Soybeans, poverty and inequality in the Brazilian Amazon
Open accessAbstract
Using a mixed-method approach of econometric and ethnographic field research, this article examines the social and economic costs and benefits of increases in soybean production in the Brazilian Amazon. Statistical analysis suggests that increased soy production both reduces poverty indicators and raises median rural incomes, but is also associated with increased measures of inequality. Qualitative fieldwork sheds light on the wider political and social causes and consequences of this increasing inequality, pointing to ethnic differences between large soy farmers and local populations that raise long standing prejudices and tensions.
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Soy cultivation is associated with increased household incomes but also increased inequality among producers.
“Yet, the soy cultivation is associated with increased household incomes but also increased inequality among producers (Weinhold et al., 2013 andLapola et al., 2014).”
From Transition in environmental governance in the Brazilian Amazon: emergence of a new pattern of socio-economic development and deforestation (2016) · cites this paper as Weinhold et al., 2013
The paper measures growth in median rural household income (table, p. 19) and reports an association between soy and increased rural inequality (section 3b, p. 12). But its inequality finding concerns rural populations in municipalities, not inequality specifically among soy producers. The Amazon inequality estimates are also only marginally significant for soy growth. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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- Andersen, Lykke E., Clive W. J. Granger, Eustaquio J. Reis, Diana Weinhold and Sven Wunder, 2002, The Dynamics of Deforestation and Economic Growth in the Brazilian Amazon, Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press. Bickel, Ulrike & Jan Maarten Dros, 2003, The Impacts of Soybean Cultivation on Brazilian Ecosystems, WWF Forest Conversion Initiative. Brandão, A.S.P., Gervásio Castro de Rezende and Roberta Wanderley da Costa Marques, 2005, Agricultural Growth In The Period 1999-2004, Outburst In Soybeans Area And Environmental Impacts In Brazil, Rio De Janeiro. Brown, J. Christopher, Matthew Koeppe, Benjamin Coles and Kevin P. Price, 2005, Soybean Production and Conversion of Tropical Forest in the Brazilian Amazon: The Case of Vilhena, Rondônia, in Ambio , Vol. 34, No. 6: 462--469 Brown, L. R. 2004. Outgrowing the Earth: the food security challenge in an age of falling water tables and rising temperatures. New York, NY: W. W. Norton Diaz, M. del C. V., R. Kaufmann, D. Nepstad, and P. Schlesinger. 2006. Soybean yield in the Amazon Basin: climatic, edaphic, and economic determinants. Agricultural Economics Diegues, Antonio Carlos, 1992, The Social Dynamics of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: An Overview, (UNRISD) Discussion Paper No. 36, July 1992. Fearnside, P.M., 2001, Can Pasture intensification discourage deforestation in the Amazon and Pantanal regions of Brazil?, in C.H. Wood (ed.), Patterns and Processes of Land Use and Forest Change in the Amazon , Gainesville, FL.: University Presses of Florida. Fisher, William H., 2007, Surrogate Money, Technology, and the Expansion of Savanna Soybeans in Brazil. In Rethinking Environmental History: World- System History and Global Environmental Change , edited by Alf Hornborg, J. R. McNeill, and Joan Martinez--Alier. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press. Pp. 345-360 Greenpeace, 2006, Eating up the Amazon , London: Greenpeace. Helfand, S. and L. Brunstein, 2001, 'The Changing Structure of the Brazilian Agricultural Sector and the Limitations of the 1995/96 Agricultural Census,' Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural , Vol. 39, No. 3, July/Sept., pp. 179--203. Kaimowitz, David & Joyotee Smith, 2001, Soybean Technology and the loss of natural vegatation in Brazil and Bolivia, in Arild Angelson and David Kaimowitz (eds.), Agricultural Technologies and Tropical Deforestation, Wallingford UK: CAB International. Pp.195--211. Kaimowitz, David, Benoit Mertens, Sven Wunder & Pablo Pacheco, 2004, Hamburger Connection Fuels Amazon Destruction: Cattle ranching and deforestation in Brazil's Amazon, Center for International Forestry Research.
- Ecological, economic, and climatic tipping points of an Amazon forest dieback. Phil. Trans. Royal Society B doi:10.1098/rstb.2007.0036 Nepstad, Daniel C., Claudia M. Stickler & Oriana T. Almeida, 2006, Globalization of the Amazon Soy and Beef Industries: Opportunities for Conservation, in Conservation Biology , Vol.20/6:1595--1603. Steward, Corrina, 2007, From colonization to ''environmental soy'': A case study of environmental and socio--economic valuation in the Amazon soy frontier, in Agriculture and Human Values, 24:107-122 Warnken, Philip F., 1999, The Development and Growth of the Soybean Industry in Brazil, Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press Xavier, M. R. 2007. The Brazilian sugarcane ethanol experience. Issue analysis No.3. Washington, DC: Competitive Enterprise Institute. · DOI · Paper page
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Garrett, R. D., Gardner, T. A., Morello, T. F., Marchand, S., Barlow, J., Ezzine de Blas, D., Ferreira, J., Lees, A. C., & Parry, L. (2017) · Ecology and Society · doi:10.5751/es-09364-220327 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
Tritsch, I., & Arvor, D. (2016) · Land Use Policy · doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.09.018 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
- Authors
- Weinhold, D., Killick, E., & Reis, E. J.
- Affiliations
- London School of Economics and Political Science (GB)
- University of Sussex (GB)
- Institute of Applied Economic Research (BR)
- Venue
- World Development
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-12
- Volume
- 52
- Pages
- 132-143
- ISSN
- 0305-750X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1513984601
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 5.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Licence
- Locations
- World Development (publishedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (acceptedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Theses Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Sussex Research Online (University of Sussex) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Latin American rural development
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Rural Development and Agriculture
- Keywords
- soybean production, poverty, income inequality, Brazilian Amazon, rural income, ethnic differences, local population, agricultural expansion
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