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Anyone who sees Brazil currently in second place among the world’s largest food exporters – behind only the United States – may be confused and think that this situation has always been the case. Going back in time, more specifically to the 1970s, the reality here was different. “We can’t talk about Brazil and its sustainability today without mentioning our history of food insecurity, when we were the world’s largest food importer. At that time, we didn’t have the technology to deal with the difficulties imposed by the tropical climate,” he says. Gustavo Spadotti, Chief General of EMBRAPA Territorial, in the 3rd panel of the Global Agribusiness Forum, which takes place this Thursday (6), in Punta del Este, Uruguay. This scenario continues Spadotti, was only surpassed by the vision of notable Brazilians, such as Alysson Paolinelli and Eliseu Alves, who, in the 1980s, sent almost 1,000 young graduates to the four corners of the planet to understand the world’s agriculture. “These 1,000 young people returned to Brazil and, alongside producers, developed technological solutions to overcome the great difficulties in the production of food, fibers and energy”, he adds. From then on, Brazilian agribusiness grew exponentially, dispelling food insecurity, but without neglecting sustainability and environmental preservation. According to the General Chief of EMBRAPA Territorial, today, Brazil has 66% of its native areas preserved, in two different ways. The first is through Protected Areas, which takes into account national parks and indigenous areas – adding up all the decrees that the Brazilian state has made, we have 33% of the territory in protected areas. For comparison purposes, taking the countries with more than 2 million km², Brazil leads the list of preservation. Australia comes in second with 20% of its area protected; China has 15%; the USA 12%; Russia 11%; Canada 10% and Argentina 8%. The global average, counting all countries, is 11%. “Unfortunately, we have not been able to communicate this to Brazilian society or to the global community clearly, to show that we are doing our homework”, he laments. Spadotti. In addition to national protected areas, private properties must, depending on their size, preserve between 20% and 80% of their area. “To do this, each rural producer must register online and state which areas they have designated for environmental preservation within their properties,” he explains. Gustavo. Within private properties, there are 282 million hectares designated for the preservation of native vegetation by rural producers, approximately 33% of the national territory. All the preservation over the years has not prevented Brazil from becoming a reference in the fight against food insecurity, expanding its food production year after year. According to Spadotti, there are three ways to increase food production, anywhere: either increase the cultivated area, or increase productivity or intensify land use. The first option is a problem, since it begins to conflict with preserved areas. The second, Brazil has successfully implemented; an example of this is the case of soybeans – if we had the same productivity as in the 1970s, we would need almost 70 million hectares more to harvest what we produce today. The third option is also being used by Brazil. The best example we have is the Crop-Livestock-Forest Integration. In this line of food security, Daniela Kallas, Partner and Director of Institutional Relations at Octopus Lab, who also participated in the panel, defends the use of cooperatives. “Family farming, aligned with cooperatives, is a great driver of transformation. Cooperativism is not just a management model, but a way of life. It transforms isolated producers into protagonists,” he explains. “Well-structured cooperatives provide negotiating power, reduce costs, promote an exchange of knowledge and create a sense of belonging that goes beyond the economic, creating a resilient social fabric,” he adds. Although often invisible to the eyes of the large market, family farming is responsible for 70% of the food that reaches the tables of Brazilians. Among the main current difficulties of Brazilian family farmers are: restricted access to technology and innovation, low productivity, lack of technical training and difficulty in accessing capital.
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