Horto Bueno de Andrada settlement: subordination of land to agroindustrial capital and the contradiction of the peasant way of life

Abstract

This study aims to examine the territorial and spatial restructuring process of sugarcane agribusiness including the ethanol processing activities in the spatial dynamics of rural agrarian reform settlements through the logic of land subordination by leasing processes and the subordination of labor through wages strategies that can help reduce absenteeism in rural areas, under the Decree 77/2004 of the Instituto de Terras do Estado de São Paulo (ITESP), whereas the Horto Bueno de Andrada in Araraquara, São Paulo State (Brazil), which is a State project, was the purpose of this empirical research. The field research was conducted in this rural settlement project in July 2012, and, for this purpose, three family groups living in plots 2, 5, and 28, who were leaseholders and sugarcane growers that supply the sugarcane agroindustry were randomly selected to participate in the study; the data were collected and recorded through semi-structured interviews and the most significant excerpts have been transcribed in this work. Through this field research and provided with a copy of the partnership agreement established between the settled family groups and the sugarcane agroindustry (Maringá Mill) it was possible to observe that this insertion and territorial ownership of industrial capital allowed for the implementation of social and territorial logic practices into this spatial structures of agrarian reform, which can be deemed to be indifferent or antagonistic in matters of economics or to the peasant way of life (the historic individual of agrarian reform), highlighting the elements such as: land concentration; monoculture agriculture (sugar cane production); the establishment of salaried employment, with the consequent exploitation of human labor, where they are not only subordinated to industrial capital but exploration can also occur between groups, i.e., some of the land reform beneficiaries are benefited over the others; and in addition, the likely damage caused to environment in particular due to the use of pesticides (herbicides and insecticides) and the practice of pre-harvest burning of sugarcane straw. All of these factors have been implicated as causes of the destruction of traditional knowledge and values, and socio-spatial practices of peasants dating back to the colonial era.

Keywords: Horto Bueno de Andrada settlement; Leasing; Subordination of
the land; Leasing; Agro-industrial capital.