Soybean Farmers In Amazonia Summary

For thousands of years, humans had nutritionally supported themselves through hunting and gather, a subsistence method which entails hunting, fishing, and gathering wild berries, grains, fruits, and vegetables. However, as evident in today’s civilizations, hunting and gathering did not remain the primary subsistence method of humans. Instead, a new subsistence method emerged: agriculture. This had many profound effects on humans when it was first introduced. Some of these effects were positive, such as a somewhat reliable source of food, while other effects were negative, such as a monotonous diet and malnutrition. Over time and with the improvement of agricultural methods came the reduction of the negative effects and the increase of the positive

One of these changes is discussed in “Large-Scale Mechanized Soybean Farmers in Amazonia: New Ways of Experiencing Land.” In his writings, Adams discusses the relationships between farmers and their land in the Amazon. Specifically, he discusses and compares the relations of small-scale farmers and their land to the relations of large-scale farmers and their land. There are certainly differences between the two. Adams uses these differences to discuss and contrast the environmental experiences of both the large-scale farmers and the small-scale farmers. Out of Adams’ research and writings, one can conclude that the amount of space a farmer has and the scale of their operation affect the farmer’s personal experience with the land and their actions regarding preservation of the resources

However, their experience of their farmable land is much different than that of small-scale farmers. Unlike their small-scale counterparts, large-scale farmers are relatively new in the Amazon. With their relative newness comes a new experience as well. As Adams explains, the large-scale farmers are more connected with the economy than the environment around them, often considering the prices of crops rather than the environmental impact. Also contributing to their disconnect from their farmable land, Adams states that large-scale farmers’ “technique for selecting a field relies on satellite imagery and expert testimony… This is an experience of a different sort, being an imagined experience of farming based on a technologically mediated interpretation of the landscape.” (Adams). In contrast to the possible generations of small-scale farmers gaining knowledge of the land through farming, large-scale farmers instead gain knowledge through satellites and more artificial means. Adams summarizes the experience of the large-scale farmers in saying “the capitalized high-technology agriculture practiced by large-scale farmers has resulted in a more distant and mediated experience of the Amazon landscape, and a new set of adaptive responses to the environment” (Adams,