What is it about?
The article explains how Brazil has become an important player in the global food regime. The internationalization of Brazilian agribusiness is identified as an important trajectory behind Brazil’s current influential role in the global food regime. The two main causes of this internationalization are: the building of a domestic historical coalition between the Brazilian state and local agrarian elites, and the current transition of the global food regime. The main objective of the article is to propose a frame of analysis to interpret the emergence of new global actors in the new global food regime. Based on the “global history” idea that historical trajectories have both a local and a global component, the article advances a typology of strategies that countries and other actor follow in the food regime. There are four strategies that actors adopt to participate in the food regime: internationalization; transnationalization; parochialization; and centralization. Brazil embraced two strategies, namely, internationalization (the focus of the article) and transnationalization. While internationalization has "state activism" as an important component in the production and commercialization of food, transnationalization relies on the role of multinational corporations to create transnational spaces to produce and commercialize in large scale.
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Why is it important?
The article is important to understand the latest developments in the global food regime through the case of Brazil. Brazil embraced two strategies in the global food regime, namely internationalization (the focus o the article) and transnationalization. While internationalization has state activism as an important component in the production and commercialization of food, transnationalization relies on the role of multinational corporations to create transnational spaces to produce and commercialize in large scale. The case of Brazil helps to conceptualize the current phase of the global food regime on several fronts. First, the active participation of Brazil in the current food regime shows the importance of domestic coalition-making for global actions and strategies. Second, the case of Brazil suggests that the state remains, despite the widening constellation of actors, a critical coordinating actor capable of accommodating different preferences and building common strategies. Lastly, Brazil shows that countries can simultaneously harbor different strategies to participate in international regimes, exemplified by their internationalization strategy under state-agrarian elites, as well as their transnationalization, which mainly relies on international corporations Normatively, the article contributed with a framework of analysis that helps to assess the current changes and the dynamics in the emerging global food regime. Empirically, the article helps to understand the role of emerging countries in the changing global food regime.
Perspectives
The article attempts to understand the global food regime from the domestic transformation of Brazilian agriculture. As the article observes, the internationalization of Brazilian agriculture is a reflection of the coalition between domestic state and non-state actors, which, from a global historical approach, allows us to better understand the local-global connection. The article argues that internationalization has a strong domestic element: a coalition between the state and the agrarian elites. This coalition started to be forged in the 1950s and has lasted until today. The state-agrarian coalition fulfilled two main functions: aligned diverse preferences and accommodated conflict in Brazil. However, these functions could only be realized with a strong state activism. State activism means that the state exercises a steering role in the provision of credit for the agrarian elites, open channels of communication for the elites to influence state bureaucrats, create a set of policies favorable to the agrarian elites, among others. The segments of agribusiness in which internationalization occurred through state activism have been more technologically competitive and innovative, which has been critical for Brazil’s growing prominence in the global food regime. State activism in Brazilian agricultural sector went through different stages. Starting in the 1960s the state started to provide credit to the agricultural sectors as the growing urban population increasingly relied on the domestic food production. In the 1970s the state invests in research and development initiating a period of modernization of the agricultural. In the 1980s and 1990s credit is slowly withdrawn but incentives to the agricultural sector remain strong. In the 2000s, through state activism, the Brazilian Bank of National Development (BNDES) provided ample credit for Brazilian national champions (e.g., JBS, BRF, Marfrig) in the food sectors to engage in mergers and acquisitions abroad. From 2005 to 2009 the BNDES disbursed approximately US$8 billion to three food processing companies, namely JBS, BRF, Marfrig. Generally speaking, the internationalization of Brazilian agribusiness succeeded as it allowed the modernization of sector, the increase of market share of Brazilian products in the food regime, and the possibility for Brazil to use food production and consumption to meet its geopolitical interests.
Dr. Helder Ferreira Do Vale
XianJiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU)
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Local-global linkages in the food regime: global history and the internationalization of Brazilian agribusiness, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, December 2018, FapUNIFESP (SciELO),
DOI: 10.1590/0034-7329201800110.
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