‘We aren’t feeding the Brazilian population,’ criticizes Larissa Bombardi, a researcher on the agribusiness model

Brasil de Fato

Exiled for three years, researcher Larissa Bombardi is one of the main voices criticizing the agribusiness model in Brazil. She disputes the idea that the sector is responsible for producing the food that feeds the Brazilian population. 

“The aim of these [grabbed] lands has been the production of commodities, goods that are traded on the Stock Exchange, which have their price set in this huge international casino,” she said in an interview broadcast on the Bem Viver program on Monday (5).

“And what about food production? It has declined. So, the areas where rice, beans, wheat and manioc are planted, for example, have reduced significantly. The area for growing beans fell by 40%.”

The data is part of the author’s most recent publication, Agrotóxicos e Colonialismo Químico (Pesticides and Chemical Colonialism, in a rough translation), a book launched in October last year and released in Brazil this month, when Larissa Bombardi made a quick visit to the country.

Bombardi has been in exile in Europe for three years because of attacks she suffered after releasing A Geography of Agrotoxins Use in Brazil and its Relations to the European Union, published in 2017.

In 2021, when she left Brazil, Bombardi said that “Leaders of social movements warned me to avoid taking the same routes, recommended that I should change my schedule and routine, to protect myself from possible attacks from the economic sectors involved in the issue I’m working on”.

The mother of two kids, she has a master’s, doctorate and post-doctorate degree in Human Geography. 

“This is the greatest symbol of the [agribusiness] scandal and proves that this sector doesn’t feed the population. The price of food fluctuates according to the international market. It’s a logic not geared towards food security and sovereignty,” she says.

“It’s an agricultural practice that doesn’t feed us. Hunger has increased in the last ten years,” says Bombardi, comparing the growth figures for agribusiness in Brazil with those for hunger.

“We’re not feeding the Brazilian population,” she concluded.

Bombardi’s book was launched in Brazil on July 24 at Armazém do Campo in São Paulo. 

The event was attended by TV host Bela Gil and popular communicator Guilherme Terreri, also known as Rita von Hunty, who was invited to join the debate with Larissa. 

The book is available on the publisher’s website and at the Expressão Popular bookstore.