All change hurts - The Sustainable Path is Inexorable, Intelligence´s Necessary for Transition
Publicado em 06/02/2025
Divulgação
Brasil, the year of COP 30 within the Amazon biome, we can observe and point out advanced sectors within sustainable practices having excellent results.
Published on 02/03/2025
*José Luiz Tejon
Radio Eldorado/Estadão -SP
Brasil, the year of COP 30 within the Amazon biome, we can observe and point out advanced sectors within sustainable practices having excellent results. Change has always been painful. I imagine our ancestors leaving their homes as immigrants for an unknown tropical destination.
Brasil is made up of almost all the peoples on Earth. Here, we have adapted and built a vibrant and friendly Tropical Society, which is, in fact, "considered unlikely". And now we are on an inexorable journey, towards a planet that will be governed, necessarily, by the logic of Sustainable Governance. Is this logic, good or bad? It depends!
Those who have to change and are still prisoners of the bonds of the past that brought us here, as a large industrial mass behave like animals refusing to adapt to the undeniable environmental changes, as Charles Darwin would say. As Darwin concluded in his Theory of Evolution, it wasn´t the strongest that overcame, but rather the fastest and most intelligent, those with the capacity to adapt. The fastest and most intelligent are available for us to take as examples.
China, the second largest economy on the planet, with a GDP of around US$ 20 trillion, is expected to grow by around 5% this year (in comparative terms, this means the growth of Brasil in 2 years). And when we look at a significant part of China's growth over the last 10 years, we will see in its strategic state planning, the sector and an entire industry focused on the environment and sustainability, to transform its carbon emissions into a clean economy. And more than complaining, the Chinese have transformed this challenge into a lever for jobs, investments, technologies and business. In Brasil, in the year of COP 30 in the Amazon biome, we can observe and point out advanced sectors within sustainable practices that are achieving excellent results.
A good example is the Brasilian cotton production chain, which had been practically destroyed in the late 1980s and, from the early 1990s onwards, was redefined as a chain of environmental and social governance, and intelligence in the relationships between its links, from research to end consumers. We went from being the 2nd largest importer of cotton in the world to becoming the largest exporter, supporting and exceeding the most stringent demands of a fashion and designer chain, where those who purchase brands such as Miu Miu, Prada, Loewe, etc., strive for sustainable excellence.
In Brasil, when we pay extra attention to the ILPF Network (Integrated Crop, Livestock and Forestry), we see the tropical knowledge of Embrapa, which taught how to manage crops, livestock and forests in an integrated manner. The ILPF Network is currently chaired by Mr. Francisco Maturro, who informed me that they are preparing a survey to accurately assess the area involved and mentioned that we already have over 20 million hectares, and it’s still growing.
And what are the results for those who follow this line of governance? Just look at the rural producer Mrs. Marize Porto from Ipameri, in the state of Goiás, a great example, and see what happened to her property, which went from loss to profit with sustainable governance such as ILPF. Following these good examples, the Brasilian tree, paper and pulp industry sector is competing globally with practices that withstand the most severe sustainability judgments. Agropalma, in Pará (the largest producer of sustainable palm oil in the Americas), is another example. And we also have the magnificent work carried out by Cecafe (Brasilian Coffee Exporters Council), together with Serasa Agro Experien, in Switzerland, demonstrating and proving the sustainability of Brasilian coffee, where leaders present commented that very few countries could demonstrate what Brasil has demonstrated.
Good cooperativism, an international year, is born necessarily sustainable, and cooperatives are ready to be imitated. The plan for the fuel of the future, the biogas movements in the county side, such as the bio plant inaugurated in an association of the Primato Cooperative, in Toledo, Paraná, with the Tupy MWM industry, Única's Biomethane, Be8(Renewable Energy) creating new biofuels( Bevant) and selling it to Europe etc.
These are no longer just ideological fantasies of a “New Hippie” youth. They mean real business that generates profit, and we can also admire rural producers like Mr. “Zecão” from the municipality of Lucas do Rio Verde, Mato Grosso, elected last year as the best example of a soybean producer who works in a conservationist and regenerative model. He told me: “In the climate stress we have experienced here in recent years, I have managed to have a better average performance than producers who do not use conservationist principles”.
Examples like this can be found from the A of avocado to the Z of Zebu, in animal protein, as in Anaurilândia (Mato Grosso do Sul), where a regenerative livestock farming is developed, just to present one example among thousands already being carried out in Brasil.
Therefore, changes hurt, yes! They can hurt a lot! But those who do not change do not adapt to the inexorable planetary, scientific and technological changes; in this case, the pain will be much worse. (Darwin explains.)
The pace of change today is far swifter than in the past, where transformations unfolded slowly. Now, they happen in real time. We’re dealing with rational human beings who think and innovate; we’re not simply victims of the circumstances.
Removing the United States from this evident reality of transformation, with its US$25 trillion economy, which depends heavily on the world for its production and sales chains, is, without a doubt, adopting an old-fashioned negotiating tactic. This style of shouting and screaming, in a threatening tone, will return to those who utter it, and more quickly than we could imagine.
Brasil and other countries in the Tropical Belt of the planet, the strip between the parallels North and South, with approximately 58% of the useful agricultural area to be developed with technology in the world, and 70% of the population, have no other way out than the inevitable sustainable way. And it is extremely urgent! Including the art of leading with the future in mind. Brasil has learned and knows how to do this in the Tropical Belt of the Blue Planet.
Good examples speak louder! Intelligence for the transition is the greatest challenge at this moment.
I strongly recommend the book “Lessons from a Century of Life” by Edgard Morim
*José Luiz Tejon - PhD in Education-Universidad de La Empresa/Uruguay. Master's degree in Art Education and History of Culture - Mackenzie University. Journalist and Publicist - Harvard, MIT and PACE/USA/Insead in France; Specialisation Academic Coordinator of Master Science Food & Agribusiness Management at Audencia in Nantes/France and FECAP/Brasil. Managing Partner at Biomarketing and TCA International. Professional Head at Agro Anefac. Writer author and Co-author of 37 books. Agro Personality Award 2023. ABAG. Former director of Grupo Estadão, Agroceres and Jacto S/A.
