Agribusiness

Migration and Mechanization in Brazil's Biofuel Cane Fields Gretchen Gordon | February 9, 2009 In the rich sugarcane region of São Paulo lies the quiet town of Guariba.

In 2008, we wrote yet another chapter about the struggle between the two disputing projects in Brazilian agriculture.

By: Isabella Kenfield For Global Alternatives As Brazil's economy booms from rising agricultural commodity prices worldwide, conflicts over land in the Amazon--where the agricultural frontier is r

Agrofuels, like ethanol, are part of an agricultural model that does not produce food, but on the contrary, increases environmental damage through deforestation, burning sugarcane, and other social

The United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO) announced that the number of people that go hungry in the world rose from 850 million to 925 million this year. What caused this?

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Some 300 protesters blocked a key iron ore export railway belonging to mining giant Vale as nationwide protests against multinational corporations continued Thursday for a third day. Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA said in a statement that farm workers started blocking the railway line that carries 70 cargo trains and about 1,000 passengers daily.

The Associated Press Tuesday, June 10, 2008 SAO PAULO, Brazil: Thousands of landless rural workers invaded dams, railways, plantations and corporate headquarters in a wave of protests across eight Brazilian states on Tuesday. Rogerio Homm, a coordinator with the Via Campesina activist group, said the protests are aimed at large corporations that benefit from Brazilian policies favoring agribusiness over small farmers.

Protesters target seed company in Lisle May 9, 2008 The Lisle Sun By Eva McKendrick emckendrick@scn1.com About a dozen activists May 2 staged a protest at the Syngenta Seeds facility in Lisle, seeking a response from its Swiss headquarters on alleged environmental and human rights violations in Brazil. The protesters, members of a group called Friends of MST (the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement) from the Chicago area, marched to the facility's doors at 4343 Commerce Court to demand the company send a fax with the group's requests to corporate headquarters. And they weren't leaving until they got results.

Carmelo Ruiz Marrero | May 1, 2008 Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP) Using trees for fuel as part of the agrofuels boom means cultivation of massive monoculture tree plan

By Mario Osava RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 24 (IPS) - It is a question of "national sovereignty, not xenophobia," said the president of Brazil’s land reform agency, INCRA, explaining the need to regulate foreign land ownership in Brazil. The biofuel frenzy has driven growing purchases of land in Brazil in the last few years, by local and foreign investors alike. Global financier George Soros, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, the owners of Google and former U.S. president Bill Clinton (1993-2001) have all bought land or are partners in companies dedicated to the development of bioenergy in this country.