“Grazing the Amazon” (2018)
Director: Marco Isensee e Sa
Country: Brazil
Run time: 50 minutes
Languages: Portuguese, English (English subtitles)
There are 85 million cows in the Brazilian Amazon, which means three cows for each human dweller grazing today in an area that was once forest. In the 1970s, the rainforest was intact. Since then, a portion the size of France has disappeared, with 66 percent transformed into pastures. Much of this change is a consequence of government incentives that attracted thousands of farmers from southern lands. Cattle ranching became an economic and cultural banner of the Amazon, forging powerful politicians to defend it. In 2009, there was a game-changer: The Public Prosecutor’s Office sued large slaughterhouses, forcing them to supervise cattle farms.
