Times Advocate, 1989-03-22, Page 22Page 22
Times -Advocate, March 22, 1989
Area residents spend 18 days in Brazil as
• By Pat Down •
• . EXETER - Eightecn.days in Bra
zd may sound Iikc a holiday, but
for Hensall arca resident and Us -
borne township councilor Pat
Down, it was a great teaming expc-
ricncc. Down, along with Tucker -
smith dairy farmer Bill Wallace and
farm. implement dealershipemploy-.
Bryan Vincent, Seaforth, were
part of the second (1978-89) Ad-
.vaned Agricultural Leadership pro-
gram. _ •
AALP was launched in 1985 .to.
• prepare future rural leaders for to-
morrows' challenges.- Participants
- in the two-year, program receive a
hotter understanding of complex lo-
cal, national and international prob- -
le ms -by exposure to these issues,.
and are given the opportunity to.
discuss issues ,with knowledgeable
people. The AALPexpericnce pro-
vides participants with the broad
pLrspective necessary to come up.
with solutions to the' challenges
posed in an increasingly Complicat-
ed modem world.
The program is jointly coordinat-
cd.hy the University of Guelph and
OMAF. llalf the expenses is paid
through, donations by -a large num-.
her of agriculture -related business-
es., organizations and individuals.
In addition, each person selected for
_the 1987-89 program paid $2,500. -
Thc cost has now gone_ up to
S3,(X)0 per individual..
' The three Huron County residents
.were among 28 AALP participants
. who visited such widely disparate.
placcsas a food hank in the Toron-
to food terminal, spent time' with
their MPPs rind MP in Toronto and
Ottawa and saw the workings of the
provincial and federal ministries of
agriculture. •
-
- . The group met top executives.and
studied the decision-making process
in such companies as Ford, Burns
Fry. Investments, Polysar, Dow
C'hcmicals; Canada. Packers and
John Labatts. We talked about en- -
- vironmental-waste disposal protests
with lobbyists from Pollution
• Probe, and to representatives of
Canada's native people. We met
volunteers from variousinterest
groups who, like ourselves, are
. working to improve life in Canada.
We gained an overall perspective
Of our society.
"Sure we did some. touristy
things like visiting 'the beach and
semi-precious stone shopping
while in Rio, but we got to see an-
other side of Brazil that tourists
don't see.
The agricultural and industrial of
this vast country, bigger than con-
tinental United States, was an eye--
opener. Brazil, called a sleeping
giant by some, occupies almost
half of the South •American conti-
nent.
On our way from Rio deJanerio
to Brasilia, the modern capital
some 30 years old, we saw our first
:soy -be 1hs in the state of Minas Cie-
r^_is (literally general mining). Mi-
nas Gcreis:was noted originally for
mining but is now becoming a
force in.agriculture. . .
Froin there until Sao Paulo some
6,(00 kilmonictres and 18 days lat-
er, we were never very far from a
soybean field. To put things in
perspective Canada grows 1.3 mil-
lion acres of soybeans, United
Slates 58 million acres and Brazil
20 million acres for now.
At a research station at Brasilia
dealing with the cerrados - the sa-
vanna like grass and bushland - we
learned that currently 1- to 12 per-
cent of the cerrados was in agricul=
tural production. Eventually Brazil,
hopes to have 40 percent of this
acidic red soil undercultivauon.
The best farmers get 50 bushels
of soys per acre. The current crop
looked great, although they had a
very dry planting season. The rain
started December 19 and it had
rained almost every day until we
left in January 29. The harvest is
under way now and news reports
talk about a record crop.
Much to the chagrin of one of
our program co-ordinators Doug
Pletsch, we never did experience a
tropical rain storm which -can make
the streets run with water in min-
utes.
Pletsch learned first hand about
the tropics and Brazil in the early
1960s when he worked as an agri-
cultural missionary in Christianop-
olis; a small. farming community
just southwest of Brasilia. One the •
highlights of the trip for Pletsch
was taking 29 other Ontario resi-
dents to this rural community
where hefirst introduced soybeans.
They had not' been grown this far
north in Brazil until then.
We were treated to supper at the
local community centre. With the
aid of Portuguese dictionaries and
pictures we were able to exchange
ideas with the local farmers. I,
with a smattering of Spanish, got a
long reasonably well because of the
similarity between Spanish and
Portuguese.
Just as iwsouthwestem Ontario
• we found that some of them had
migrated north because land was
cheaper in the Christianopolis arca. -
After clearing, the land there it
.would amount to about $80 an acre.
As one farmer put it the Japanese
have the best land in the south.
Brazil has the largest Japanese com-
munity in the world outside of Ja-
pan.
As we moved south towards the
state of Parani, farming methods
changed. The contour ridges intend-
ed to channel the torrential rain
around the hills and prevent gullcy
erosion gave way to continuous
cropping. Wheat and oats are gown
as winter crops. .The stubble is di-
rect seed to corn or soys, the sum-
mer crops.-
The farmers we visited in a Dutch
co-operative community were very
pleased with theircontinuous crop-
ping used for the past six years.
We noticed that the water lying in
the ditches was clear instead of red.
Erosion, even with contour crop-
ping, is a problem which was dra-
matically- shown at Ignacu Falls
with gallons of red water "rushing
over this gigantic falls. Ten years
ago the water was still clear. With
•
In Brazil - Bill Wallace (left) Tuckersmith, Pat Down, Usborne and Bryan Vincent (right), Seaforth,
menthe Brazilian president of the Royal Bank, Canada, at a reception in the Consul General's home
in Sao Paulo. The visit was part of a two-year rural leadership program.
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the innoydtive example of the,
Dutch community, Brasilians have
the methods to control their erosion
if. they have the will. .
But political will to alleviate the
tremendous poverty of two-thirds to
three-quarters of their population'of
almost 150 million appears lack-
ing. There is no redistribution of
wealth through taxation . Taxes
only cover the civil servants' wag-
es.
Social programs and the new in-
frastructure of roads, railways, and
hydro electric projects like the huge
Itaipu Dam on the Paraguayan bor-
der are paid for with foreign loans
which may never be paid back.
With an inflation rate of almost
1000 percent.in terms of the Ameri-
can dollar, Brazil can just pay the
interest on their current debt of 100
billion, althqugf thcir economy has
expanded rapidly.
Thcre is much to be admired
about Brazil. During the oil crisis,
they chose to go to alcohol powered
cars' using sugar cane as the raw
product. They import very few
manufactured goods. One of the
last Volkswagen beetle• car plants
operates there. We saw them used
as cabs and police cars.
•- They produce more citrus prod-
- ucts than Florida. Almost any agri-
cultural product can be grown there
from semi -tropical and •tropical ,
crops such as cotton, rice, coffee,
tea, bananas and citrus fruits to the
more temperate crops of corn says,
apples and grapes.
Brazil in world terms is the lead-
ing producers of citrus products and
coffee. She is second in soybeans,
dry beans, cocoa and poultry and
third in the production of corn.
In spite of the abundance of agri-
cultural products and crops, Brazil's
.social problem of poverty foi the
majority of its people was shown
Only too clearly. 'When we visited -
a ftavella (slum). in Sao Paulo, the
day we flew home.
Between eight ta- 10 thousand
people lived on eight- acres. 'The
Douses were built wall to wall with
whatever material could be bought,
or borrowed. We walked .down nar-
row dirt streets beside open sewers. -
The mayor explained to us although
they were squatters not owning -the
land, everyone hada job.
Almost every home that we
peeked into had a a T.V. .Some
had roosters scratching on the dirt
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