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Journalism of Courage
When Brian Willott moved to these central Brazilian plains to fulfil his dream of farming, there was much to remind him of the home he left in the American heartland.
The sign at the end of a dirt lane proclaimed his rented land Fazenda Kansas, Portuguese for 8220;Kansas Farm.8221; The flat fields stretching to the horizon teemed with cotton and soybeans. Billboards boasted familiar names such as Cargill, Monsanto and John Deere.
Willott belongs to a small but growing number of us farmers who are moving to this South American nation in the same way that European migrants settled the American plains generations ago. Like their ancestors, these pioneers see opportunity in the wide-open spaces of an up-and-coming agricultural powerhouse and the chance to earn better returns than they could at home.
But they are also finding obstacles in unfamiliar language, a bare-knuckles frontier culture and their own naivete. As if the learning curve weren8217;t steep enough, Brazil8217;s agricultural sector is mired in the worst slump in decades. A strong real, Brazil8217;s national currency, is punishing farm exports. High oil prices have raised production costs. Prices for soybeans and cotton have fallen from lofty levels of a few years ago.
8220;There was all this hype and exaggerated optimism about Brazil,8221; said Pat Westhoff, an associate professor of agriculture at the University of Missouri who has studied the region. 8220;There isn8217;t the fantastic short-term growth that people expected.8221;
Some American farmers already have packed it in. But Willott, who has yet to turn a profit since landing in 2003, said he was staying put. The former agricultural economist believes that, despite its current woes, Brazil one day might supplant the United States as the world8217;s biggest farm producer.
In the meantime, he is tackling problems that can8217;t be solved by any computer model, such as how to ask out a Brazilian woman without getting slapped. His advice: Throw out those grammatically stilted Portuguese language tapes that neglect to mention that a common dining term can be vulgar in everyday usage.
8220;I8217;m learning lessons that I didn8217;t necessarily want to learn,8221; said Willott, 34. 8220;But it8217;s an adventure.8221;
In Brazil, land ready to farm can be had for 750 an acre and virgin soil for 100 or less an acre. And there is plenty of it. Nearly 100 million acres of scrub land known as cerrado in Brazil8217;s interior have been converted into productive farm ground, most in the past 25 years. It8217;s the world8217;s biggest addition of arable land since homesteaders plowed the American prairie. But unlike the us Midwest, the cerrado isn8217;t close to being settled. Yet Brazil is already an agricultural superpower: Farm products represent 40 percent of the nation8217;s exports.
With a climate that allows producers to plant two or three crops a year, Brazil is attracting millions of dollars from us investors looking to cash in. Hundreds of farmers in the United States have pooled their money to buy Brazilian farmland, hiring managers to run the operations. Others have come themselves.
But the gold rush has yet to yield the riches that many sought. Brazilians and some early American farmers here say the newcomers were gullible and cocky, overpaying for land and assuming that whatever worked in Iowa was going to cut it in Brazil. Investors say promoters peddled an idealized view of the country, neglecting to mention the grinding bureaucracy, heavy taxes, corruption, rickety infrastructure, tense labour relations and snarled land records.
8220;This isn8217;t for the faint of heart,8221; said Illinois lawyer Paul Idlas, who is battling to extricate his Brazilian farm from competing title claims. He said many of the so-called experts that gave him advice either didn8217;t know what they were talking about, were taking kickbacks from the sellers, or both. 8220;It8217;s hard to know where the stupidity ends and the dishonesty begins,8221; he said.
Still, few dispute Brazil8217;s long-term potential.
Willott, who grew up on a farm in Missouri and earned a master8217;s degree in agricultural economics, said he got a close-up look at how Brazil was reshaping global production during his work for a think tank at the University of Missouri, his alma mater. 8220;If there was something happening in the commodities markets in Chicago, usually it was related 8230; to something happening in Brazil,8221; he said. 8220;It8217;s the biggest story in 100 years.8221;
Willott is determined to succeed. He and his partners just rented a 1,400-acre spread and are scouting for additional acreage. Soybean season has begun, and cotton planting is just around the corner. He is mulling over expansion into eucalyptus and sugar cane. With land prices down and so many farmers in trouble, Willott said this might be the time to buy.
8220;I rearranged my whole life to farm in Brazil,8221; he said. 8220;I8217;m not coming home empty-handed.8221;
