Industrial production of beef, soybeans, cotton, and biofuels is expanding into the tropical latitudes of South America and may soon reach tropical Africa in the most important agricultural transition since the Green Revolution. This shift is driven by the shortage of land suitable for expansion of cultivation and grazing in the temperate zone, increased global demands for agricultural commodities, the rising price of petroleum, and technological advances.
At risk are some of the world’s most ecologically and culturally-rich landscapes in the world, such as the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado woodland complex, and African savannas. A strategy for reducing the negative ecological and social impacts of this transition could harness the rising environmental and social standards imposed by many importers and purchasers of agricultural commodities, similar reforms underway among “Equator” banks, growing corporate governance, and Brazil’s prominence in international diplomacy. Integrated certification of commodity sanitation, compliance with rigorous environmental standards, and sound labor practices could become the norm for participation in commodity markets. These reforms in agro-industrial behavior could be reinforced by trade agreements and strategic support from non-governmental organizations.