Brazilian rural movements establish platform to challenge agribusiness

Sixty rural, forest, and water-based popular movements and organizations have established a unified platform to address challenges facing rural territories in Brazil. Following a three-day meeting known as the Encontro do Campo Unitário held in Bahia from September 3 to 5, the groups defined priorities for future mobilization and struggle.

The platform focuses on confronting the evolving agribusiness sector and defending territorial sovereignty. João Paulo Rodrigues, a national leader of the Landless Workers' Movement (MST), stated that the document aims to update the political debate regarding the countryside by analyzing the modern realities of agrarian capitalism.

Key concerns identified by the movements include the impact of large-scale energy transition megaprojects, the exploitation of rare earth elements on traditional territories, the privatization of water, the precariousness of rural wage labor, and the rising consumption of pesticides. The groups also emphasized the need for renewed agrarian reform policies to address the income gap between rural workers and other sectors, noting that approximately 200 million hectares of land remain subjects of dispute.