The challenges of peasant reproduction against the expansion of agrofuels, the Monte Alegre settlement: Araraquara-SP

Abstract

The current stage of development of capitalism, marked by intense changes initiated by the process of globalization of capital, brings strong consequences for the peasant populations. Inserted into this context is the advance of agrofuels in lands of agrarian reform, through mechanisms of subordination of peasant production by the agroenergetic complex. The significant growth of crops for energy production occurs at a time when agrofuels are seen as a solution for the future of the planet. Thus the advance of agribusiness in the field under the bias of agrofuels poses new challenges to rethink the Brazilian peasantry. In an attempt to reflect on this and other issues, this article builds an analysis about the reproduction of the Brazilian peasantry against the expansion of agrofuels, both sugarcane and oilseed cropsl, from a fragment perspective - the rural settlement Monte Alegre, located in the region known as the "Brazilian California", a modernized agriculture area, dominated by the sugar cane and orange crops.