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From: simon@gargoyle.UUCP (Janos Simon)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Unequal food distribution :re to Jan, Brazil
Message-ID: <272@gargoyle.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Dec-85 00:49:26 EST
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.272
Posted: Wed Dec 11 00:49:26 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Dec-85 05:34:24 EST
References: <836@whuxl.UUCP> <7800734@inmet.UUCP> <853@whuxl.UUCP>
Reply-To: simon@gargoyle.UUCP (Janos Simon)
Organization: U. of Chicago, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 20


Someone called my attention to the posting about Brazilian agrarian 
conditions. I am a Brazilian, and I must say I was surprised by it.
While some of the picture may not be totally inaccurate, most of it
is. Please try to get some facts before spouting "examples" out of
slogans (even if the slogans are decent).

Information: most of Brazil's land IS in the hands of relatively few.
The consequences are quite different, and vary widely even within the
country (say the Northeast vs. the South). In particular, since
about the 16th century, much of the agricultural production was not
food, but exports: first sugar cane, later rubber, coffee, and more
recently soybeans and oranges, as well as sugar cane grown for alcohol
production (to substitute gasoline). Many of the large farms in the
South are quite modern operations and are just a totally different
entity from the subsistence farming in the arid Northeast or from
the farms encroaching on the jungle. Talking about "the farm in
Brazil" makes about as much sense as talking about "the landscape
in the US".
JS