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With Tax Exemptions, Debt Forgiveness, and Facilitated Loans, Agricultural Sector Grows at the Expense of Social Inequality, Environmental Destruction, and Food Insecurity
A study released on Monday (18) by the Brazilian Association of Agrarian Reform (Abra) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Brazil (FES) indicates that the Brazilian economic model, by favoring agribusiness with public resources, increases hunger, exacerbates inequalities, and jeopardizes the food security of the population.
According to the authors Yamila Goldfarb and Marco Antonio Mitidiero Junior, agribusiness is one of the most benefited sectors with tax incentives, subsidized loans, and debt forgiveness, without effective counterparts for the country. The study emphasizes that these privileges result in few jobs, low revenue collection, and a marked concentration of wealth.
Moreover, the researchers state that the sector represents only 7.9% of GDP, employs 3% of the formal workforce, and accounts for less than 1.5% of tax revenue, despite absorbing 13.5% of the tax benefits granted by the State.
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The argument that agribusiness sustains the national economy is, according to the authors, a misleading narrative, used to justify the transfer of resources to large producers and exporting companies, to the detriment of family farming.
Export of Commodities vs. Hunger in the Country
The study points out that Brazil has specialized in the export of primary commodities, such as soy and corn, instead of prioritizing the production of staple foods like rice and beans. As a result, there is a decline in the internal food supply and a consequent increase in prices, especially affecting the poorest segments of the population.
This process deepens the primary-export specialization, reduces the availability of food in the domestic market, and makes the country dependent on imports to meet basic item needs. According to Mitidiero, “the profit margin for soy is higher than for beans, so the producer shifts from a food crop to an export crop.”
With less food and more products destined for export, food insecurity increases in the country. The result, the authors warn, is an increase in hunger, especially among the most vulnerable populations.
Occupations, Violence, and Conflict in the Countryside
Another negative effect highlighted in the report is the rise of violence in the countryside. According to Mitidiero, large producers, as they expand their areas to meet external demand, enter into conflict with indigenous communities, quilombolas, peasants, and family farmers.
Furthermore, the 2023/2024 Safra Plan, mentioned in the study, allocated R$ 364 billion to agribusiness and only R$ 71 billion to family farming, which, according to the authors, reinforces the structural imbalance in the distribution of resources and exacerbates disputes over productive lands.
This phenomenon, according to the study, represents an inversion of the roles of the State, which, instead of ensuring food security and social justice, acts as a “Robin Hood in reverse,” favoring the wealthiest to the detriment of small producers.
Criticism of the Model and Proposal for Agrarian Reform
For Goldfarb, the current model needs to be urgently replaced by a policy that subsidizes food production, not commodity production. She argues that government incentives should be directed to family farming, with credit, technical assistance, and insurance tailored to the reality of small producers.
Agrarian reform is identified as the main structural solution to reverse the current scenario. According to the researchers, ensuring land rights for traditional peoples and peasants is essential to establish a sovereign development model centered on the needs of the country.
However, the study highlights that the current outlook is unfavorable. Goldfarb warns that we live in a period of “agrofundamentalism,” where criticism of agribusiness is met with hostility, and public policies continue to deepen agricultural and mining extraction.
Symbolic Critique and Economic Data
As a final illustration, the report uses the fable of the scorpion and the turtle to describe the relationship between Brazil and agribusiness: “The scorpion asks the turtle to trust him and help him cross the river, but it is in his nature to sting, even to those who are helping him.”
The analysis also questions the data from the trade balance, pointing out that the agribusiness surplus does not compensate for the external accounts deficit, which totaled US$ 56 billion in the negative in 2024, according to the Institute of Studies for Industrial Development (IEDI).
The publication was released by the portal O Joio e o Trigo, based on the study “Agribusiness is Not Tech, Agribusiness is Not Pop, and Certainly Not Everything,” from 2021, expanded by the same authors in this new investigation.
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