Farming is easy, becoming Brazilian is hard

North American soy farmers' social values of production, work and land in Soylandia

Bibliographic Data

ID2157155
AuthorsAndrew Ofstehage, Andrew L Ofstehage (0000-0002-4502-364X, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume43
Issue2
Pages442-460
Publication date2016-03-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Peasant Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0306-6150 • E-ISSN: 1743-9361
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03066150.2014.998651
OpenAlexW1595026516
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited40

Since the late 1980s, North American farmers have been migrating to Brazil to produce soybeans and escape a general farm crisis in the United States. This paper analyzes their work, values, social relations and relations with the land in order to understand transnational farming and agrarian change from the perspective of transnational farmers. North Americans' migration to Brazil and soy production in Brazil can inform our understanding of the mechanisms of the soy boom and unpack the relative significance of social values at play in intensive, technified and financialized agriculture. It also provides an evocative perspective of the soy boom as it engages with issues of transnationalism, crisis, migration and change in business and farming practices. Using ethnographic data, this paper explores the intimate and emerging realities of agrarian change by detailing four elements of transnational farming - migration, farm management, land use and work - through the narration of three farmers' career histories. These cases address the transformation of social values of work, land and social relations through the processes of migration and agrarian change. Farmers' work, it is found, emerges out of an entanglement of regulations, expertise, meanings of work and land, worker relations and the political economy of Brazil and the United States

Agrarian society · Agriculture · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Geography · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

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