CENTRALIZATION OF CAPITAL IN AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

a critical reading

Abstract

his article is the result of research in the areas of Political Economy and Agricultural Economics and deals with the process of centralization of capital in agriculture. In the first part, a theoretical review of the categories concentration and centralization of capital is carried out, how they were amplified in the context of the hegemony of neoliberal policies and how the way in which large economic groups operate reduces the conditions of survival of small agricultural producers. The second part examines how this centralization of capital manifests itself in terms of agricultural modernization and in the strategies of the large groups that operate in the sector to appear as politically and socially adequate. In this sense, as a
result of the research strategy, the dynamics of some of the largest Brazilian groups that operate in the production and export of commodities were analyzed. In the third part, it is explained how the irrational pattern of consumption, from the point of view of the majority of the population, and the destruction of nature associated with agricultural production represent intrinsic characteristics of capitalism. On the other hand, criticisms and possible alternatives are pointed out from the perspective of Political Ecology.