Agro is wrong by not signing a letter for democracy, says former president of the Rural Society

Agribusiness leaders are wrong to not support the manifestos for democracy, says cattleman Pedro de Camargo Neto, former president of the Brazilian Rural Society and former president of the Association of Pork Producers and Exporters.

For Camargo Neto, one of the signatories of the manifesto that already has hundreds of thousands of signatures, everyone will lose out if the election results are not respected.

“It is necessary to enter an election confident that the rule is the one and that the result will be accepted, even if it is not what interests any of the candidates. If there is a turmoil in democracy, surely everyone will be affected”, he says. Camargo Neto, who declared his support for the MDB candidate for the presidency, Simone Tebet.

A rural producer for 40 years, Neto was secretary of Agricultural Policy during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration.

Many bankers, businessmen, industrialists and investors joined the manifestos in defense of democracy launched this week. But there are few agribusiness leaders among the signatories. Because? It is even difficult to explain, because it is a letter written with care to be non-partisan and in favor of democracy, something that precedes the electoral process. It is simply accepting the rules of the electoral process, until you lose yourself. but the president [Jair] Bolsonaro said that he sees the letter as electoral, he reacted like this, and the agro supports Bolsonaro a lot.

Do agro-leaders lose by not signing the manifestos? I think they are deceiving themselves. It is necessary to enter an election confident that the rule is the one and that the result will be accepted, even if it is not what interests any of the candidates. If there is turmoil in democracy, surely everyone will be affected.

Why does agro support President Bolsonaro? The pandemic — which was tragic, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths — had a positive economic effect on the agricultural sector, with full employment, good prices, so the sector experienced a good economic period.

The two ministers of Agriculture of the Bolsonaro government, Teresa Cristina and Marcos Montes, had a very good dialogue in the sector. So the favorable economic situation and the two good ministers of Agriculture created a favorable climate for the Bolsonaro government.

I also lived through this positive economic moment, and I had a good relationship with the ministers, but that’s not why I’m going to support it anyway.

There is also a history of animosity on the part of the agro towards left-wing parties. There are two major issues that have left their mark: the agrarian question, land invasion, MST, and excesses of environmentalism. Environmentalism, or part of it, gave us a great deal of fatigue, which many did not deserve. I managed to look further. But, for many, these sequels prevent debate, conversation.

Mr. broke with the agricultural sector in 2020, upon leaving Sociedade Rural Brasileira. Because? The level of illegality that we live in the Amazon is critical. Illegal mining is increasingly controlled by organized crime, Brazil is starting to lose control of part of its territory, there is a lot of land grabbing, deforestation, illegal logging.

And the government’s reaction is very bad, it’s really omission. It will take work to restore the credibility that we have been conquering. This is already causing us a lot of problems. Today, when you sit down with the European Union to discuss any issue, such as a health issue, it reacts by questioning our credibility. Part of the industry declared support for the government’s environmental policy, and I didn’t agree with that, so I left.