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´

The voice of Brazil: Miguel Pereira and his speech on the “enormous hospital”

Submitted by Maria Morais ([email protected]) on 2018-02-04T14:46:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 pdf80.pdf: 1894459 bytes, checksum: 9391f68d2a07789a1e638bb718ab9ea8 (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Maria Morais ([email protected]) on 2018-02-04T14:59:44Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 pdf80.pdf: 1894459 bytes, checksum: 9391f68d2a07789a1e638bb718ab9ea8 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2018-02-04T14:59:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 pdf80.pdf: 1894459 bytes, checksum: 9391f68d2a07789a1e638bb718ab9ea8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Casa de Oswaldo Cruz. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, BrasilEste trabalho reproduz e comenta importante fonte primária muito citada nos estudos em história da saúde no Brasil, mas pouco conhecida em sua integralidade. Trata-se do discurso do médico Miguel Pereira, proferido em outubro de 1916, e no qual se referiu à zona rural do país como 'um imenso hospital'. A interpretação consagrada dessa fonte é a de que sua repercussão teve persistente e decisiva influência em políticas públicas de saúde na primeira metade do século XX. Neste texto, aprofundo o conhecimento das circunstâncias históricas que geraram a elaboração dessa expressão-síntese dos 'males do Brasil', sobretudo no que se refere às discussões, então em curso, a respeito do recrutamento militar obrigatório e do Exército como 'escola de civismo'.The article reproduces and comments on an important primary source that is often cited in studies on Brazil's history of health but which few are familiar with in its entirety: the October 1916 speech by physician Miguel Pereira, in which he referred to rural Brazil as an "enormous hospital." The standard interpretation is that this source had a steady, decisive influence on public health policies in the first half of the twentieth century. In this text, I endeavor to deepen our knowledge of the historical circumstances which produced this expression that synthesized the 'evils of Brazil', especially in regard to the era's discussion of mandatory military recruitment and of the army as a 'civics school'

Interpreting Brazil as afflicted by disease and by the spirit of routine: the repercussion of Arthur Neiva and Belisário Penna’s medical report (1917-1935)

Submitted by Maria Morais ([email protected]) on 2018-02-04T16:47:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 pdf86.pdf: 292022 bytes, checksum: 981f78f45461c4897a1b3afec3b92d42 (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Maria Morais ([email protected]) on 2018-02-04T17:56:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 pdf86.pdf: 292022 bytes, checksum: 981f78f45461c4897a1b3afec3b92d42 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2018-02-04T17:56:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 pdf86.pdf: 292022 bytes, checksum: 981f78f45461c4897a1b3afec3b92d42 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Casa de Oswaldo Cruz. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, BrasilA divulgação do relatório da viagem científica promovida pelo Instituto Oswaldo Cruz em 1912 ao Norte e Nordeste do Brasil, realizada por Arthur Neiva e Belisário Penna, suscitou debates e ocupou espaço em revistas de letras e ciências. No documento, as populações do interior do país foram caracterizadas pelas imagens de doença, isolamento, geográfico e cultural, analfabetismo, pobreza e vocação para regredir. Essas imagens do sertão foram criticadas no periódico A Informação Goiana, editado por médicos que não admitiam ser o interior definido como 'doente' e 'atrasado'. Este artigo analisa as formas pelas quais o relatório Neiva-Penna se destacou e tornou-se referência para controvérsias intelectuais sobre a questão nacional no Brasil.The release of a report on the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz's 1912 scientific voyage to North and Northeast Brazil, led by physicians Arthur Neiva and Belisário Penna, debate that found its way to the pages of magazines of the letters and sciences. The report used the images of disease, geographic and cultural isolation, illiteracy, poverty, and a vocation for backwardness to portray the people living in interior Brazil. These images of the sertão were extensively criticized in the periodical A Informação Goiana, published by local doctors who refused to see the interior defined as 'sickly' and 'backwards'. The article analyzes the ways in which the Neiva-Penna report distinguished itself, becoming a reference for intellectual controversies surrounding the national question in Brazil