EconomicsBrasil: Biotech agriculture: Genetically-altered corn and soybean lead the way

In this squib, the question of cutting down the rainforest to clear the fertile soil of trees, that question doesn't even come up.  To read more of the article, you have to subscribe.  Too expensive.  So, the squib of the longer subscription-only article will have to suffice.  For our purposes, this is fine -- as we're interested in the structure of Brasil's economic development, the rise of Brasil's middle class, the growth of reformational Christian movements in numerous societal spheres,  and the absence of such movements within the business sector and labour movements, in the array of these in Brasil today.

-- EconoMix, refWrite Frontpage economics, business and labour columnist



Ethical Corporation (Nov7,2k12)

Agriculture Innovation Briefing Part 3: 

What are the lessons from Brazil?

By Eric Marx on Nov 7, 2012

Brazil is blazing a trail with its impressive growth in agricultural production. But getting the balance between biotech and other techniques is tricky

Brazil became the first country in the world to commercialise its own biotech seed when in 2007 it agreed a deal with BASF to develop herbicide-tolerant soy. Through public research funding provided by Embrapa – the Brazilian Agricultural and Livestock Research Company – the seed was first planted in 2011, adding one more impressive benchmark to Brazil’s booming agribusiness industry.

Though it still ranks behind the US in total biotech crop hectarage, Brazil is the engine of growth globally, increasing biotech crops more than any other country in the world – a record 4.9 million hectare increase in 2011, equivalent to an impressive year-over-year increase of 20%, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications.

Corn and soybean dominate the market – with the vast majority being genetically altered. Second and third generation biotech crops that avoid the GM label have promise but either remain in the experimental...