Race to Save the Amazon Leaves out Brazil's Crucial Savanna

Aerial view of agriculture fields, in Sao Desiderio, western Bahia state, Brazil, taken on September 29, 2023. Nelson ALMEIDA / AFP
Aerial view of agriculture fields, in Sao Desiderio, western Bahia state, Brazil, taken on September 29, 2023. Nelson ALMEIDA / AFP
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Race to Save the Amazon Leaves out Brazil's Crucial Savanna

Aerial view of agriculture fields, in Sao Desiderio, western Bahia state, Brazil, taken on September 29, 2023. Nelson ALMEIDA / AFP
Aerial view of agriculture fields, in Sao Desiderio, western Bahia state, Brazil, taken on September 29, 2023. Nelson ALMEIDA / AFP

People thought she was crazy when Carminha Maria Missio and her family bought what was considered "sterile" land in the Brazilian savanna to farm soybeans, she says.

Missio, a beaming grandmother named one of the most powerful women in agriculture by Forbes Brasil, remembers the surprised reactions when her poor southern family sold their land in 1979 and moved across the country to the "Cerrado," a huge savanna below the Amazon rainforest.

Little-known outside Brazil, the Cerrado is Earth's most biodiverse savanna, nicknamed the "cradle of waters" for its vital rivers and aquifers, said AFP.

But it is disappearing at a record rate, its twisted trees and grasslands replaced by endless fields of grains and cotton.

Even as Brazil races to stop Amazon deforestation, experts warn environmental destruction is surging in the Cerrado, fueling violent land-grabs and exacerbating the climate crisis.

Some scientists say the Amazon and Cerrado are equally important for the planet.

But when she arrived in the northeastern state of Bahia, the Cerrado was widely seen as a "wasteland," says Missio, 67.

"Locals said the only thing you could grow here was lizards," she laughs.

Sleeping under tarps and sweating in the tropical sun, her family joined a stream of pioneers who literally bet the farm on transforming this once-vast wilderness.

It worked: the Cerrado is now a global breadbasket, making Brazil the world's top exporter of soybeans and, this year, corn.

It grew half the 155 million metric tons of soy Brazil produced last year, used in the animal feed that puts beef, chicken and pork on plates worldwide.

Spillover effect
Today, half the Cerrado is farmland.

In places like Sao Desiderio, Bahia, the county leading Brazil in deforestation this year, the landscape after harvest season looks like a giant quilt, the green patches of remaining savanna surrounded by vast brown fields.

The savanna is typically cleared using a "correntao" -- a large chain strung between two bulldozers and dragged across the ground, razing everything in its path.

Fire is also used. A Switzerland-sized area has burned in the Cerrado this year, according to research group MapBiomas.

Farming the sandy, nutrient-poor soil is all about scale: producers invest big in irrigation, fertilizer and pesticides, financed by global commodity giants like US-based Bunge and Cargill.

But experts warn irrigation and soil degradation are drying the region. A recent study found river flows have decreased 15 percent from their historic averages, and will fall 34 percent by 2050.

The Cerrado has become a "sacrificial ecosystem," says Leticia Verdi, of Brazilian environmental group ISPN.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has largely delivered on his promise to protect the world's biggest rainforest, halving deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon since taking office in January. But destruction has increased 27 percent in the Cerrado from last year, including 659 square kilometers (254 square miles) razed in September, a record for the month.

"There's been a spillover of deforestation from the Amazon to the Cerrado," says Verdi.

'Upside-down Amazon'
Yet "the Cerrado is just as important as the Amazon in confronting the climate crisis," Rodrigo Agostinho, head of Brazil's environmental agency, IBAMA, told AFP.

Scientists say the two are intricately linked.

The savanna depends on the precipitation generated by the rainforest. The rainforest meanwhile depends on the savanna to feed the rivers crisscrossing its southern half.

Both remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere -- the rainforest through its billions of trees, the savanna via its deep, carbon-absorbing root systems, dubbed an "upside-down Amazon."

The Cerrado is a mirror-image of the Amazon in other ways, too.

In the Amazon, an estimated 95 percent of deforestation is illegal. In the Cerrado, around 95 percent is officially authorized, according to IBAMA -- a result, environmentalists say, of outsize agribusiness influence on regional authorities.

Brazilian law allows landowners in the Amazon to deforest just 20 percent of their property. The opposite applies in most of the Cerrado: farmers must preserve just 20 percent of their land.

'Green land-grabbing'
In some cases, that law is being brutally twisted.

Joao da Silva lives in a shack in a rural community with no indoor plumbing or electricity. But the 50-year-old smallholder has five security cameras mounted outside, powered by solar panels.

He had them installed after gunmen surrounded his home in 2018 while he was out, threatening his mother at gunpoint.

Gunmen in a pickup later tried to ram his car and threatened to kill him, he says.

"They told me to get off my land, that the 'owners' were evicting us," says the father of five.

He also survived a stabbing attack at a local market in 2016.

Activists say Da Silva -- whose name has been changed for his safety -- and his neighbors are victims of "green land-grabbing," in which landholders seize un-deforested territory to claim it as their 20-percent protected reserves.

Leaders of several traditional cattle-herding communities told AFP of being targeted by gunmen who killed their cows, torched their farm buildings and opened fire on them.

Such violence is common in Brazil, where 377 land and environmental defenders have been killed since 2012, according to rights group Global Witness.

Three little words
Working the room with a preacher's charisma, Mario Alberto dos Santos is giving 40 middle-school students a crash course in sustainable agriculture in the poor Cerrado town of Ponte de Mateus.

Dos Santos, 43, a professor at the Federal University of Western Bahia, teaches teenagers eco-friendly techniques like growing native species, organic farming and interspersing crops with trees.

The program aims to train the next generation to farm with nature, not against it.

It is a "long road to walk," Dos Santos admits.

"We need to profoundly change the food system, not just in Brazil, but worldwide," he says.

Climate campaigners are meanwhile pushing commodity-importing countries to demand clean environmental and human-rights records from suppliers.

The European Union adopted a regulation this year requiring companies to show products are deforestation-free.

The policy is a "game-changer" for the Amazon, says Daniel Santos, of environmental group WWF-Brasil.

But it excludes most of the Cerrado -- not technically "forest."

Environmentalists are pushing the EU to extend the policy to "other wooded lands."

Adding those three words could transform the Cerrado, Santos says.

"It's a major opportunity to transition to more sustainable farming."



A TV as Big as a Bed? With Holidays Approaching, Stores Stock More Supersize Sets

A 98-inch TCL QM-8 Q-Class Mini-LED QLED 4K HDR Smart TV is displayed at the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular event, in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A 98-inch TCL QM-8 Q-Class Mini-LED QLED 4K HDR Smart TV is displayed at the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular event, in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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A TV as Big as a Bed? With Holidays Approaching, Stores Stock More Supersize Sets

A 98-inch TCL QM-8 Q-Class Mini-LED QLED 4K HDR Smart TV is displayed at the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular event, in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A 98-inch TCL QM-8 Q-Class Mini-LED QLED 4K HDR Smart TV is displayed at the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular event, in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

For some television viewers, size apparently does matter.

Forget the 65-inch TVs that were considered bigger than average a decade ago. In time for the holidays, manufacturers and retailers are rolling out more XXL screens measuring more than 8 feet across. That's wider than a standard three-seat sofa or a king-size bed.

Supersize televisions only accounted for 1.7% of revenue from all TV set sales in the US during the first nine months of the year, according to market research firm Circana. But companies preparing for shoppers to go big for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa have reason to think the growing ultra category will be a bright spot in an otherwise tepid television market, according to analysts.

The 38.1 million televisions sold with a width of at least 97 inches between January and September represented a tenfold increase from the same period last year, Circana said. Best Buy, the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain, doubled the assortment of hefty TVs — the 19 models range in price from $2,000 to $25,000 — and introduced displays in roughly 70% of its stores, The AP news.

“It’s really taken off this year," Blake Hampton, Best Buy's senior vice president of merchandising, said.

Analysts credit the emerging demand to improved technology and much lower prices. So far this year, the average price for TVs spanning at least 97 inches was $3,113 compared to $6,662 last year, according to Circana. South Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung introduced its first 98-inch TV in 2019 with a hefty price tag of $99,000; it now has four versions starting at $4,000, the company said.

Anthony Ash, a 42-year-old owner of a wood pallet and recycling business, recently bought a 98-inch Sony for his 14,000-square-foot house in Bristol, Wisconsin. The device, which cost about $5,000 excluding installation fees, replaced an 85” TV in the great room off his kitchen. Ash now has 17 televisions at home and uses some to display digital art.

“We just saw that the price was affordable for what we were looking for and thought, ‘Why not?’” he said of deciding to upsize to the Sony. “You get a better TV experience with a bigger TV. You’re sitting watching TV with a person on TV that is the same size as you. You can put yourself in the scene.”

The amount of time that many people spend staring at their cellphones and tablets, including to stream movies and TV shows, is another factor driving the growth of widescreen TV screens. Overall TV sales revenue fell 4%, while the number of units sold rose 1% from the January through September period, Circana said.

Most people only invest in a television every seven years, but when they do, they typically choose bigger ones, according to Rick Kowalski, the senior director of business intelligence at the Consumer Technology Association. In the past 15 years, the size of flat-panel TVs that were shipped to US retailers and dealers grew an average of one inch a year, Kowalski said.

The coronavirus pandemic accelerated the elongation trend as people spent more time at home. In fact, screen sizes increased an average of two inches in both 2021 and 2022, and 85-inch TVs began gaining traction with consumers, Kowalski said. Shipments of 98-inch TVs to the US are picking up pace this year, and models as huge as 110-115 inches are on the market right now, he said.

“You get better resolution over time," Kowalski said. "You get better picture quality. And so just over time, it’s easier to produce those sets and improve the technology."

Best Buy's Hampton said a benefit of a colossal TV is the viewer can watch multiple shows at once, an experience he described as “incredible.”

“If you’re watching YouTube TV content or ‘ NFL Sunday Ticket,’ you can actually get four screens up, and that’s four 48-inch screens on it,” he said.

Manufacturers are also adding new features. Samsung said it designed its 98-inch lineup with a component that analyzes what the viewer is watching to increase sharpness and reduce visible noise across every scene.

James Fishler, senior vice president of the home entertainment division of Samsung's US division, said the way people watch TV and experience content is shifting.

“It's even more so about watching TV as a shared experience,” Fishler said. “They want to host a watch party and gather around their TV to watch the big game, or set up a cinematic movie experience right at home. ”

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, its Sam’s Club division, and Chicago retailer Abt Electronics, also say they are expanding their TV ranges to meet customer demand for supersize screens.

TV industry experts say these monster TVs are beginning to encroach on home theater projectors, which create a 100- to 120-inch image that is less sharp and require rooms with blackout curtains or without windows.

“A dedicated viewing room for watching movies was exclusively the purview of projectors,” Andrew Sivori, vice president in the entertainment division of LG Electronics, another Korean manufacturer. "But you can get a much better viewing experience with direct TV."

Retailers and TV makers said the buyers trading up range from millennials and members of Generation X to the tech-native Gen Z crowd. But as Jon Abt, co-president of Abt Electronics said, “It’s still a niche business.”

“A lot of people just don’t have the space to put one of those in,” he added.

Before dreaming big for the holidays, shoppers therefore should make sure a 98-inch TV will fit. Best Buy said its Geek Squad team asks if stairwells and entry halls are large enough to accommodate delivery and installation. An augmented reality feature on the Best Buy app that allows customers to see if products are the right size has been especially helpful for XXL TVs, the retailer said.

But for those worried about having the space for viewing, the good news is that the recommended distance for a 98-inch TV is actually just 6-12 feet from the seating area. The rule of thumb is to multiple the diagonal length of the TV by 1.2 to determine the ideal viewing distance, Samsung's Fishler said.

If bigger is better in the TV department, how big can they go?

“I think we'll have to wait and see,” Fishler said.