Agrarian policy in the Bolsonaro government: the contradictions between the expansion of agribusiness, the advance of hunger and anti-environmentalism

Agribusiness has never left the scene and, in recent decades, there are no setbacks, it is expanding towards the Cerrado, the Amazon and the Pantanal. Always deforesting and eliminating what prevents and questions its unrestrained growth. After all, for there to be expansion it is necessary to have available territories (often treated as idle, empty) to be appropriated. This was the case in the heyday of the so-called progressive governments, which benefited from the commodity boom and continues today in the midst of a time of economic, political, health and social crisis. However, we live in a particular moment: the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been plaguing the entire globe since the beginning of 2020 and which is used by the Brazilian government to "passar a boiada". Thus, the objective of this article is to point out elements that allow reflection on how the government of Jair Messias Bolsonaro (without a party) in such a short term has strongly impacted the agrarian and environmental issue. This text comprises the presentation of number 58 of Revista NERA, which has ten important contributions on the complexity and multiscale nature of the agrarian question.

The "passar a boiada" on the Brazilian agrarian question in times of pandemic

The new Coronavirus pandemic has made a structural issue in Brazil more explicit: the pair inseparable concentration and inequality. If all the dimensions of life affected by the consequences of the pandemic and the negativity surrounding the virus were not enough, the Brazilian government took the time to "passar a boiada", that is, to send/approve reforms that, at least theoretically, need a broad debate on the part of society. This scenario is marked by contradictions, as at the same time that agribusiness advances, there is an increase in food insecurity, the latter being essential in combating the effects of the pandemic. The resistances are also renewed/recreated and the power of the feed is once again placed in the center. The purpose of this text is to highlight the contradictions of the narrative around the need to expand agribusiness and how, in times of pandemic, it takes the opportunity to forward/approve measures of general interest, especially related to the environmental/land issue. Although they are not directly related to the pandemic theme, the articles in issue 56 of Revista NERA show the multiplicity of the agrarian question, beyond the peasantry and in different regions of this country of continental dimensions.