Brazil's agriculture revolution

The one export that readily comes to mind when we mention Brazil is probably coffee. (Football fans will think differently for obvious reasons, but I'm talking about agriculture.) But now Brazil is also the world's biggest producer and exporter of orange juice and sugar, and also overtook Australia as the biggest exporter of beef. And they did all that and more without deforesting the Amazon, without substantial state subsidies, and managed to nearly double their grain production without the corresponding increase in land use.

I personally think this is amazing, and this Economist article not only explores why and how Brazil did it, but also the burning question of whether this agriculture revolution can be initiated in Africa. I don't usually blog about things like these, but the article is fascinating.

(via Ezra Klein)

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Brazil’s livestock sector has added animals, production
facilities, and processing and transport capacity. But this has come at a significant ecological cost, including to the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado, the world’s most biologically diverse savannah.