Brazil series: Western ignorance towards deforestation.
I've now spent 2 very intense weeks in Brazil learning about their agricultural system. I have been exposed to state governers, super-scale farmers, supply chain beasts and smaller land operators. I will be writing a series of posts to summarise my learnings. Here's number 1.
Deforestation: the myths debunked
Myth: Brazil is solely to blame for biodiversity loss 🐆 and climate change 🌎 through deforestation of the Amazon 🌳.
The truth: Brazil is an agricultural powerhouse and it is true that there exists deforestation in the region. In the 1980s, the government invited farmers to deforest land for agricultural production. However, since then there are strict laws that state that 80% of all land within the Amazonian biome purchased must be conserved to consider this legal deforestation. Anyone seen to break this law can face serious fines and prison sentences.
To contextualise: a farmer purchases 1000 ha of land. Only 200 ha can be farmed! Thats a huge disincentive to deforest!
Definitions of permanent preservation areas according to the Brazilian Amazon biome laws
Brazilian rates of legal deforestation
Since the turn of the century, annual deforestation has gone down from 28,000 km2 to 10,000 km2. Clearly, there is still work to be done, but the Brazilian government has done a fantastic job at reducing this down. Admittedly, the Bolsonaro administration hasn't helped over the past 5 years, but hopefully this is changing for the good.
Coming from the UK, we often use the impacts of deforestation as a stick to beat Brazilians with. But actually, we cut down our forests centuries ago. Yet, we get to use our lands guilt free and Brazilian farmers have to conserve a hell of a lot of land at their own loss. Perhaps we should jump off our moral high horse by subsidising this environmental policy from our own pockets? Deforestation of the rainforest is a global public good after all!
What is the view from the industry 👨🌾?
First of all, Brazilian farmers have implemented sustainable AND profitable agricultural practices decades ago (just search for Scheffer who owns 220,000 ha, or SLC who own 600,000 ha). Something that we hesintantly debate to this day in the UK.
Additionally, Brazil has a fairly unique ability to harvest 2 cash crops per year due to their climate and soils, making their land twice as productive. This means that a load of degraded pasture land is being converted to highly productive crop land. Yes, this was previously full of trees, but no, this is not contributing to additional deforestation. This is simply creating more from the land.
Brazilian Productivity
Since 2010, total hectares for pasture land 🐄 has decreased by 18% (-4.2m ha), but total grain/bean hectares 🌾 has increased by 126% (2.2m ha), with the rest of the change primarily going to replanted forest and sugarcane.
This level of productivity gives Brazil a distinct advantage when it comes to producing large amounts of food at a low price. They can actually do all of this without deforesting at all and have potential to produce even more! This approach should be celebrated, not shunned.
My view on Brazil's agriculture is that this country is a productivity powerhouse ✊ and is probably the best placed country to feed a growing global population. This needs to be recognised by Western Society and we need to develop relationships, rather than drive a negative narrative towards agriculture in this fantastic country.
A “small” seed grower in Southern Brazil. This company would be the largest in the UK by some distance.
