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Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

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Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#91

Post by jessekv »

wolverine876 wrote: post #81
tirrellp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because 'Geopolitical Risk' is a thing. Its nice when you can buy $60/bushel wheat. Its not so nice when your dealer cuts you off. The extra $40/bushel you pay to produce in-house, thats your insurance policy against having your supplies cut off. In a world where geopolitical lines are shifting, it's a matter of national security and optionality to have your own food production capacity. Risk management.

That's not risk management, that's a panicked reaction. Risk management accepts risk, takes into account likelihood and cost, and finds the most economical outcome. Nationalism makes you poor.

Taking into account the most economical outcome in the short/medium term also can make your country or community poor in the long term. If you care about the future of where you live, its important to cultivate and support local industry, even when its more expensive.

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#93

Post by spaceman_2020 »

foobarian wrote: post #57
jasmer wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"would make Brazil a lot more stable economically (and even socially and politically) " It's the other way around. Brazil and Argentina especially should be rich, what's lacking is coherent social organization from top to bottom. Obviously it matters more at the top, but it has to be borne by regular people as well. Same could be said of other Central/South American nations, but geographic factors and natural resourc…

Why don't the states there organize into a southern United States? It feels silly to talk about self-sufficiency and all when the analog at country level is the USA states. Nobody would expect e.g. Rhode Island to feed itself, but thankfully there is the Midwest. Maybe Bolivar's dream could come true one day.

The geography really makes it hard to create a cohesive whole. The rainforest is almost impossible to traverse by road. It doesn’t help that the two largest countries, Brazil and Argentina, speak different languages.

It’s hard to bring people together when they speak different languages and have to take a plane or cross difficult terrain to meet each other.

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#94

Post by spaceman_2020 »

vitorgrs wrote: post #48

In the 80's, Embrapa (same research agency) discovered a way to grow Soy in the Midwest/cerrado... And that's how today Brazil is the largest soy exporter in the world. Before the 80's, soy was only grown in the South of Brazil (and Brazil imported soy at the time as I recall). Currently, wheat is also only grown in the South as well. Now, things are not simple. The wheat prices will need to be competitive to make fa…

The same country that imports Brazilian soy (China) also has a lot of appetite for wheat.

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#95

Post by walthamstow »

School-Cotton wrote: post #73
foobarian wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't the states there organize into a southern United States? It feels silly to talk about self-sufficiency and all when the analog at country level is the USA states. Nobody would expect e.g. Rhode Island to feed itself, but thankfully there is the Midwest. Maybe Bolivar's dream could come true one day.

The Latin American countries are probably too different to unify. Some are led by right-wing populists (El Salvador) and some by left-wing ones (Colombia, Brazil). Some are rich (Uruguay) and some are very poor (Nicaragua, Venezuela). Some are huge and powerful (Brazil and Mexico) and would be able to completely dominate the rest. Some are liberal democracies and some are one-party states. On the cultural level, they…

I think your first paragraph describes the EU/EEA too, or at least it did when Poland et al joined in 2004.

Germany and France (and the UK at the time) dominate. Poor nations like Poland and Greece with rich ones like Norway. Conservative countries like Hungary alongside progressive social democracies like France and Sweden.

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#96

Post by wodenokoto »

marcodiego wrote: post #26

There are a few things that would make Brazil a lot more stable economically (and even socially and politically) if we achieved self-sufficiency: Fossil fuels: Currently, Brazil is self-sufficient in oil, but we export petrol to buy back refined fuels (gasoline and diesel). If we were self-sufficient in fossil fuels we would be much more immune to inflation every time OPEC decides to reduce oil output. Wheat: We are…

Does Brazil send crude oil to opec for refining?

I’d thought refineries would be hungry for oil when opec decreases production and therefore be a net benefit for oil producers outside opec.

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#97

Post by londons_explore »

wodenokoto wrote: post #96
marcodiego wrote: post #26

There are a few things that would make Brazil a lot more stable economically (and even socially and politically) if we achieved self-sufficiency: Fossil fuels: Currently, Brazil is self-sufficient in oil, but we export petrol to buy back refined fuels (gasoline and diesel). If we were self-sufficient in fossil fuels we would be much more immune to inflation every time OPEC decides to reduce oil output. Wheat: We are…

Does Brazil send crude oil to opec for refining? I’d thought refineries would be hungry for oil when opec decreases production and therefore be a net benefit for oil producers outside opec.

It might be a net benefit, but distributing that wealth from oil producers to oil users within Brazil isn't easy. And when oil users see the price of their oil going up, that's what triggers inflation.

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#98

Post by irusensei »

lostlogin wrote: post #31
marcodiego wrote: post #26

There are a few things that would make Brazil a lot more stable economically (and even socially and politically) if we achieved self-sufficiency: Fossil fuels: Currently, Brazil is self-sufficient in oil, but we export petrol to buy back refined fuels (gasoline and diesel). If we were self-sufficient in fossil fuels we would be much more immune to inflation every time OPEC decides to reduce oil output. Wheat: We are…

> Fertilizers: The largest world food producer needs imported fertilizers. The irony: our main supplier is Russia. This basically prevents Brazil taking any side in the conflict and affects our (and our buyers) food prices as much as wheat. No, it means you can’t take a position without paying a cost. A lot of countries used to depend on Russia for various things, and they have paid a price to change this.

Brazil is not Europe. It’s not going to be some minor inconvenience like having people to take cold showers and virtual signal on the internet. There will be famine and the poorest people will die.

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#99

Post by matheusmoreira »

marcodiego wrote: post #26

There are a few things that would make Brazil a lot more stable economically (and even socially and politically) if we achieved self-sufficiency: Fossil fuels: Currently, Brazil is self-sufficient in oil, but we export petrol to buy back refined fuels (gasoline and diesel). If we were self-sufficient in fossil fuels we would be much more immune to inflation every time OPEC decides to reduce oil output. Wheat: We are…

> This basically prevents Brazil taking any side in the conflict and affects our (and our buyers) food prices as much as wheat.

Not at all. President Lula sided with China and Russia already. Dude loves communists. He even had Venezuelan dictator Maduro over for lunch.

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#100

Post by matheusmoreira »

gexla wrote: post #63
marcodiego wrote: post #26

There are a few things that would make Brazil a lot more stable economically (and even socially and politically) if we achieved self-sufficiency: Fossil fuels: Currently, Brazil is self-sufficient in oil, but we export petrol to buy back refined fuels (gasoline and diesel). If we were self-sufficient in fossil fuels we would be much more immune to inflation every time OPEC decides to reduce oil output. Wheat: We are…

> Wheat: We are the top of the world exporting foods. We produce 6x our current need. What? Source? Just some rough Google search results seem to consistently show China as #1 in production and the US being #1 in exports (and in the top 3 for production.) The first result I found showed Brazil as #4. Maybe you're ultimately correct, but you should show a source when making those claims (I'm not trying to make a claim…

https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2022/september/brazil-s...

> Brazil is

> the largest country in terms of arable land

> a top-5 producer of 34 agricultural commodities

> the largest agricultural net exporter

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