South America Seeks to Fill the World’s Table

Though the United States remains the world's largest exporter of agricultural goods, it faces a stern challenge from Brazil. Agriculture has boomed in Brazil in recent years thanks to market-friendly economic policies and increasingly sophisticated methods of cultivation. Many Brazilian farmers have settled what has been termed Brazil's "untapped frontier" – its vast tracts of tropical forest – turning this formerly unusable land into the core of Brazil's US$150-billion-a-year agricultural sector, 40 percent of the nation's economy. The country has also attracted the interest and support of international companies that provide farmers with high-levels of credit. Coupled with an intelligent diversification of crops, such support has endowed Brazilian farmers with greater backbone and adaptability. While Brazil will likely exceed US agricultural production within the decade, its boom is already hitting sectors of US agriculture that cannot compete with the Brazilian bonanza. – YaleGlobal