Science and the Green Revolution in the Brazilian Amazon: The Establishment of Embrapa during of the Civilian-Military Dictatorship and the Emergence of Environmental Movements (1972-1991)

The Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), known by the acronym Embrapa, was established in 1972 under Brazil’s civilian-military dictatorship with the purpose of fostering agricultural modernization through the incorporation of the Green Revolution’s technology package, which included reliance on chemical inputs and high-yielding hybrid seeds and the mechanization of production. This article explores the context in which the agency was established and its scientific research agenda for Brazilian agriculture, while also examining both the influence of emerging environmentalist movements on discussions of the economic exploitation of the Amazon as well as the agency’s profile during the period of redemocratization in Brazil. The focus of our analysis is on the agency branch known as the Humid Tropics Agricultural Research Center (Centro de Pesquisa Agropecuária do Trópico Úmido, or CPATU), which opened in Belém, Pará, in 1975. The text follows the path of the CPATU through 1991, when it became the Eastern Amazon Agroforestry Research Center (Centro de Pesquisa Agroflorestal da Amazônia Oriental), now Embrapa Eastern Amazon (Embrapa Amazônia Oriental).The Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), known by the acronym Embrapa, was established in 1972 under Brazil’s civilian-military dictatorship with the purpose of fostering agricultural modernization through the incorporation of the Green Revolution’s technology package, which included reliance on chemical inputs and high-yielding hybrid seeds and the mechanization of production. This article explores the context in which the agency was established and its scientific research agenda for Brazilian agriculture, while also examining both the influence of emerging environmentalist movements on discussions of the economic exploitation of the Amazon as well as the agency’s profile during the period of redemocratization in Brazil. The focus of our analysis is on the agency branch known as the Humid Tropics Agricultural Research Center (Centro de Pesquisa Agropecuária do Trópico Úmido, or CPATU), which opened in Belém, Pará, in 1975. The text follows the path of the CPATU through 1991, when it became the Eastern Amazon Agroforestry Research Center (Centro de Pesquisa Agroflorestal da Amazônia Oriental), now Embrapa Eastern Amazon (Embrapa Amazônia Oriental).The Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), known by the acronym Embrapa, was established in 1972 under Brazil’s civilian-military dictatorship with the purpose of fostering agricultural modernization through the incorporation of the Green Revolution’s technology package, which included reliance on chemical inputs and high-yielding hybrid seeds and the mechanization of production. This article explores the context in which the agency was established and its scientific research agenda for Brazilian agriculture, while also examining both the influence of emerging environmentalist movements on discussions of the economic exploitation of the Amazon as well as the agency’s profile during the period of redemocratization in Brazil. The focus of our analysis is on the agency branch known as the Humid Tropics Agricultural Research Center (Centro de Pesquisa Agropecuária do Trópico Úmido, or CPATU), which opened in Belém, Pará, in 1975. The text follows the path of the CPATU through 1991, when it became the Eastern Amazon Agroforestry Research Center (Centro de Pesquisa Agroflorestal da Amazônia Oriental), now Embrapa Eastern Amazon (Embrapa Amazônia Oriental)

Amazônia brasileira, celeiro do mundo: ciência, agricultura e ecologia no Instituto Agronômico do Norte nos anos 1940 e 1950

This article addresses scientific research conducted at the Agronomic Institute of the North (IAN), an institution created under the Brazilian government’s developmentalist policy to promote the agricultural use of the Amazon in the 1940s and 1950s. We place special emphasis on the research related to the so-called “forest ecosystem theory”, developed at the institute by the German limnologist Harald Sioli, which guided the following institutional research agenda during those decades: polyculture, the excavation of siltation channels along the Amazon river, the cultivation of food crops, and the buffalo ranching. The IAN projected the Amazon to be the breadbasket of the world and a solution to world hunger. The main instrument of this transformation would be the knowledge of its ecology.O artigo analisa as pesquisas científicas realizadas no Instituto Agronômico do Norte (IAN), instituição criada pela política desenvolvimentista do governo brasileiro para a utilização agrícola da Amazônia nas décadas de 1940 e 1950. Discutimos especialmente as pesquisas relacionadas à chamada “teoria do ecossistema florestal”, desenvolvida pelo limnologista alemão Harald Sioli na instituição. A teoria orientou a agenda de pesquisa do IAN naquelas décadas: policultura, construção de canais de colmatagem no rio Amazonas, aproveitamento de áreas de várzea para a produção de alimentos, e o desenvolvimento da bubalinocultura nas terras firmes da região. O IAN projetava a Amazônia como celeiro do mundo e solução para a fome planetária. O principal instrumento dessa transformação seria o conhecimento de sua ecologia

A ciência como profissão : médicos, bacharéis e cientistas no Brasil (1895-1935)

O livro aborda o processo de especialização da atividade intelectual no Brasil durante as três primeiras décadas do século XIX, ao mesmo tempo em que analisa a emergência do ´cientista´ nesse processo, no qual já se anunciava o divórcio entre as ´humanidades´e as ´ciências duras´