Agriculture in Brazil
Agriculture represents a big share of Brazilian economy ever since it was still a colony of Portugal. The first product consolidated was sugarcane, then coffee and later dairy. Brazil is now the third biggest agriculture exporter behind the USA and European Union only.
The factors responsible for Brazil’s growth in global scenario are the available natural resources (soil, water and light), the diversity of products offered, the growth in agriculture area and productivity, growth in demand from Asian countries, among others. It is now the biggest exporter in sugar, cattle meat, poultry meat, coffee, orange juice, tobacco and ethanol (Landim, 2010).
Food production in Brazil takes over 282 million hectares, approximately. In 2005, agribusiness was responsible for 27,9% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 36,9% of exportations e 37% of employments. Almost 40% of the agribusiness gross production is originated in family based farms (Spadotto, 2005).
Thanks to the government’s investment in research through companies like Embrapa it was possible to grow 4.7% per year in productivity between 1990 and 2009 with only 1.7% growth in area.
According to França et al (2009) between the last two Agribusiness Census made by the Brazilian government to measure the expansion of the national agriculture it was noticeable that the mid-west region was consolidated as a major production area, soybean production expanded into new areas like the north and northeast of the country, sugarcane production and sugar and ethanol plants were consolidated in the southeast region, several law were created to differentiate and assist family based producers.
One of Brazil’s biggest challenges is to increase its productivity without entering new agriculture borders. In the northeastern region of the country, where in the last decades fruit production has been growing thanks to the irrigation plans based on the São Francisco River basin it is now a challenge to preserve the water resources and keep expanding agriculture production (Lima, 1999). In the Amazon region, the challenge is to decrease deforestation. Since the 30’s the government started a plan to occupy the Amazon, for that they build roads and railroads encouraging population to move there. In the 60’s the government built a stronger plan to encourage people to move there in order to explore native species and to produce agriculture products. It was only in the 70’s that they started worrying about environmental issues caused by this immigration pattern, in 1978 the deforested area was around 34 million acres. In the 90’s with the introduction of soybean production the deforested area grows to 101 million acres. The population grows from 7 million in the 70’s to 21 million in the 2000’s with a deforested area of 172 million acres (Peixoto, 2009).
Considering these issues, the Brazilian Government updated the “Código Florestal” in 2012, a big change in the laws regarding occupation in forest areas, focusing on agriculture occupation. With this change now every rural property needs to have 80% of its area preserved in forest areas, 35% in Cerrado areas and 20% in other biomes. When the property is not considered family based and there is no preserved area the owner is responsible to reforest the area with at least 50% of native species associated or not with forest species that allow exploration, the rest of the area can be left for natural recovery if desered. The new “Código Florestal” also addresses issues as erosion and water preservation (Brazil’s Casa Civil, 2012).

Organic Agriculture in Brazil
Organic agriculture in Brazil is regulated by a law (number 10.831) of December, 2003. This law was the result of ten years of debate by different organic association and the Ministry of Agriculture.
The organic movement started in Brazil in the 70’s while the use of agrochemicals was strongly defended as the key to improve productivity. People like José Lutzemberger, Ana Maria Primavesi e Adilson Paschoal were key-figures in the development of the basis for a more ecological approach in Brazilian agriculture. In the 80’s organic agriculture started to be considered as a solution to the environmental issues brought by conventional farming.
It was only after 1994 with the European legislation for organic production and after ECO92 that the Ministry of Agriculture started to debate with researchers and producers in order to come up with a basis of what would became the Organic Legislation in Brazil. Organic agriculture exports started to grow and international certification agencies build offices in Brazil as their countries settled their own legislation.
It was only in 1999 that the Ministry defined the organic system in Brazil and made certification mandatory. A National Collegiate and State Collegiates for organic production were created and they were responsible to organize the certification agencies. In 2002 the National Collegiate tried to impose a number of rules that limited the certification agencies autonomy. In response, they organized themselves in what was later called Organic Agriculture Group. They were able to maintain their autonomy against the Collegiate.
The Organic Agriculture Group made a series of researches and came to the conclusion that only 35% of the farms considered organic were certified. So they included in the text that would later became the law n° 10.831 that if a farmer that are organized and sell their products directly to consumers do not need certification to be considered organic if he follows organic standards (Santos, 2005). To guarantee the quality of these organic products without certification farmers can form “Control Organizations” as to prove that they follow organic standards.
The certification process follows international standard. Brazilian producers can also obtain certification in groups. So if one group of farmers decide to be certified together they are inspect at the same interval as the others but the inspection won’t be at all properties, only at one of the group.

References
Brazil’s Casa Civil. 2012. Novo Código Florestal. Law n° 12.727.

França, C.G. Grossi, Marques, M.E.V.P.M.A. 2009. O censo agropecuário 2006 e a agricultura familiar no Brasil. Brasília: MDA.

Landim, R. 2010. Brasil já é o terceiro maior exportador agrícola do mundo. O Estado de S. Paulo Online.

Lima, J.E.F.W.; Ferreira, R.S.A.; Christofidis, D. 1999. Uso da irrigação no Brasil. O estado das águas no Brasil. Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica.

Peixoto, F. 2009. Linha do tempo: Entenda como ocorreu a ocupação da Amazônia. BBC Brasil Online.

Santos, L.C.R. 2005. Regulamentação da Agricultura Orgânica no Brasil: Caminhos, “descaminhos” e sua contribuição na construção do sistema de comércio ético e solidário. Available at: >http://www.facesdobrasil.org.br/midiateca/doc_details/166--caminhos-descaminhos-e-sua-contribuicao-na-construcao-do-sistema-de-comercio-etico-e-solidario.html<

Spadotto, C.A. 2005. Agricultura Brasileira: importância, perspectivas e desafios para os profissionais dos setores agrícolas e florestais. Embrapa Meio Ambiente, Jaguariúna, Brazil.

Lidia Lacerda