Brazil's environmentalist presidential candidate is now courting big agriculture
Brazil's environmentalist presidential candidate is now courting big agriculture
Longtime green activist Marina Silva has even come out in favor of genetically modified crops, sending a message that conservation and agribusiness can thrive together.
Reese Ewing, Reuters September 13, 2014 10:03
SAO PAULO, Brazil — Brazilian presidential candidate Marina Silva, an icon of the green movement, is cozying up to old adversaries in the sugar and ethanol industry as she seeks to win over the powerful farm lobby ahead of next month's election.
Since entering the race in mid-August, Silva has picked a pro-agriculture congressman as her running mate, met repeatedly with agribusiness leaders and campaigned in the farm belt, eager to make allies in an industry that accounts for a quarter of Brazil's economy.
Her message: conservation and big agriculture would thrive side-by-side in a Silva government and she would roll back the gasoline subsidies that President Dilma Rousseff has used to contain inflation. The fuel price controls have gutted Brazil's once-booming sugar cane ethanol industry.
Silva, who polls show is slightly ahead of Rousseff in an expected runoff, has also pleased crowds in the farm belt by reminding voters that she has dropped her opposition to genetically modified crops, which have been crucial to Brazil's rise in recent years as an agricultural power.
"There's this legend out there that I'm against genetically modified crops. That's not true. I support a model in which GMO and GMO-free crops co-exist," she said in a recent TV interview.
More:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/brazil/140913/marina-silva-environmentalist-courts-big-agriculture
