Tom Maguire
JustOneMinute
5/27/2011
The NY Times tells us China, the new colonialists, and their relationship with Brazil:
China’s Interest in Farmland Makes Brazil Uneasy
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
URUAÇU, Brazil — When the Chinese came looking for more soybeans here last year, they inquired about buying land — lots of it.
Officials in this farming area would not sell the hundreds of thousands of acres needed. Undeterred, the Chinese pursued a different strategy: providing credit to farmers and potentially tripling the soybeans grown here to feed chickens and hogs back in China.
…
“They are moving in,” said Carlo Lovatelli, president of the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries. “They are looking for land, looking for reliable partners. But what they would like to do is run the show alone.”
While many welcome the investments, the aggressive push comes as Brazilian officials have begun questioning the “strategic partnership” with China encouraged by former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Chinese have become so important to Brazil’s economy that it cannot do without them — and that is precisely what is making Brazil increasingly uneasy.
“One thing the world can be sure of: there is no going back,” Mr. da Silva said while visiting Beijing in 2009…
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