The International Peasant Movement and the Struggle for Environmental Justice in Brazil: An Interview with Cleber Folgado from Movimiento de Pequeños Agricultores (MPA), Vía Campesina, Brazil

The International Peasant Movement and the Struggle for Environmental Justice in Brazil: An Interview with Cleber Folgado from Movimiento de Pequeños Agricultores (MPA), Vía Campesina, Brazil

Abstract

Interviews The International Peasant Movement and the Struggle for Environmental Justice in Brazil: An Interview ˜ with Cleber Folgado from Movimiento de Pequenos ´ Agricultores (MPA), Vıa Campesina, Brazil Cecilia Carrizo Sineiro and Mauricio Berger Cecilia Carrizo Sineiro and Mauricio Berger (C.C./M.B.): What environmental injustice can you identify in Brazil today? Cleber Folgado (C.F.)1: Since the occupancy of our territories, Latin America is seen as a place to extract the necessary goods to guarantee the capital structure. From their point of view, they are extracting ‘‘natural resources,’’ we call them ‘‘people’s natural goods.’’ This way of thinking and acting has generated what today is called agro-business, which is an alliance between transnational companies, capitalist landowners, and financial capital for the exploitation and expropriation of these assets. For example, at the central region of Brazil in the states of Goias, Mato Grosso (which is called the Brazilian Cerrado) a significant land clearing is taking place for monocultures, esspecially sugar cane for biofuel production. In this way, a mechanism is being developed to take out all the farmers who were historically there producing food while ensuring the environment’s welfare and to implement this model of monoculture. The agro-business model produces