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Welcome to Soylandia
Transnational Farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado
Andrew Ofstehage (Author)
9781501780233
Paperback / softback, published 15 April 2025
234 pages, 19 b&w halftones, 8 maps, 1 chart - 8 Maps - 1 Charts - 19 Halftones, black and white
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.454 kg
Following a group of US Midwest farmers who purchased tracts of land in the tropical savanna of eastern Brazil, Welcome to Soylandia investigates industrial farming in the modern developing world. Seeking adventure and profit, the transplanted farmers created what Andrew Ofstehage calls "flexible farms" that have severed connections with the basic units of agriculture: land, plants, and labor. But while the transnational farmers have destroyed these relationships, they cannot simply do as they please. Regardless of their nationality, race, and capital, they must contend with pests, workers, the Brazilian state, and the land itself. Welcome to Soylandia explores the frictions that define the new relationships of flexible farming—a paradigm that Ofstehage shows is ready to be reproduced elsewhere in Brazil and exported to the rest of the globe, including the United States. Through this compelling ethnography, Ofstehage takes readers on a tour of Soylandia and the new world of industrial agriculture, globalized markets, international development, and environmental change that it heralds.
Introduction: What Was a Dream Will Become a Reality
1. Brazil Is "the Big Answer to a Lot of Questions"
2. Wastelandscapes and Sacrifice Zones
3. Working Soylandia
4. Flexible Farming and the Weediness of Soylandia
5. Value and Community in Soylandia
6. The Aftermath
Conclusion