The Development Model of Brazilian Sugarcane - Sucre Ethique

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30 work to effect change. In respect to the former, MST has presented itself to the rural populace as an effective counsellor to a corruptible and predatory state, appreciative of Lula’s acceptance of peasant agrarianism relative to his more dismissive predecessor Fernando Henrique Cardoso, but wary of his reluctance to destabilize the foreign exchange earnings of the latifundio. 68 All the same, the ambition of the movement has not been to replace the state, but rather to work through it, cajoling its leaders into making the rule of law compatible with greater territorial autonomy. 69 Geraldo Fontes, an MST coordinator, has suggested how this is possible: When we occupy latifundio, large landholding, it is not because we are against Lula’s government. We are occupying to help Lula’s government to apply what the constitution says in order to change this model, which they are using now. 70 The constitution to which Fontes refers is the 1988 ruling on agrarian reform, which affirms that only ‘rural property that is not performing its social function’ should be expropriated. To reconcile this stipulation with the occupation of working farms, MST have argued that the function of land is to provide jobs and improve living standards, something the latifundios prevent and which can only be provided through the democratisation of property and the sharing of natural resources. 71 When MST uses the concept ‘jobs’, it does so with a particular type of job in mind, namely, those linked to smallholder production and food sovereignty, emphasising choice over the way in which food is produced and traded and incorporating such issues as land rights, biodiversity and seed-saving. In binding itself to this notion of agrarian citizenship, MST has thus risked antagonism with those rural workers who depend on the latifundios for waged jobs. To overcome this, the concept of Sem Terra (landlessness) has been used to make a connection between the two social groups based not on modes of production but on similar experiences of poverty and exploitation. 72 The MST thus encourages workers 68 Welch, ‘Globalization and the Transformation of Work in Rural Brazil’, p. 44. 69 Wolford, ‘Producing Community’, p. 517. 70 Geraldo Fontes, ‘Interview with Nic Paget-Clarke’, In Motion Magazine, 2 September 2004. Available at Hhttp://www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/gf_mst_int2.htmlH. Accessed 21 April 2008. 71 MST, ‘The Perverse Nature of Agribusiness for Brazilian Society’, MST Informa 109, February 2006. Available at Hwww.mstbrazil.org?q=book/print/276H. Accessed 10 April 2008. 72 Luca Fanelli and Sarah Sarzynski, ‘The Concept of Sem Terra and the Peasantry in Brazil’, Journal of Developing Societies, Vol. 19, No. 2-3, 2003, p. 334. Ethicl
31 and settlers to maintain links to the movement’s landless community, even after they have secured jobs or land deeds. For its part, the government has defended its record on land access by denying the challenge of the landless movement to industries such as sugar/ethanol. For example, the Minister of Agrarian Development, Guilherme Cassel, has argued that: In Brazil we have two models: agribusiness, based on large extensions of land and monoculture farming, and the family farm model, based on land reform settlements, crop diversification and protection of the environment. [Lula has] supported both models, and both were very effective. 73 Yet to the extent that the family farm model has worked, it has only been by resettling landless farmers away from the borders of agro-industry in the Amazonian region: 65% of new settlements have taken place here according to the MST. 74 In this way, the government has been able to bypass the central question posed by the MST about the social function land should serve. Further, the government has also noted that labour productivity on the country’s farm has soared in recent years, suggesting that this will in turn lower the cost of food domestically and reduce the need for land reform. 75 But while the supply of food in Brazil has been augmented, it has not necessarily resulted in more being available for the rural poor who still lack the resources to acquire it. In fact the hungry in Brazil are increasingly dependent on the ‘Zero Hunger’ state initiative that incorporates such programmes as the ‘Family Fund’, which transfers direct cash payments to families as a reward for attending school or medical clinics, and the national school meals project, which constitutes the second main source of food for poor families. Chronic malnutrition in children has nearly halved from 1996 to 2006 as a result of these programmes but 20% (2.3 million) of the recipients of the Family Fund hand-outs still go without food once 73 Frayssinet, ‘Brazil: David, Goliath and Land Reform’. 74 See Fabiana Frayssinet, ‘Brazil: David, Goliath and Land Reform’, Inter Press Service, 13 June 2007. 75 Andrew Downie, ‘As food Prices Soar, Brazil and Argentina React in Opposite Ways’, New York Times, 27 August 2008. Ethicl
Page 1 and 2: Ethical-Sugar January 2009 An Exclu
Page 3 and 4: 3 About the Authors Dr Ben Richards
Page 5 and 6: 5 1. Introduction This paper provid
Page 7 and 8: 7 there has been significant struct
Page 9 and 10: 9 can take any percentage of ethano
Page 11 and 12: 11 from sugar has not taken place a
Page 13 and 14: 13 politics. 17 The close relations
Page 15 and 16: 15 Unlike the public or cooperative
Page 17 and 18: 17 plagued by tax disputes or debt.
Page 19 and 20: 19 and the Centre-South (mainly Sã
Page 21 and 22: 21 impractical because of changing
Page 23 and 24: 23 family farmers. And further, the
Page 25 and 26: 25 populations in the Northeast tha
Page 27 and 28: 27 promote the possibilities of pat
Page 29: 29 With respect to legal purchases,
Page 33 and 34: 33 successfully addressed many of i
Page 35 and 36: Notes

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