The minister declared himself a supporter of MTS two days before the invasions

Guilherme Seto

On Saturday (25), two days before the MST (Landless Rural Labor Movement) invaded three farms of Suzano Celulosa, in the far south of Bahia, Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro attended a free transgenic soybean harvest festival. Centenário do Sul, in Paraná.

In a speech at Fidel Castro’s camp, he said the MST had a great ally in it to end “a legitimate movement with a dream for land.” This Thursday (2), he received Susano’s representatives in the ministry to resolve the crisis.

Favaro was the president of Aprosoja-MT from 2012 to 2014 and served as a member of the Congressional Peasant Caucus. His choice for the ministry was supported by most of the leaders of the sector, who refused the MST mobilizations this Thursday (2).

Accompanied by PT President Glacy Hoffmann and Agrarian Development Minister Paulo Teixeira, Favaro told an audience of MST members that he was excited to see a “technical, collaborative” movement that generates income and dignity among men and women. That is why, he says, he will always be “the great defender of MTS”.

In his speech, he acknowledged that his position may be strange to some, given that he is the minister of medium and large producers, while Teixeira’s portfolio takes care of family farming and small producers. He then said that he and his PT partner would develop policy together based on the belief that the portfolios’ activities were inseparable.

Favaro said he took the first steps in his career when he migrated from Paraná to Mato Grosso, where he started in an agrarian reform settlement and became a large rural producer. The minister told the landless people that he himself has gone through the same miseries as them in the lack of public authority and therefore knows what a piece of land means to them.

Landless peasants invade Suzano Cellulose’s eucalyptus farms in Bahia, early Monday (27) Press Release – Comunicação/MST-BA Landless rural workers invade Suzano Celulose’s eucalyptus farms in Bahia, early Thursday Thursday morning (27) ** At the end of the speech, he made a comparison between the production conditions of large and small farmers.

“[Os grandes agricultores] alone or together to own their farmer, to have their capacity to implement volumes, to raise funds at more attractive interest rates in the national or international market. Children need the shelter of the state more. Family farmers are just as competent or more so than the big ones. But if you don’t have a loan at the right time with appropriate interest rates, technical support, support for cooperativeism, they will say that they don’t have the ability to prosper,” he concluded.