these dispossessed. And we, who unquestioningly
soak up what the media feeds us, don't come to this question either.
Pedro Casaldaliga, a bishop for 30 years in Mato Grosso, said many years
ago
when mega-ranching took over huge tracts in his diocese displacing Indians
and squatters, "Soon I will be bishop only of cattle."
Today any bishop in these two states could add, "and of tractors and air
seeders."
Yes, a well-to-do Canadian farmer could drive through such areas in the
future and come back to regale us with "Soybeans, far as you can see.
Nothing but soybeans. Mile after mile. Not a tree on the hills. Wow!"
But the land is empty, not only of trees but also of human beings.
This is the kind of monoculture mega-capital foisted on the Northeast of
Brazil since the coming of the white race. Mile after mile of sugar cane.
Not a tree. Human beings only in time of planting or harvest brought in by
the hundreds in huge cattle trucks.
We saw a break from the endless cane in January. Half of the municipality
of
Branquinha (near Uniao dos Palmares) was sold by a consortium of city
owners
to the government, which then settled several hundred families on this
expropriated land.
And what does it look like? Suddenly the endless cane breaks: here are
mini-forests, newly planted, orchards, fields of beans and corn, gardens,
fishponds, cows, pigs, chickens, neat little houses and people. People in
this empty land!
Creation according to the mind of God is something that should get the
attention of the media. The monocultures featured instead are the children
of Mammon.
Al Gerwing
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