Brazilian crop boom threatens U.S. farms

AzStarNet ^ | 05.22.2005 | COX NEWS SERVICE

[hedgetrimmer]

PETROVINA, Brazil - The six-seat Embraer airplane glides from a cloudless sky onto a red-dirt runway. Views of scrub-brush savanna stretching to the Amazon River give way to fields of 10-foot high corn and boll-bursting cotton.

It's a farmer's wonderland, where the fecund soil can be had for as little as $200 a sun-drenched acre and a Maryland-sized chunk of land is cleared each year for cotton, corn, soybean and cattle farms.

Agriculture is booming in Brazil, and U.S. farmers are taking notice. Buffeted by high production costs, low market prices and the World Trade Organization, Americans increasingly look to low-cost, low-wage Brazil for economic survival.

Hundreds of U.S. farmers have visited the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso, Parana and Bahia the last two years. A few have spent millions to buy land and equipment and become Brazilian farmers. Others have put their money in U.S.-managed investment groups. For $25,000, an investor can own a piece of a 13,000-acre Western Bahia corn, cotton and soybean farm that promises a minimum 15 percent return.

Virtually every U.S. commodity farmer fears the Brazilian agricultural revolution that threatens to hollow out the domestic industry the way the Asians gutted manufacturing. "I see agriculture being taken away from us by Brazil. It's very scary," says cotton and peanut farmer Don Wood of Rochelle, Ga., after visiting Brazil. "We can keep doing what we're doing for two years. But after that, it looks like we'll stop planting cotton. There's no way we can compete with those guys."

In second place now

Brazil, the world's No. 2 agricultural power, might displace the United States as the top food producer within a decade.

The world's fifth-largest country, with a land area similar to the continental United States, could turn another 420 million acres into crops, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. The United States has 250 million total acres of cropland.

Brazil is the world's top exporter of coffee, beef, sugar, ethanol, tobacco, poultry and orange juice.

"Sitting back home, looking at your 80 acres, you can't imagine what it's like to see tractors planting all the way to the horizon, then just disappearing," says Matthew Kruse, 26, a sixth-generation Iowa farmer who helps run an investor-backed farm. "There definitely is a lot of opportunity here that you'll not find in the United States anymore. Come down and see what you're up against."

[hedgetrimmer]

Virtually every U.S. commodity farmer fears the Brazilian agricultural revolution that threatens to hollow out the domestic industry the way the Asians gutted manufacturing. "I see agriculture being taken away from us by Brazil. It's very scary," says cotton and peanut farmer Don Wood of Rochelle, Ga., after visiting Brazil. "We can keep doing what we're doing for two years. But after that, it looks like we'll stop planting cotton. There's no way we can compete with those guys."

***

Especially when our own government is working against us with "free trade" deals and overregulation and overtaxation.

[hedgetrimmer]

You might be interested in this one too.

[hedgetrimmer]

PING

[spetznaz]

Read later

[Clemenza]

Better free trade than ag subsidies to protect agribusiness.

Until we recognize farming for what it is (A BUSINESS!) we will remain committed to counterproductive agrisocialism.

A few years ago, Washington State farmers were getting killed by the import of apples from China and New Zealand. They started planting grapes and cherries and now export both in large numbers to Asia (and make some fine wine as well).

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

"Brazil, the world's No. 2 agricultural power, might displace the United States as the top food producer within a decade."

What a POS article, Brazil already is the number one world exporter of agriculture products.

When Brazil started clearing the rain forests, the pundits said the land was not fit for grazing cattle. American chemical companies went down, rode to the rescue by developing fertilizers and soil conditioners to turn it into a bonanza.

Being in the tropics, Brazil has no one growing season or fear of crop loss due to frost damages vis a vi the US, down there it is 365 days a year to plant and harvest. In the very near future much cheaper Brazilian soy bean production will wipe out US farmers.

When it comes to manufacturing, technology and agriculture our past governments had a penchant for the adage of teaching a man to fish, well we did, they did, and it has now come full circle to bite America in the ass.

[Iowa Granny]

ping

[Clemenza]

Brazil is the largest exporter of Oranges and Orange juice in the world.

[southland]

ping

[endthematrix]

Re: Washington State farmers

The asparagus industry is going south too.

[EternalVigilance]

Ag and manufacturing gutted.

Mining and energy production thwarted by the enviros.

That don't leave much of substance...

[Soliton]

Wow, whatever happened to the population explosion and not enough food?

[Leisler]

Nah, there's plenty of jobs.

Environmental wardens.
Environmental Cops.
Environmental Lawyers.
Environmental Writers.
Environmental Grant Seekers.
Welfare Advocate.
Welfare Clerk
Welfare Assistant.
Welfare Agent.
Welfare Lawyer
Welfare Writer
Code Enforcer
Code Writer.
Tax Investigator.
Tax, Armed Physical Seizure Agent.
....Thousands more...

[Koblenz]

Maybe they'll get their own Mugabe to kill their ag industry.

[Tom D.]

You are absolutely right. To a very large extent, the USA put Brazil in business with our Ag subsidies. Those subsidies allowed American Farmers to pay higher costs than the market would dictate. That does at least two bad things:

1) It removes market discipline from an industry, thus American agriculture does not focus on ways to cut costs; and,

2) It causes such things as land costs and rents to go to artificially high levels, thus cutting out competitiveness in places like Brazil.

[kittymyrib]

When the USA becomes food dependent, as it is oil dependent now, speculators can run up the price of milk and bread like they are running up the price on petroleum now. Our obesity problems will be a thing of the past as the average family goes back to growing their own food because it can't afford to buy it.

[bert]

It could be worse..... what if you were a Frog farmer and could work only 35 hours per week on a postage stamp farm.

How would you compete?

[hispanichoosier]

When it comes to manufacturing, technology and agriculture our past governments had a penchant for the adage of teaching a man to fish, well we did, they did, and it has now come full circle to bite America in the ass.

Yeah, God forbid that we help another nation's economy, thereby helping it to raise the standard of living of its citizens. We should keep them all dependent and unable to manufacture or grow anything! /sarcasm

[Guillermo]

No, you mean come to bite the farmers in the ass.

It will be a boon to the CONSUMER.

I have no sympathy for our socialist farmers, who demand more and more taxpayer money every year.

Everytime I hear about the "Plight of the American Farmer" I feel like puking.

[neutrino]

Well, that should help increase the trade deficit. I wonder when it will hit the 1 trillion dollar per year level? At the present rate of growth, it won't be long.

Eventually, the house of cards will fall. I will take considerable pleasure in mocking those who whined about "lower prices for consumers."

[G Larry]

Yeah, it really breaks my heart that U.S. farmers receive a 13.00/ton subsidy from the U.S. government for their sugar.
World Sugar = (Oct. 8.91)
U.S. Sugar = (Sept. 21.91)

[hedgetrimmer]

The asparagus industry is going south too.

Not because our farmers were inefficient or had a bad product. In fact the federal government trained farmers in Peru and have been subsidizing the farm production of asparagus there. The feds said it was to give farmers something else to grow besides coca. Now they grow both and the US taxpayer is funding the demise of another segement of our agricultural industry. They did the same thing with cut flowers btw. I think you probably already know this one.

[hedgetrimmer]

You shouldn't generalize. Plenty of farmers, especially in the production of fresh produce get no subsidy and operate on the open market. They however are being destroyed by "environmental justice" "ag water discharge" rules, the endangered species act, the clean air act, "open space" set asides, "conservation easements", "scenic viewsheds" and property taxes.

Please don't tar everybody with the subsidy brush and don't demonize an entire industry just because the MSM does.

[hedgetrimmer]

thereby helping it to raise the standard of living of its citizens

The US government is in place to uphold the Constitution. The constitution was written to protect the rights of individual American citizens,not to be a welfare system for foreign countries. If you hate subsidies, why condone the global socialist system that goes by the name of "free trade"?

[Rebelbase]

Just think about all that cheap farmland for sale in the US very soon.

[hedgetrimmer]

American farms are the cleanest, most productive and technologically advanced in the world.

I'll bet CONSUMERS would rather get their sugar from a farm like that than a farm like this--

Conditions for agricultural workers were poor, particularly in the sugar industry. Most sugarcane worker villages lacked schools, medical facilities, running water, and sewage systems, and had high rates of disease. Company-provided housing was usually sub-standard (see Section 5).

The dirty secret of the global socialist "free traders" is that they are pushing farming back to the 19th century and reinstating the filthy farm conditions and slave driver mentality of plantation agriculture back into agriculture. "Free trade" agriculture is a step back into the very darkest part of the world's past.

This describes conditions for ag workers in the Dominican Republic. The globalists are so blatant about reverting to slavery, they named their trade agreement CAFTA-DR for this country which happens to be one of the worst human trafficking violators in the world. Isn't it great that our government wants to merge our economy and borders with this country? The CONSUMERS will be so happy to know their sugar comes from farms with no sewage or running water and the people forced to work in slave-like conditions to harvest the food are riddled with disease.

Yes sir! Free trade agriculture BUMP.

[hedgetrimmer]

Just think about all that cheap farmland for sale in the US very soon.

The state and federal governments are buying it up for pennies on the dollar for wilderness areas, land trusts and open space that human beings, unless they are Nature conservancy ceos or high government officials, won't be allowed to set foot on. You won't get a chance to buy any of it, but the Nature Conservancy will add it to their portfolio already worth billions of dollars, all subsidized by the US taxpayer.

[Guillermo]

Let's just protect every industry...we can't protect just one, because it isn't fair to the others.

"If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it. If it stops moving subsidize it"

[hedgetrimmer]

Let's just protect individual rights. Then tell the truth about the "cheap prices" for CONSUMERS. America made a choice a hundred years ago with the food purity act to clean up its food production system. "Free traders" have decided that they now govern the people and that its best for the people to get their sugar from dirty, slave run plantations in third world countries. But they didn't ask the American people if they wanted to change the food purity act, they just did an end-run around it with their phony "free trade" agreements that state high phytosanitary standards are a "barrier to trade" and we can't have them anymore or we would be violating our trade agreements.

How about lets protect the American people instead of putting them out to be pillaged by the transnational corporations that are the beneficiaries of "free trade". shall we?

[Moonman62]

Next thing you know they'll be putting fluoride in our water.

[Moonman62]

I couldn't agree more. It's been my tagline for quite a while.

[Rebelbase]

" The state and federal governments are buying it up for pennies on the dollar "

Future collective farms for when South American crops are no longer accessible.

/tinfoil

[Moonman62]

When the USA becomes food dependent, as it is oil dependent now, speculators can run up the price of milk and bread like they are running up the price on petroleum now.

The biggest threat in that case is when the president decides to go with a weak dollar policy.

[freepatriot32]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

List of Ping lists

i'll be taking over the Rights, farms, environment ping list since farmfriend got banned from fr permanently

[avg_freeper]

"Especially when our own government is working against us with "free trade" deals and overregulation and overtaxation."

Try over-subsidation. Any endeavor that soaks the consumer through taxes as much as agribusiness will eventually have to take it in the shorts. I'm surprised it took this long.

Getting your government buddies to take my money to make your life easier? Well I'm going to leave you high and dry the first chance I get.

[Iowa Granny]

Thank you.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You nailed it.

"...as the average family goes back to growing their own food because it can't afford to buy it."

That's why for the past 10 years, and intensely for the past 8, I've grown a lot of our foodstuffs, tought myself to bake bread, process fruits & vegetables, learned to sew, raise chickens for eggs but learned to butcher without being squeamish about it, hunt, fish, glean fields and find winld foodstuffs (mushrooms, asparagus, etc.), trade and barter for goods & services, shop "curb side" and live as far beneath our financial "means" as possible.

Not sure that I could ever be 100% self-supporting (I really appreciate running water and electricity) but I'll be further along than others if the chit hits the fan.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks.

[Dan Evans]

i'll be taking over the Rights, farms, environment ping list since farmfriend got banned from fr permanently

Got a link to his last thread?

[hedgetrimmer]

Getting your government buddies to take my money to make your life easier?

No one on this thread said anything like this, yet "free traders" are always trying to provoke anger by making stuff like this up.

If you were the expert you think you are on "free trade" you will know that it is completely subsidized by the US taxpayer and your favorite transnational corporations that are so caring of consumers are using your tax dollars to subsidize their ventures into the third world so they risk none of their own capital. In fact, if things go wrong the US taxpayer has insured their business ventures so they cannot lose. Transnational corporations, as stated in a previous thread, are the biggest welfare queens and the biggest threat to liberty and the American system of government that exists in modern history.

[hedgetrimmer]

Fresh market producers get no subsidies at all. Learn a little bit about Ag in the USA please.

[Libertina]

Capitalism needs to include long range planning as well. It seems exceedingly short sighted to lose all natinal food production to foreign countries. And to allow enemy nations to plant themselves on either end of shipping lands, (Panama Canal) and coasts (COSCO)... Sigh, but I'm certain those in charge are thinking this all out in OUR best interests... /s

[Feiny]

Wow, you are a pioneer woman. I come close....I just got back from the farmers market & bought a fresh bass for dinner....it was already cleaned, but I will have to pick the bones out. Yeah, I am self sufficient....hahaha

[freepatriot32]

Got a link to his last thread?

farmfriend is a she btw :-)

Man Freed After Driving Into Minuteman Protesters

[avg_freeper]

"If you were the expert you think you are on "free trade"

free trade??? Where in samhill did that come from? I'm an expert in seeing politicians whittle away my paycheck in order to buy votes. Just stop taking my money! If I want someone's product I'll pay for it. Hundreds of billions are taken from us and given to agribusinesses.

Stop taking my money!

But! But! I saw Johnny take some money the other,... SMACK!

I don't care what Johnny's doing right now! Johnny can run around like a drunk monkey spending my money on booz, bannanas, and Viagra for all I care. I'm too busy paying people to not grow things. The 1985 farm bill paid farmers not to farm 61 MILLION acres, an area equal to Ohio, Indiana, and half of Illinois.

I can't just cower down thinking "Oh I better not say anything about this jerk robbing me blind because that thief over there also robbed me yesterday before I could say something."

It has to stop somewhere! I'll get to Johnny next week.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Total baloney. Land that lays fallow can always be ramped up back into production fairly quickly. 99% of the Great Plains aren't threatened by suburbanization, so there wouldn't be a loss of the resource, just banked for future use (plus it might allow for the Ogallala Aquifer to be replenished, since our noble farmers have drained it down far faster than it could be replenished.) There will always be a critical mass of farmers, the voting realities insure that the agri-welfare will be further pumped up to sustain that and more. The only thing threatening our ability to feed ourselves in time of crisis is socialism.

[Torie]

And then we have this little chart. How can it be? Irational exurburance?

[Hank Rearden]

Looks like the Welfare Farmers better get off their subsidy-check butts and learn how to compete.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"Wow, you are a pioneer woman."

I was born 100 years too late, I swear, LOL! If you ever want to buy some farm-fresh eggs, or hug a chicken, freepmail me. (I won't make you butcher any of them...until after I know you better, LOL!)

Enjoy your bass! So far all we've had are Bluegills from down off Christie's Landing on Lake Waubesa. Had 'em fried up for breakfast one day last week. Yummy! Now that the garden is planted, I can find more time to get a line in the water.

And really, don't hold back on how you feel about Senator Feingold, LOL!