Brazilian Lebensraum being occupied

[Bandeirante]

Brazilian Lebensraum being occupied

Mato Grosso
Área = 903.357 km2

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/mapacentro.gif

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/Brazil_City_Cuiaba_MT_Climate.gif

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/2ea54eco_pantanal.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/296ddeco_cerrado.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/4e5b6eco_amazonia.jpg

There are several natural parks in Mato Grosso:

Xingú
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/TrumaiMAPA-XINGU.jpg

Chapada dos Guimarães
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/Brazil101.jpg

History

The Brazilian Bandeirantes conquered the region, the central core of South America, in the early 1700’s.
A journey from São Paulo to Mato Grosso could take several months struggling against the jungle, the beasts, the diseases, the Indians.
The region was originally part of the Spanish Empire but the Bandeirantes fought hard to conquer, colonize and keep that region as a part of Brazil.
The Templar Symbol of Mato Grosso
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/brasao-mato-grosso.jpg

Population
1980 = 1.138.691
2010 = more than 3.000.000

Agricultural production of cereals, grains, mainly corn, soybean, cotton
1987 = 2, 75 millions of tons
2007 = 17,89 millions of tons
650% in 20 years
http://www.ampa.com.br/home/noticia/41 (http://www.ampa.com.br/home/noticia/41)
2010 = more than 20 millions

Cattle, Brazil has become the biggest exporter of meat of the world
1996 = 15 millions
2008 = 26 million
Growth of 60% in 12 years

http://www.noticiasagricolas.com.br/noticias.php?id=52354 (http://www.noticiasagricolas.com.br/noticias.php?id=52354)


http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/Rodrigo_Baleia_09-12-08_398_large.jpg

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http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/Rodrigo_Baleia_09-12-08_312_large.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/Rodrigo_Baleia_09-12-08_285_large.jpg

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http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/02639738100.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/campoverde_combines.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/Amazon-deforestation-Catt-012.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/22804239_1.jpg


New towns

Lucas do Rio Verde

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/lucas7oc0.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/lucas11it5.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/LUCASNOVA.jpg

Santa Rita do Trivelato

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/trivelato-2008.jpg

Sinop, founded in 1974. 120.000 inhabitants in 2010

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/sinop1974.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/MT-Sinop1.jpg


Cuiabá, the capital city of Mato Grosso was founded by the Bandeirantes in 1727

Population
1970 = 100.000
2010 = 580.000, a metro area of 800.000

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/walpapercopa2014.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/30063ba686dde13ccd45d3040600edb5.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/CuiabMT8.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/fcf1cb521e43ce5b89bc19be9d923b.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/rio-cuiaba.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/MTcuiabaturpontesergiomota.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/Cuiaba40.jpg


People

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/MTparqreserindios21.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/cuiabanos_no_Rio.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/1717.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/forum.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/miss-mato-grosso-infantil-21-05-09.jpg

A big immigration of Southern Brazilian farmers to the new agrarian frontiers of Mato Grosso
A party in Rondonópolis
http://rondonopolis.emmy.com.br/aniversario-titany-1-parte/fotos/05-06-2009/1083.htm (http://rondonopolis.emmy.com.br/aniversario-titany-1-parte/fotos/05-06-2009/1083.htm)

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/1245694317.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/1244425748.jpg

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http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/IMG_0762.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/5632e17d7837377d2e40fc7965862333.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/matogrosso.jpg

Governador Blairo Maggi, born in Paraná

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/blairo_maggi.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/blairo_maggi_governador_de_mato_gro.jpg


Fish

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/53764_962009131358_gde.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/3ab69pexe.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/bc3e49cae91ad234c13bd52263bcb464.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/cbcff82e6c3b8b1403474e2a3de7bb60.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/cf6fa69d5c623b7902c32a6d4a9026ec.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/123377f1893361c346f3b8125683d524.jpg


Defense

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/Flotilha-do-Mato-Grosso.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/9_BEC26082009194715.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/142391_2.jpg

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http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/charrua.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/3447.jpg

[Stonewall71]

what do you mean by "occupied"?

being populated?

[Marmot1]

What a shame, to devastate natural resources (rainforest) in such a short pace of time...

In the same time area covered by forest in Poland increased by 3% nationwide...

[Panchito12]

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/1244425748.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/1244425310.jpg



http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/5632e17d7837377d2e40fc7965862333.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/matogrosso.jpg



I for one am ready to welcome my new Brasilian Empresses!

Give me some of that Ordem e Progresso any day of the week!!!

[Bandeirante]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/occupied
oc·cu·py (ky-p)
tr.v. oc·cu·pied, oc·cu·py·ing, oc·cu·pies
1. To fill up (time or space): a lecture that occupied three hours.
2. To dwell or reside in.
3. To hold or fill (an office or position).
4. To seize possession of and maintain control over by or as if by conquest.
5. To engage or employ the attention or concentration of: occupied the children with coloring books.
3. occupied - resided in; having tenants; "not all the occupied (or tenanted) apartments were well kept up"
tenanted
inhabited - having inhabitants; lived in; "the inhabited regions of the earth"
4. occupied - having ones attention or mind or energy engaged; "she keeps herself fully occupied with volunteer activities"; "deeply engaged in conversation"
engaged
busy - actively or fully engaged or occupied; "busy with her work"; "a busy man"; "too busy to eat lunch

The same as "ocupado" in Portuguese !

What's the proportion of forests in a country like Poland ?

[Stonewall71]

I understand you, Bandeirante, being myself portuguese p-) but at first look it might sound as "military invasion" ;)

cumprimentos

[Ordie]

http://landscapeofaztlan.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/favelas-of-caracas.jpg

Brazil will always be the country of the future.

[Byrdalak]

Here in America our "occupation" of the land has caused problems but it has brought large boons also. I hope Brazilians can learn from us and not make the mistakes we have, sprawling suburbs are not the way to go for example. Pollution of the land must be avoided also.

I wish them luck.

[Bandeirante]

Old one Ordie. President Lula is reducing poverty in Brazil and he is a very popular President, Brazil has been improving decisively in the last decades and this is our century ! It's our time !
Where are you from Ordie because I can easily google slums, poverty, crisis, unemployment, homeless, despair from your hole too. Just say a place and I can show what you know is the bad side of your place. Where are you from ? Name your city ? Name the city of your people, where have you been born ? Name the city of your ethnic or national group ? Or you don't have a flag because you are a foreigner in a foreigner land ? Lol !

[Ordie]

Old one Ordie. President Lula is reducing poverty in Brazil and he is a very popular President, Brazil has been improving decisively in the last decades and this is our century ! It's our time !

What will happen when Lula goes into retirement this year?

I'm not in favor of Brazil's 'westward expansion' since the country has yet to improve its infrastrucure connecting the "archipelago" of Brazilian cities along the coast.

In order to preserve our oxygen supply, perhaps Brazil should consider building a high speed rail network from Belem to Rio Grande and encourage developmet along its corridor. Not into the hinterlands.

[Yehuda]

Lula has been an amazing president,hopefully the next one will be as good as him and Brazil can have a great future ahead (but please,stop beating us in soccer,hhahaha)

Brazil,o maior do mundo!!!!!!!!!

[Ordie]

Lula has been an amazing president,hopefully the next one will be as good as him and Brazil can have a great future ahead (but please,stop beating us in soccer,hhahaha)

Brazil,o maior do mundo!!!!!!!!!

Lula may be great.
But his political party is not doing well.

[Connaught Ranger]

I believe the original reason for creating "Lebensraum" was a space for people to expand into so your thread title = fail.

[seraosha]

If this is a "Yay Brazil!" thread, then where are all the lady boy pics?
Carnival?
**** or GTFO?

[Yehuda]

Lula may be great.
But his political party is not doing well.

His succesor doesnt have to be from the same party,its enough if he keeps doing more or less the same,and it will,they are inteligent,they will not substantially change a system that is working,Brazil,has the same idea and project for a long time,they have one of the most profesional diplomatic services in the world,Itamaraty.

[okiebugg]

Major Fail X 5

Is this forum turning into the travel channel??????????

Take your propoganda to another forum

[Clayton Gold]

I believe the original reason for creating "Lebensraum" was a space for people to expand into so your thread title = fail.

X2

Lebensraum ?

Nice pics, but I fail to see exactly what you're getting at.

[Victor1]

What the fvck is a lebensraum?

[Bandeirante]

If you are not interested get off and save space for people interested in the discussion of the topic. Usually the international media is not showing the new progress in South America. A developed core will influence all the continent in a chain of development. Paraguay, Bolivia (Santa Cruz de La Sierra), Peru, Colombia, Venezuela (Chavez will not be eternal) all can benefit a lot from a wave of development and prosperity coming from West Brazil. Economic progress will bring more stability and institutionality to the region, more democracy, welfare, trade and integration. The United States had a west frontier in the past, Russia had Siberia and nowadays Brazil is occupying the west core of South America just like the thread is showing. The food, meat and proteins from the Brazilian Central-West will feed the Asian masses from China and India. China has become Brazil's main trade partner this year and that's a new trend because the United States was our biggest trade partner since the 1930's, so the world is moving around and perhaps some people are not used or prepared to face the new 21st century challenges. China has substitued the United States in terms of international commerce in our neighbourhood and India and other distant traders are also arriving. India is growing fast in the Brazilian international trade too.
And South America is not the space only for bad news, threads about dictators, caudillos or failures, but a new continent is booming and as always the first decade of a new century reveals the trend for the entire century.
So that's an excellent topic to be discussed in the world arena and very important to South America and to China and India because new incomes there will need to buy our food from places like Mato Grosso.

[Victor1]

This should be in Off Topic.

[Ordie]

What the fvck is a lebensraum?

It literally means "Living Space" but within the context of Manifest Destiny.

It's the term the Nazi used as a rationale for invading the Baltic States and the Soviet Union.

Create more room for eventual German settlers.

[Ordie]

If you are not interested get off and save space for people interested in the discussion of the topic. Usually the international media is not showing the new progress in South America. A developed core will influence all the continent in a chain of development. Paraguay, Bolivia (Santa Cruz de La Sierra), Peru, Colombia, Venezuela (Chavez will not be eternal) all can benefit a lot from a wave of development and prosperity coming from West Brazil. Economic progress will bring more stability and institutionality to the region, more democracy, welfare, trade and integration. The United States had a west frontier in the past, Russia had Siberia and nowadays Brazil is occupying the west core of South America just like the thread is showing. The food, meat and proteins from the Brazilian Central-West will feed the Asian masses from China and India. China has become Brazil's main trade partner this year and that's a new trend because the United States was our biggest trade partner since the 1930's, so the world is moving around and perhaps some people are not used or prepared to face the new 21st century challenges. China has substitued the United States in terms of international commerce in our neighbourhood and India and other distant traders are also arriving. India is growing fast in the Brazilian international trade too.
And South America is not the space only for bad news, threads about dictators, caudillos or failures, but a new continent is booming and as always the first decade of a new century reveals the trend for the entire century.
So that's an excellent topic to be discussed in the world arena and very important to South America and to China and India because new incomes there will need to buy our food from places like Mato Grosso.

In a nutshell: Burn off our oxygen supply in the Amazon and Matto Grosso.

[Bandeirante]

What the fvck is a lebensraum?

Espaço vital, termo da escola alemã de geopolítica p-)

[ronnieraygun]

If you are not interested get off and save space for people interested in the discussion of the topic. Usually the international media is not showing the new progress in South America.

Bla bla bla. You still owe us one for saying lebensraum, jackass. The reason the media does not nut itself over economic booms in Latin America is because they always become fantastic busts a few years later. Between saying "lebensraum", implying that slashing up the forests is your "manifest destiny" and thinking that the world media is against you, you would make a pretty good fascist of some kind.

[Connaught Ranger]

So basically this a thread about Brazilians living in (occupying) their own country?

Thread = MAJOR FAIL.:roll:

[Ordie]

So basically this a thread about Brazilians living in (occupying) their own country?

Thread = MAJOR FAIL.:roll:

Inflated Brazilan hubris to be more exact.

[Bandeirante]

Yes we can !

[Connaught Ranger]

Yes we can !

Yes we can what?

Post threads of no meaning or content of interest? rofl

[Ordie]

Yes we can !

2006 World Cup Quarter Final

France 1
Brazil 0

[seraosha]

Post pics of hawt Lady Boys?


Yes we can !

[ronnieraygun]

2006 World Cup Quarter Final

France 1
Brazil 0

Ordem e FAIL-esso.

Could someone move this to off-topic or lock this piece of ****? Thanks.

[RICHICOQUI]

Oh i get it!! The brazilian goverment want to move all the people in the favelas(Slums) for the olympics and move them to the jungle great that will work:roll: MAJOR THREAD FAIL!!

[Panchito12]

2006 World Cup Quarter Final

France 1
Brazil 0

1998 Final

France 3
Brazil 0

[Marmot1]

Yes we can !


No you can't ! p-)

[zela]

Weird topic, even for me.

[dindin]

1998 Final

France 3
Brazil 0

France *
Brazil *****

[Marshall_Nord]

Thanks for the pictures!

[Bandeirante]

The debate here is related to the importance of the frontier in a growing country, that's a classic theme. The Brazilian frontier is moving ahead since 1500 and year by year we are growing stronger and there's far more space to grow in the Brazilian territory. Yes we can be a superpower in some point of this century always respecting our neighbours and allieds.

You can learn more here in the frontier thesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier_Thesis

North America had a frontier in the Prairies, Russia in Siberia, England had a lebensraum in Australia and so on.

In sports we can win one day, we can lose another day, just like in life or in politics, but "the most important thing is not to win but to take part!".

Here Rio de Janeiro soundly defeated Chicago, sorry, now it's our turn. (Rio's slums or Chicago's ghettos, no need to google the images here)

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/flickr-3976080209-image.jpg

[Ought Six]

Brazil is burning their national resources candle at both ends. They cut down the forest, take out the logs, and burn the slash piles. Then farmers come in and grow crops for a season or two, before the soil is depleted. The land then goes to grassland, where cattle are grazed. When they are overgrazed, erosion sets in. The topsoil disappears, and the result is like a moonscape.

Areas where there is more water are used for sugar cane fields. Huge areas are cultivated in cane, which is the raw material to make all the ethanol the nation burns in its cars. They is plenty of cheap labor from the legions of the poverty-stricken that work the cane fields for slave wages.

This cannot keep up forever. The rainforest is a finite resource. At this ever-accelerating rate of destruction that is supporting the Brazilian economy, a crash is inevitable. Once the growth stops, things are going to change radically, and not in a pleasant way.

[Ordie]

The debate here is related to the importance of the frontier in a growing country, that's a classic theme. The Brazilian frontier is moving ahead since 1500 and year by year we are growing stronger and there's far more space to grow in the Brazilian territory. Yes we can be a superpower in some point of this century always respecting our neighbours and allieds.

Don't tempt fate.

Being a superpower has many unintended consequences.

Brazil expansion westwards is foolish because it has done little to integrate its coastal and urban areas.

Brazil is the custodian of the Earth's lungs. It would be a crime against humanity to slash and burn the Amazon and Matto Grosso.

[sterrius]

Brazil is the custodian of the Earth's lungs. It would be a crime against humanity to slash and burn the Amazon and Matto Grosso.So we just let 30-40 million people live like in 1900 making campfires and telling history? Go tell them that and see if they will be happy.

And no one is saying to burn the amazon down (No one wants that). Have lots of ways of taking resources from a forest without burning it down or damaging it.

The migratory movement toward the west in Brazil ended in 80`s. Today its just natural grown. So unless you`re asking people to stop having childs dont exist any way the population will stop growing.

A picture from sattelite from manaus! Its a perfect example that city and forest can co-exist. (Manaus have 1 million habitants and is the biggest city in the Amazon State, its a historic city too).

http://www.gobrasil.net/images/AM-manaus04-460.jpg


And the coastal area of the country IS integrated! Just left to integrate the western area Here is the train map of the brazil for example (just the main ones, the " - - - " are planned). You have roads, airports and sea too. So whats left? Teleport?

http://www.zonu.com/imapa/americas/small/Mapa_Transporte_Ferroviario_Brasil.jpg


Being a superpower has many unintended consequences. And advantages! You can`t get only the good parts!


Brazil is the custodian of the Earth's lungsMost oxygen come from the oceans. The amazon use almost all the oxygen it produces. (Of course this dont remove the importance of the forest).

[Holycrusader]

Poland was described as an Lebensraum for Nazi Germany...

I hate when somobody use that term in different than historical context. It has a bad sound for me... Nationalistic crap.

[Ordie]

And the coastal area of the country IS integrated! Just left to integrate the western area Here is the train map of the brazil for example (just the main ones, the " - - - " are planned). You have roads, airports and sea too. So whats left? Teleport?

When it comes to rail transportation Brazil is in the 19th century.

Much of the railway system in Brazil is spilt between standard, narrow or meter gauge. Thus unsuitable for intra regional transport of goods and passengers alike.

It also means that Brazil cannot purchase off-the self railway locomotives and railcars with standard gauge. Everything must be uniquely built.

Given the dramatic air crashes, I don't trust air travel in Brazil especially with its air traffic control system.

[Russian_dude]

I am actually concerned. Brazil is destroying the "lungs" of the Earth. Being a Catholic country their population is also exploding.

[Steak-Sauce]

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e372/Babitonga/Fronteira/1244425748.jpg
Hui, the young marvelous Lady in white seems to be the future Mrs. Steak. p-)

(Interesting pics and info, thanks.)

[toki]

Poland was described as an Lebensraum for Nazi Germany...

I hate when somobody use that term in different than historical context. It has a bad sound for me... Nationalistic crap.

That's the problem when using German words in english text.
"Lebensraum" is a word simply used for ecological niches of animals. Without any bad connotation. It can also describe your personal living space. The rainforest is a "Lebensraum" for people and animals.

The Nazis took this term and gave it a new meaning.
So in english it has no double meaning, since it's only known for that ideology, in German of course there's more to it.

[sterrius]

Being a Catholic country their population is also exploding. What? O.o

Birth rate of Brazil is around 18 births/1000 population (2008 and 2009). Its better then in US or Europe but not by that much. The death rate is around 6/1000.

US have a birth rate of 13.8/1000 and death rate of 2.11/1000


Much of the railway system in Brazil is spilt between standard, narrow or meter gauge. Thus unsuitable for intra regional transport of goods and passengers alike.Most of brazil railway system is the meter gauge (And most of them the oldest ones), but in second place is the iberic one with 1600m, the international is 1452m.

Large (the same one in Iberic region and ireland) - 4,057km
International - 202,4km
Metric - 23,489km
mixed - 336km km

Here is the graph if railsystems in the world


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Rail_gauge_world.png/800px-Rail_gauge_world.png


The railway system in Brazil got a crysis in 70`s and 80´s (Much like everything else in the country). Now its growing and updating everything again.


Given the dramatic air crashes, I don't trust air travel in Brazil especially with its air traffic control system. The gol 1907 crash in 2006 was the last accident that can be direct linked to air traffic control failure.

[Bandeirante]

Financial Times
Brazilian farms sow seeds of openness
By Jonathan Wheatley in Luiz Eduardo Magalhães, Brazil
Published: April 14 2010 17:36 | Last updated: April 14 2010 17:36

On the high plains around the town of Luiz Eduardo Magalhães in central Brazil it is easy to feel dwarfed by the landscape.
Fields of soya, maize and cotton stretch to the horizon under immense blue skies, only the occasional tree, silo or patch of scrubby cerrado woodland giving any sense of scale.
Twin-wagoned lorries laden with soya thunder along the highways. Away from the main roads, human beings are a rarity, glimpsed only in the cabins of combine harvesters or, in the late afternoon as the air becomes still, in the cockpits of crop dusters flying crazily close to the ground.
This is the changing face of Brazilian agribusiness. Over the past couple of decades the country has emerged as a global agricultural powerhouse. It is now the world’s biggest exporter of a host of food commodities , including beef, chicken, orange juice, green coffee, sugar, ethanol, tobacco and the “soya complex” of beans, meal and oil, as well as its fourth biggest exporter of maize and pork.
Many farmers around Luiz Eduardo Magalhães arrived from the south, where they or their parents typically farmed 40 or 50 hectares. Here, properties often cover tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of hectares.
Along with size and technology, the new arrivals have introduced a commodity often lacking from Brazil’s agricultural frontier: good governance.
“What you can see here is the new model for agribusiness in Brazil,” says André Pessôa, co-ordinator of the Rally da Safra, a yearly survey of Brazil’s grain producing regions. “It’s not common in Brazil to find farmers presenting accounts to international investors.”
Such investors, he says, want 100 per cent certainty of land title. They want to be sure farmers are obeying environmental and labour laws, that they have good relations with the community and that they take care to insure themselves against fluctuations in commodity prices and exchange rates. “They want transparency and rigour in everything,” he says.
“This is not part of the day-to-day life of the traditional Brazilian farmer.”
During the military dictatorship of the mid-1960s to mid-1980s, much of the expansion of agriculture was disorganised at best.
Under the military slogan “occupy it or lose it”, ranchers settled stretches of Amazon rainforest, paying little heed to details such as ownership of the land.
Ranching often paved the way for farming, especially in central states such as Mato Grosso to the immediate south of the Amazon basin. Land settled by southern farmers had previously been regarded as useless for farming because of its high acidity. But Brazil is abundant in chalk; by scattering this and other additives farmers turned central Brazil into a hugely productive and fast-expanding agricultural frontier.
Mato Grosso has been especially successful because of its flat, relatively cheap land and abundant rainfall. Farmers there often manage to sow and reap three crops each year, often rotating between soya, maize and cotton.
But talk to farmers in Mato Grosso and they will tell you they face one big disadvantage: logistics. Soya often travels more than 2,000km along badly pitted roads to ports in Brazil’s south-east, putting a big dent in farmers’ competitiveness.
Further east around Luiz Eduardo Magalhães, in the far west of the coastal state of Bahia, things are different. Rainfall is less abundant but very predictable.
Farmers are happy with two crops a year, again often rotating soya, maize and cotton. All the maize produced here is consumed locally. “This is a relatively poor region that is growing at Chinese rates,” says Mr Pessôa.
“Incomes are rising and so is consumption of foods.”
Western Bahia has also attracted interest from foreign investors. One is Agrifirma Brazil, a UK farm fund set up in 2008 and backed by Lord Rothschild and Jim Slater, the former corporate raider.
It owns 42,000 hectares around Luiz Eduardo Magalhães, of which 11,000 are being farmed. Its business model involves bringing new standards of governance to farms it buys under operation and applying those standards as it opens new areas for farming. “Agrifirma’s model is to look after the three Ps: productivity, people and the planet,” says Rodrigo de Araújo Rodrigues, chief operating officer.
“Respect for the environment and for people, with a focus on productivity and profitability, brings much more governance.”
In practice, this means strict compliance with environmental and labour laws and applying the best managerial practices, in training, farming methods and finance. Last month, Agrifirma completed a $25m placing of shares and warrants, bringing the total raised over the past two years to $179m. Mr Rodrigues has no doubt good governance is an essential part of its investor appeal.
David Cleary, head of a programme to preserve Brazil’s cerrado at The Nature Conservancy, an environmental group, agrees.
“Agrifirma is a classic example of the kind of new act that is changing the cerrado around,” he says. “They want to do the right thing and they view the wrong thing as a risk and a cost.” He says western Bahia and areas in the neighbouring states of Tocantins, Maranhão and Piauí are the “filet mignon” for new investors.
“These are remote areas that have historically been run by old-style landowners not known for being law abiding,” he says. “Now they are being overtaken by globalisation and realising that if they want to attract investment they have to be serious about governance.”
Several other funds are operating in western Bahia or actively looking to invest. One is Adecoagro, backed by George Soros. Grupo Iowa and Global Ag Biodiesel, two funds backed by US and Brazilian investors, are among the others.
They are not alone in demanding good governance. Walter Horita owns 45,000 hectares with his two brothers. Their business is run along corporate lines.
“Farmers here want to run more professional organisations,” he says.
The population of Luiz Eduardo Magalhães has tripled to more than 50,000 over the past decade as agribusiness has moved in. Other towns in neighbouring states are at the earlier stages of similar transformations.
“Today, without a doubt, Bahia is better positioned because of the quality of land and logistics,” says Mr Rodrigues at Agrifirma. “But we think other regions will have the ability to apply the same model.”
2010 harvest
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5e7d3796-47e2-11df-b998-00144feab49a.html?catid=251&SID=google
Amazing Video
2010 Harvest in some of the biggest and most productive farms of the world in Mato Grosso:
http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Noticias/0,,GIM1252637-7823-A+SAFRA+RECORDE+DE+SOJA+NO+BRASIL,00.html



Energy in Brazil
Power and the Xingu
A huge Amazon hydropower project shows how hard it is to balance the demands of the environment and of a growing and prospering country
Apr 22nd 2010 | RIO DE JANEIRO | From The Economist print edition
PROTESTERS in paint and headdresses in Brasília, warring tribes of lawyers and a mountain of pig dung: yet another giant Brazilian public-works contract was up for grabs, and the lobbies were restless. After the courts struck down an avalanche of eleventh-hour injunctions, late on April 20th a consortium of contractors won the right to build Belo Monte, a huge hydroelectric power station to be raised on the Xingu river in the eastern Amazon basin.
The victors—led by Chesf, a state-owned hydropower generator, and several construction firms—celebrated quietly and quickly. Their discretion was understandable. Waiting outside the auction room at Brazil’s power regulator was an angry mob, kitted out in overalls and warpaint, and three tonnes of fresh manure, courtesy of a local pig farm. “Belo Monte de Merda” read the banner in the ripening heap.
But Brazil’s rapidly growing economy needs more energy, preferably renewable. The scale of the dam—it will be the world’s third-largest hydroelectric station after China’s Three Gorges and Brazil’s own Itaipu—is epic. So is the investment, of at least 19 billion reais (nearly $11 billion). But ever since the engineers in Brasília rolled out the blueprints for damming the Xingu two decades ago, the project has attracted powerful opposition.
Environmental groups and river dwellers say Belo Monte will flood vast patches of rainforest while desiccating others. “The forest is our butcher shop, the river is our market,” Indian leaders wrote in a newspaper. They were aided by greens from Europe and the United States, including the tribes of Hollywood. James Cameron, a film director, flew in to daub his face in red paint, hug an Indian and join the protest.
In his past as a labour leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president since 2003, might have joined them. Now he has a legacy to mind. Belo Monte is the centrepiece of the government’s ambitious public-investment programme—the flagship initiative of Dilma Rousseff, his former chief of staff and would-be successor, who faces a tough fight in October’s presidential election against José Serra, the main opposition candidate. As president, Lula has shown little patience for tree-huggers (see article), never mind grandstanding gringos. “They don’t need to come here and give us advice,” he snapped.
Yet greens were not alone in their lack of enthusiasm for the project. Some of the country’s leading builders, such as Odebrecht and Camargo Corrêa, pulled out of the auction, convinced that the government-dictated power rates, capped at 83 reais ($47) per megawatt-hour, were too low to assure a fair return on their investment. (The winning consortium offered a slightly lower rate.) The government had to pledge billions of dollars in soft loans and tax breaks to lure bidders. Even so, two firms in the winning consortium immediately dropped out, apparently because they thought the tariff too low.
Not since a military government quartered the Amazon basin with roads, dams and settlements in the 1970s has Brazil seen such a row over the rainforest. Ironically, Belo Monte is a project shaped by the lessons of the past, drawn and redrawn to cull the power of the forests without razing them. That challenge—developing the wilds and having them too—is in many ways the riddle of modern Brazil. The rest of the developing world is watching closely to see whether it can be solved.
A generation ago similar protests over an earlier version of the same dam—known then as Kararao—forced officials to rethink their strategy. They came up with Belo Monte. It was not just a marketing ploy. Instead of building a great wall across the Xingu to create a massive reservoir, Belo Monte is designed as a run-of-river dam, a technique that harnesses the natural flow of the river to drive the turbines.
The new version will still flood a lot of forest: a reservoir of 516 square kilometres (200 square miles) will leave scores of villages awash and force thousands from their homes. But that is a third of the area that the original dam would have inundated. The consortium has committed to help relocate the displaced and patch up any damage to the environment.
But these environmental safeguards will also curb Belo Monte’s capacity to generate power, which will vary with the flow of the Xingu. When swollen by the rainy season, the river will cascade through the turbines, turning out up to 11,200 megawatts—adding 10% to Brazil’s existing generating capacity. But during the dry Amazon summer, when the Xingu shrinks, Belo Monte’s assured output will plunge to an average of 3,500-4,500 megawatts. Add in the likelihood that the rate cap leads to escalating subsidies, and no wonder that some Brazilians wonder whether an all-too familiar species has re-emerged in the Amazon: a white elephant.
But with the economy set to grow by up to 7% this year, and tens of millions of Brazilians consuming more after leaving poverty, investing in more power generation is essential. The protesters want smaller wind or solar plants. But without Belo Monte, Brazil would probably have to build nuclear power plants or invest in coal-fired thermal energy. And then the protests would no doubt be even bigger.
http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15954573

[Rictor]

What is this thread about, exactly?

How awesome Brazil is? How terrible it is? Does it pose a question or have some sort of arguement to make?

[Switek]

Brazil Strong !11!1!!!1!!!!1!!!!1!!!

WTF!

[Ought Six]

"How awesome Brazil is? How terrible it is? Does it pose a question or have some sort of arguement to make?"It is an existential thread. It merely exists, not requiring any great purpose.... kind like a couch full of stoners doing bong hits.