Lula and the Ranchers
In Brazil, Lula has wagered that concessions to agribusiness elites are necessary to advance his redistributive project. Yet these very elites may undermine his whole program.
(Nelson Almeida / AFP / Getty Images)
Last September, Brazil — the world’s largest net exporter of agricultural commodities — announced the biggest grain harvest in its history. Farmers brought in a staggering 322 million tons of corn, soy, and wheat, said the government’s head of agricultural statistics — 50.1 million more than last year. During Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s first year back as president, Brazil’s massive agribusiness sector had never been more productive.
But record harvests have not warmed agribusiness to Lula or his center-left Workers’ Party (PT). The sector remains fiercely opposed to Lula’s environmental and social mandates, from preserving the Amazon to land redistribution. With Congress dominated by right-wing parties staunchly allied with agribusiness, appeasing large-scale farmers in the pursuit of broader social goals remains one of Lula’s core challenges. His redistributive agenda hangs in the balance.
The Bancada Ruralista
Brazil’s status as one of the world’s most unequal nations is starkly obvious in its agricultural sector. Three percent of Brazil’s population owns two-thirds of its arable land, while the smallest 50 percent of farms are clustered onto just 2 percent of that territory. Even as food and energy giants like Cargill and Raízen enjoy record harvests, half of rural Brazilians are poor. Some 4.8 million rural families are entirely landless. It’s little wonder that agribusiness remains staunchly conservative, resistant to even moderate reforms of its labor and environmental practices.
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