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Observatorio Latinoamericano de Salud.12Neoliberalism, Pesticide Use andthe Food Sovereignty Crisis in BrazilAry Carvalho de Miranda, Josino Costa Moreira,René Louis de Cavalho y Frederico PeresSince the nineties, Brazilian economic policies have gradually moved towardsneoliberalism.As everyone knows, neoliberals assume that market regulationis the most efficient way of controlling economic activity. Microeconomicmanagement, allocation of resources in space and in time – includingthe balance between investments and consumption – and the setting of priceswere the main economic functions transferred to the market by the Braziliangovernment during that period.The process has also led to the privatization of assets, extensive economicderegulation, and liberalization of exchange rate movements, foreigntrade and the capital account of the balance of payments [Mollo & Saad-Filho,2003]. Trade liberalization brings on the threat of competing imports,which constrains prices charged by domestic companies (as well as workers’wages). Moreover, capital account liberalization limits the capacity of the Stateto monetize its deficits.The combination of policies can indeed eliminatehigh inflation efficiently, but at a high cost.The neoliberal consensus was that these measures would create a favorableenvironment for foreign capital to enter the country and for investmentsto increase. However, the opposite has happened in Brazil:The investmentrate declined in tandem, from an average of 22.2 percent of the GDPin the eighties to 19.5 percent in the nineties and 18.8 percent in 2000-03.115