In 20 years, Brazil's agriculture modernizes quickly

By Ken Root

Brazil is a competitor in every type of agricultural enterprise attempted in the United States and many others that don't suit the climate. The productive capacity of Brazil has yet to be realized, and its role in the exporting of raw and processed foods could well lead the world in the decades ahead. Brazil is realizing that its interior requires regulation and investment. Government policy has rapidly moved away from encouraging expansion to demanding compliance. Brazil has an economy of scale that boggles the mind, but with it there is a realization that too much power, concentrated in the hands of too few, will place the country back into the trap that has held South American countries for hundreds of years.

I first saw the Cerrados (tropical savannah) of Brazil in September 1983 as I looked out the window of a U.S. Air Force plane carrying a delegation headed by then Secretary of Agriculture John Block. As we broke through the clouds, scraggly trees covered the entire landscape except for a few geometric shapes carved out of the vast expanse.

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