Fazenda
A fazenda (Portuguese for: estate ) is a large agricultural operation in Brazil . As a rule, cattle breeding or large-scale plantations are practiced in these large farms .
The Brazilian government awarded large areas of tropical rainforest to large landowners or foreign investors who set up cattle farms to improve the meat supply and to expand meat exports. Large pastures must be laid out for extensive cattle farming . To make this possible, large areas are cleared by fire clearance . Tropical grasses are then sown on the cleared areas by airplanes . In order to enable fresh grass to grow back, slash and burn is repeated annually.
Because of thorn bushes , scrub and poisonous plants, which displace the forage grasses, new areas have to be developed again and again. Massive deforestation is taking place. It is estimated that cattle farming on the southern edge of the Amazon is responsible for a third of the world's rainforest losses .
A fazenda in the state of São Paulo , Brazil .
Coffee fazenda, coffee beans are being dried on terraces in the foreground.
