Thursday, August 16, 2007

Regarding the July 31 Business article "Losing Forests to Fuel Cars":

The firm Adecoagro is widely recognized for its environmentally sound practices. We have an explicit policy of not clearing native vegetation, and we don't subcontract to farmers who do. Adecoagro restores land surrounding springs, streams, wetlands, steep hills, hilltops and other sensitive areas. As part of this program, we are restoring and setting aside reserves equal to 20 percent of our farmland, as Brazilian law requires. Finally, our ethanol projects are in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, not in the Cerrado.

Regarding concern that converting land to grow sugar cane pushes ranchers into the Cerrado: In our experience, this is not occurring. On the contrary, we see that as ranchers lease land for sugar cane and see property values rise, they invest in efficiency, keeping the same herds on less land.

Brazilian ranchers have historically been very inefficient because of the low value of land. This is changing fast with the expansion of agriculture.

Brazilian agriculture has faced rough times in recent decades -- having to compete with rich countries that subsidize their less efficient farmers.

The growth of biofuels could be a turning point in this struggle, leading to less predatory practices in the future.

MARCELO VIEIRA

Sugar and Ethanol Manager

Adecoagro

Sao Paulo, Brazil