Deforestation dynamics: "anyone who finds it easy is stupid"
Prime Future 213: the newsletter for innovators in livestock, meat, and dairy
When I arrived in Brazil, I was asked about my impression of Brazilian agriculture. I replied with 3 words:
Scale.
Productivity.
Deforestation.
We’ll come back to those first two another time. Let’s talk about #3.
My impression from the outside, knowing only what I see in industry news and social media, was that Amazon deforestation is an unfettered problem. But this was not a topic I’d explored.
So I asked questions, shut up, and listened. And I want to share what I learned from an in-country perspective because it was nothing like I expected.
Insert all the appropriate caveats here: I'm no expert, speaking only from my own understanding from only one week in country, and my understanding is based on translation from Portuguese to English. (Though any misunderstanding is on my part—my English is not so good.)
Here's what I think I learned from the boots on the ground.