Agribusiness

Blood in the Amazon: Brazilian Activists Murdered as Deforestation Increases: More on the Murders of Activists

By Benjamin Dangl

Early in the morning on May 24, in the northern Brazilian Amazon, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva got onto a motorcycle near the nature reserve they had worked on for over two decades. As the couple rode past the jungle they dedicated their lives to protecting, gunmen hiding near a bridge opened fire, killing them both.

Protestors close Vale railway to demand the killers of rural activists be imprisoned

a floresta choraBy João Márcio (Marabá, Pará)

 After an overnight vigil, peasant movements, students, teachers from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and settled families of the MST sealed off the Carajás railway bridge this Thursday. The bridge stands over the River Tocantins in Marabá.

 A freight train belonging to the multinational mining company, Vale, was unable to move between 5am and 10am.

Agroextractivist leader executed in Pará

jose claudio and maria do espiritu santoAgroextractivist José Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espírito Santo were murdered on May 23 in Nova Ipixuna in the southeast of Pará. The couple had been threatened by loggers in the region. The information was confirmed by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) of Maraba. Both were leaving the Praia Alta Piranheira Agroextractivist Settlement Project where they lived en route to the town center when they were trapped on a bridge and shot.

Chamber of Deputies approves devastation of the Forest Code under the orders of agribusiness

The Chamber of Deputies decided today that Brazil should not be the country of the future. By 410 votes to only 63, federal deputies approved changes to the Brazilian Forest Code that are set to compromise the country's biodiversity as well as the sustainability of Brazilian agriculture. “Brazil woke up this morning with news of the murder of one of the Amazon Rainforest's strongest advocates,” announced Paulo Adario, director of Greenpeace's Amazon Campaign.

Agribusiness Contaminated the Pardo River with Pesticides, in the Interior of São Paulo State

The contamination of the Pardo River, in the interior of SP, agricultural pesticides can cripple their drinking water due to the costs of pardo riverconstructing a water treatment plant that would eliminate these substances.

The statement is from professor of chemistry Cristina Pereira Rosa Paschoalato of Unaerp (University of Ribeirao Preto), which concluded a study on the river.

Pesticides, the poison of agribusiness, pollute food and the environment

agribusinessThe coming together of financial capital and the large farming estates has brought about what is called ‘modern’ agribusiness. The logic of land exploitation – large expanses; monocropping; the growing of grains just for export; mechanization and low salaries – needs yet another poisonous ingredient: more than a billion liters of pesticides spread over Brazil’s farmland, in 2009 alone.

Pages