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How has Brazil become the world's second largest soybean producer? The history of this culture, which, with its advantages and disadvantages, is today one of the main economic engines of the country, crosses that of Japanese, Polish and German immigration.
Illustration dated 1896, attributed to the United States Department of Agriculture, shows soybean feet; plant native to Asia
For these immigrants, the land of Brazil was literally, at the beginning of the twentieth century, a source of new wealth – which definitively transformed the direction of the country. Originally from Asia, soybeans began to be sown on an experimental basis in different parts of the Brazilian territory.
In São Paulo, for example, Japanese immigrants cultivated small-scale grains for family consumption of foods derived from this fundamental element of Japanese cuisine. In the Rio Grande do Sul, Germans and Poles experimented with the plant in light of the economic potential of soybeans – which, however, was to reach only a few decades later.
In the early days of Japanese immigration, soybean was not a priority product from the economic point of view, but it had a culture small scale for family consumption | Photo: Collection of the Historical Museum of Japanese Immigration in Brazil
The plant encounter with the trajectory of the Poles in particular is part of an ongoing research of historian Rhuan Trindade, PhD student at the UFPR (Federal University of Paraná) .
Inspired by this study, BBC News Brazil researched researchers who were also interested in the link between soybean and Japanese and German immigration. Check below.
An intellectual for a new homeland
Ceslau Biezanko in 1920 photo; intellectual came to Brazil from the Polish government | Image: Rhuan Trindade / Collection of Edmundo Gardolinski
Photo: BBC News Brazil
As a master, Trindade specifically studied the trajectory of the Polish agronomist Ceslau Biezanko (1895-1986).
The intellectual was sent to Brazil by the Polish government in the 1930s and, a few years later, in 1963, he was recognized by the Brazilian government as the soybean introducer in Rio Grande do Sul, more precisely in the city of Guarani das Missões. Today, Biezanko worked in partnership with Polish pastors, schools, badociations and farmers, with the aim of creating a large destination for Polish immigrants from the South
. Improve the lives of settlers. . In this project, the intellectual regarded soybeans as "an important source of new income and future prosperity", as evidenced by one of his articles, written in 1958.
"He departed from "An Enlightenment presupposition badociating the improvement of society with education and technique," Trinity told BBC News Brazil by telephone. "Biezanko has the profile of the nineteenth-century intellectual who ends up talking about several areas: he studied seven different sciences, writing articles ranging from botany to chemistry and economics. in the reality of society through political and social actions. "
The arrival of the agronomist in Brazil, as many of his compatriots, has a direct link with the history of Poland at this time. From the late 18th century, the country ceased to exist and its territory was dominated at different times by Russia, extinct Prussia and Austria. It was an interval marked by conflict and poverty, which stimulated the waves of migration.
Brazil, in turn, encouraged settlement by European aliens in order to encourage food production for the domestic market. From the 1870s, Polish peasant families occupied the southern states. This phenomenon intensifies in 1890 in the period called "goraczka brazijliska" or "Brazilian fever".
Meanwhile, under the Russian regime, many people from the territory of present-day Poland were sent to fight during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). The conflict has been debated in Chinese areas, which has probably put Europeans in contact with soybeans, which are later imported into Europe.
According to Trinity, with the independence of Poland in 1918, the recovered country is trying to strengthen its emigrants with, for example, sending intellectuals.
Unrealized Potential
In his mission, Ceslau Biezanko bets mainly on the introduction, in Guarani Missions, of the silkworm, which is also a Chinese product.
But it seems that the agronomist has also introduced 12 other varieties of soya.
"One interviewee, who was elderly at the time of our conversation, told us that her sister had received a handful of soybeans to take home to her essayist," says Rhuan Trindade.
"Initially, this introduction of soy was precarious, there were no lines of communication for the trade and no buyers, so it was used for the ration, mainly pork, except that An excess of soy in the diet caused scaling of bones in pigs. "
Monument in the honor of Ceslau Biezanko in Guarani das Missões; the memory of the Poles has been resumed with the boom of soy
It is possible that this unsuccessful experience contributed, in 1934, to the departure of Biezanko de Guarani from the Missions.
Photo: Rhuan Trindade / BBC News Brazil
The escalation of internal conflicts within the Polish community is another reason. In the following years, the agronomist devoted himself to academic life in Pelotas (RS), place of his death.
In the following decades, the scope of soybeans remains limited, even if, for example, family businesses start working in grain processing – for example, bran and oils. Everything changes between the 60s and the 70s – but before you get there, you have to go back in time to find out how processed soybeans in Japan are processed in Brazil.
A Basic Food
Coffee has attracted thousands of Japanese immigrants to Brazil | Photo: Collection of the Historical Museum of Japanese Immigration in Brazil
From 1908, Brazil has hosted such a large Japanese immigrant population that it now estimates that there are 1.5 million citizens of this descent, according to the Consulate General. from Japan to São Paulo. Largely, they came to work in the coffee plantations of the state of São Paulo.
But if coffee was a means of survival, the first wave of Japanese families has already planted soybeans at home for their own consumption – grain is a fundamental part of Japanese cooking, for foods like shoyu, tofu and miso. However, from an economic point of view, in São Paulo, coffee had more demand on the market and a more favorable soil and climate than soy.
Agronomist graduated from the Luiz School of Agriculture in Queiroz, USP, Isidoro But Yamanaka, son of Japanese, tells us that this artisbad production would make the jump only in the food industry in the 1970s. And Yamanaka , who is now 83, has witnessed this trajectory – he has negotiated several agreements between governments and farmers' cooperatives in Brazil. and Japan and, in the 1970s and 1980s, coordinated programs of the Ministry of Agriculture and Finance.
President Ernesto Geisel travels to Minas Gerais for a visit to the heart of a Cerrado exploration project | Photo: Collection of the Historical Museum of Japanese Immigration in Brazil
It was in 1973 and US President Richard Nixon temporarily imposed an embargo on the export of grain from the United States, including Japan. United States and control price inflation.
"The Japanese depend on soy, which is a desperation.In 75, they immediately sent 29 missions, composed of more than ten people, from Japan to Brasilia for cooperation in the production of soybeans.Yamanaka, who has accompanied by some of these missions as advisor to the office of the Secretariat of Agriculture of São Paulo.
After visiting Brazil from north to south, the missions decided to make Cerrado a priority region for the culture of the country. Soybeans and other food products.
Paracatu, in Minas Gerais, was the scenario of Prodecer's pilot project – which, in addition to mobilizing producers of Japanese origin, also attracted Rio Grande farmers do Sul.
Soybeans are an Essential Ingredient in Japanese Cuisine
Photo: Getty Images / BBC News Brazil
The Soy Boom
The Cerrado is one of the main stages, so far, of soybean planting. But in the 1960s, other factors contributed to the emergence of the South in this sector.
In addition to external demand, genetic improvement and mechanization programs in agriculture have also contributed to the advancement of this crop.
As a result, annual production increased from only 206 000 tonnes in 1960 to 1.5 million tonnes in 1970. In the 2017/18 harvest, Brazil produced 117 million tonnes of soybean .
"It is northeast of the state of Rio Grande do Sul as the big soybean boom begins: it's undeniable.The area becomes a large monoculture of soybeans in small properties producing for the foreign market the consumption of inputs, the mechanization of cultivation and the correction of limestone in the soil ", explains Rhuan Trindade. "The soybean boom in the 1960s and 1970s is directly related to European immigration."
This golden moment for soy nevertheless brings two European origins into conflict over the "paternity" of grain immersion in Brazil – a fundamental element of historian's research. Alongside the Poles of Guarani das Missões, the Germans of Santa Rosa, also in Rio Grande do Sul
The leaders found in soy the potential for improving the lives of settlers in their communities in Brazil
With a scenario similar to the first soya experiments at Guarani in Santa Rosa, the Lutheran pastor and American Alberto Lehenbauer introduced the grain into the small village.
"The shepherd traveled to the United States in the 1920s and soy was the most successful," says historian Teresa Neumann Christensen, who has been studying soybeans for years, particularly in the region. of Santa Rosa. "The situation was so sad, because of the poverty of the marshes and the malnourished children." The pastor felt that soy could solve this problem, then he would issue periodic recipes with the grain, to help with the organization of the planting. "
It was important that not only did soya arrive in Santa Rosa, but also the socialization it promoted, the region had a very strong Lutheranism, so the figure of this pastor was of paramount importance. solidarity and the prevention of malnutrition. "
According to the historian, Lehenbauer was an American but the son of Germans. After his mission to Santa Rosa, he was transferred to Argentina.
Meanwhile, in Santa Rosa, soybean growth has been modest but steady over the years. It has been progressively accompanied by the arrival of equipment such as seed drills and forklifts, as well as by the formation of new chains, such as grains. In the 1970s, the soybean boom finally arrived.
Santa Rosa and Guarani das Missões now contest the title of "National Cradle of Soybeans" – the first of these only ending the fall of the arms that's in 2009, with the approval of 39, a draft of the state legislature, gaucho, formalizing the title. . Already in 1966, the establishment of the Soya National Feast (Fenasoja) in Santa Rosa, which had been organized periodically ever since, was another milestone in the conflict.
Santa Rosa Soy Memorial; Rio Grande do Sul city has won the title of "National Cradle of Soybean". | Photo: Santa Rosa City Hall
Photo: BBC News Brasil
At the same time, Guarani das Miss goes back to its history with soya – and the figure of Ceslau Biezanko is recalled. Trindade reminds that it is difficult to trace the origin of the introduction of grain and that even among Poles, there are also at least three other candidates for soybean introducers in Paraná.
"Scientifically, there is no elaborate answer, but the experience gained may have helped the next generation, because it is the region of Les Guarani des Missions that will experience this expansion in the 1970s. 39 is a big coincidence, "said Trindade.
According to researchers who studied the subject, families left the region, directing soybeans to the Brazilian Midwest and, more recently, to the Amazon.
"Wherever you go in Brazil, you find a person of German origin who grows soya," says Teresa Christensen. "Today, in Santa Rosa, there is already milk, corn and others, but soy is still the queen."
Other Aspects of History
Soybean planting on a grand scale is badociated with deforestation of the Cerrado and the Amazon
Photo: Getty Images / BBC News Brazil
The advancement of soybeans in Brazil sheds light on another facet of this story: that of the degradation of the environment.
Environmentalists often badociate this culture with the deforestation that marks the Cerrado and crawls towards the Amazon.
"We, historians and academics of Rio Grande do Sul, vigorously fight against more apologetic and more eloquent research of the ancestors, and we must try to go beyond this idea that the immigrant is the Great pioneer: it's also a story of deforestation of the Atlantic Forest, an exploration that has greatly damaged the soil of the region.This is a story that continues, "says Trindade.
If the past leaves traces in the present, some absences also say things. The Guarani name of the missions, for example, refers to the Jesuit missions which, in the 17th and 18th centuries, forced the Guarani Indians to be catechized. But where are these people in the last episodes of the twentieth century?
"European immigration to the South, along with a history of appreciation of European groups, is a story of eradication of indigenous communities and caboclos groups," says the historian.
"We can not not think of this as a Brazilian internal colonialism, which regarded the European immigrant as synonymous with progress and the indigenous and black presence as backward."
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