Advances and Contradictions in Organic Farm Policy in Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil

Abstract

Three cases are presented which involve organic agriculture practiced in Mato Grosso do Sul, a state dominated by conventional productivist agribusiness. Organic cattle raising is undertaken by large ranchers in the Pantanal wetlands. Agroecological and organic cropping is practiced by small farmers in rural and urban settings on the Cerrado savanna plateau alongside conventional agribusiness. Ranchers and rural farmers each set up collective associations endogenously which engaged multi-scale actors with the express purpose of developing appropriate agroecological methods and accessing high-value quality markets. Recently, both associations have explored promising opportunities in carbon markets. The urban and peri-urban farmers were merely enlisted into a top-down project that transferred technology to passive coop members who did not participate in managing productive and marketing activities. They never became proactive and their coop eventually failed.