Bolsonaro's Choice For Agriculture Sees Opportunity For Legal Logging In The Amazon
A friend of Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) and under consideration for the Ministry of Agriculture if the candidate wins the election, Luiz Antonio Nabhan Garcia, 60, advocates for the merging of the department with the ministries of Agrarian Development and Environment, in order to, as he says, do away with an "ideological mess" in environmental issues. "There's this fantasy, this legend, that in Brazil, the person who damages the environment is the farmer. It's the opposite," says Nabhan, who presides the UDR (the acronym for Democratic Association of Ruralists) and Bolsonaro's advisor in agriculture matters. Like the candidate, Nabhan favors Brazil leaving the Paris Agreement and thinks there is a "fine industry" from the part of environmental inspectors. He also thinks that there is "a lot of myth" surrounding climate change. Nabhan, a landowner in the states of Mato Grosso (where he grows soy, corn, and cotton) and Mato Grosso do Sul (eucalyptus and livestock) is against zero deforestation but is in favor of the current Forestry Code. Nabhan's idea is to join agriculture, environment, and agrarian reform in the same ministry. But, regarding the last item, he says there will no space to dialogue with the Landless Workers Movement. Besides independent farmers all over the country, the Parliamentary Front For Agriculture and CNA (National Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock) all are competing for referring a name on this "super ministry" in the case of a Bolsonaro win.