When agribusiness is interested in organic production: the contradictions of the sugar cane sector in the South of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

As a contradictory and limited response to the various environmental and social liabilities that agribusiness – the current face of agrarian capitalism – has generated in recent decades, we are currently witnessing the emergence of organic production experiences by companies in this sector. These new dynamics have been moved by investors interested in financial market movements. Such actions functioned as part of the reform of some of the operating procedures of agrarian capitalism, without foreseeing changes in agriculture and food. In this article, we evaluate the example of Usina Monte Alegre (ADECOAGRO), which is the main representative of the sugar-energy sector in the south of Minas Gerais, a region recognized for its role in coffee production. The article is the result of several fieldwork carried out between 2018 and 2020, document analysis, and systematization of secondary data, especially through the elaboration of maps. We demonstrate that, despite being one of the only production units in Brazil to promote a productive circuit that aims to be sustainable, this ADECOAGRO unit reproduces the contradictions of the process of commodification of food and natural goods that has characterized neoliberalism, as it has as its backdrop guaranteeing income from the land and obtaining increased profits as a way of meeting the interests of shareholders.