Considered a wasteland in the 1970s, Brazil’s forested savanna known as the Cerrado has since turned the country into a global agricultural powerhouse, particularly in Mato Grosso where the henhouses of the Fazenda Mano Júlio near Lucas do Rio Verde seem to stretch to the horizon. Started by two brothers who arrived in the area dirt-poor in the 1980s, it has become one of the larger integrated farming companies in the region, with corn, soy, and cotton production, along with 18,000 sows, 18,000 cattle, 2.7 million broiler chickens, and 240,000 laying hens that produce 44 million eggs each year. A planted forest of non-native eucalyptus trees provides a windbreak to help protect the densely packed chicken houses from airborne diseases. While highly productive, the bounty of such monocultures has come at the expense of one of Brazil’s most diverse ecosystems.
