Concertation and power: Agribusiness as a political phenomenon in Brazil

Abstract

Due to the intensification of land disputes and socio-environmental conflicts in recent years, agribusiness agents in Brazil have expanded their political concertation in an organized and systematic manner. In this article, it is argued that this orchestration process engendered a new representativeness pattern in this field, better able to operate in the scope of broad issues such as environmental, indigenous, and labor topics. Proposing a concept to characterize this pattern, this article historicizes the political approximation movement between these agents, addresses their justificatory apparatus, examines conflicts and investigates the devices they employ to rationalize divergence handling and promote agreements. The research is based on eight months of fieldwork, mainly at the Instituto Pensar Agropecuaria, within the Brazilian National Congress, and the headquarters of the Brazilian Agriculture and Ranching Confederation.