Posted on 11/30/2006 5:30:55 AM PST by shrinkermd
WHEN Brian Willott moved to these central Brazilian plains to fulfill his dream of farming, there was much to remind him of the home he left in the American heartland.
The sign at the end of a dirt lane proclaimed his rented land "Fazenda Kansas," Portuguese for "Kansas Farm." The flat fields stretching to the horizon teemed with cotton and soybeans. Billboards boasted familiar names such as Cargill, Monsanto and John Deere.
But the going hasn't been as smooth as the level terrain. U.S. farmers have been the targets of squatters, thieves and scammers. Willott has discovered that slave labor still exists in the region. And there have been challenges few Midwesterners ever encounter: piranhas, deadly vipers and dengue fever.
You'd have to forgive Willott if he said, "We're aren't in Kansas anymore."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
...Prime farm ground in the U.S. Midwest can sell for as much as $5,000 an acre, but sizable tracts rarely come on the market even at those prices.
...In Brazil, land ready to farm can be had for $750 an acre and virgin soil for $100 or less an acre. And there is plenty of it. Nearly 100 million acres of scrubland known as cerrado in Brazil's interior have been converted into productive farm ground, most in the last 25 years. It's the biggest addition of arable land on the planet since homesteaders plowed the American prairie. But unlike the U.S. Midwest, the cerrado isn't close to being settled. Yet Brazil is already an agricultural superpower
Brazil is almost the size of the United States (even with Alaska) and has a climate much more conducive to farming than the American Rockies-area, Alaska, and New England. However, the Amazon rain forest is nutrient-poor, and it should be protected.
Brazil's turning their sugarcane into biodiesel is impressive, though they will not be a global superpower any time soon. You need way more than agriculture for that.
Brazil's turning their sugarcane into biodiesel is impressive, though they will not be a global superpower any time soon. You need way more than agriculture for that.
Russia is in need of people, and has lots of land for cultivation.... Why don't we move there?
If it weren't for their political system, it might make some sense.
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