Cultural practices in Brazilian agribusiness from the perspective of Behavior Analysis

Abstract

Agriculture is a labor category that permeates the history of humanity. However, over the centuries, the relationship of humankind with agriculture has changed. Such was the modernization of agricultural practices in Brazil that the term “agribusiness” emerged to designate agrarian capitalism. The way cultures deal with their resources (including food) is the object of study in sustainability. Therefore, it is relevant to understand how the Brazilian agricultural production model works and its consequences. This study aimed to propose an interpretative synthesis of cultural practice called “agribusiness” in Brazil. To this end, a search was conducted in February 2022 in the Scielo Brasil database with the following descriptors: “Agronegócio” and “Brasil” (Portuguese); ‘’Agribusiness’’ and ‘’Brazil’’(English). A total of 31 articles were selected. By consulting the literature found, we analyzed agribusiness from the three-term contingency to identify: a) antecedent contexts; b) cultural practices; and c) cultural consequences. Subsequently, the possible consequences in the short and long term resulting from agribusiness were described. The cultural practices and consequences produced by them were allocated in the following categories: political, economic, labor, social, sanitary, geographical, and environmental. From the material consulted, the following conditions stand out: search for food security in the country, creation of public policies to promote agribusiness, absence of labor supervision in rural areas, and encouraged use of pesticides. As cultural practices we found organization of agribusiness as a sector, new forms of food production, unequal occupation of productive land, excessive use of pesticides to accelerate food production, deforestation and burning to allow planting new crops, and livestock breeding. The short-term consequences include increased influence of agribusiness in the Brazilian political scenario, profit growth, increased food production and export, precarious work in the field, increased umber of land conflicts and violation of human rights, damage to the health of workers health and the general population by exposure to pesticides. Possible long-term consequences are also found, such as consolidation of the ruralist bench in municipal, state, and national governments, consolidation of agribusiness in Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), intensification of socioeconomic inequalities of precarious workers, increased deforestation, increased river pollution from pesticides, damage to the ecosystem. We hope that the discussions derived from this study can contribute to the Behavior Analysis debate on sustainable development, specifically in the area of food production.