MeleizaFigueroa_CastorPaper

8/7/2019 MeleizaFigueroa_CastorPaper

1/47

Figueroa 1

(for circulation onlyWorkshop on the Global Environment 2/9/11)

The Pervasive Politics of Invisible Trees: A Social History of the Castor Beanin Bahia, Brazil

Meleiza FigueroaUniversity of Chicago

Introduction

The castor bean plant, in its own quiet way, is everywhere. The plant itself

(Ricinus communis), an invasive species originally from Africa, proliferates all over the

world - on roadsides and marginal lands, in ornamental gardens, farms and all kinds of

disturbed landscapes. In a similar way, castors derivative products have appeared

throughout history, from ancient Egyptian burial grounds, to medicine and healing and a

wide range of industrial uses. It has been cultivated, traded, and used in diverse ways by

societies on almost all of the Earths continents. Castor has even played a role in modern

and postmodern warfare - where, due to the highly toxic ricin contained in its leaves and

seeds, it has recently been dubbed the terrorists favorite weed.1

In Brazil, the oil-rich seeds of the castor plant are currently being targeted for a

somewhat more benign purpose. Castor is part of a suite of oleaginous plants - along with

palm oil, jatropha, cotton, and other crops - that is currently being explored as primary

sources of biodiesel. Brazil, the worlds leading biofuel pioneer, has sought to integrate

the potential for biodiesel production with rural development and poverty reduction,

which are also among the countrys most urgent priorities. Mamona, as castor is called in

Brazil, has drought tolerance and nitrogen-fixing properties, and its demonstrated ability

1Thomas Ogren, "The Terrorists Favorite Weed - the Castor Bean Plant," in http://www.homehighlight.org.


2/47

Figueroa 2

to thrive in the harsh serto, or semi-arid backland areas of Brazils Northeast, has made

the crop especially attractive to development authorities as a potential income source for

the millions of impoverished small-scale and family farmers who live in the region.

Despite the governments highly touted plans, the sought-for social benefits for

small farmers have so far been negligible. A number of factors have been cited for its

relative lack of success: drought, market volatility, lack of proper seeds or technical

infrastructure, and the fact that the high viscosity of the oil itself requires additional

processing in order to be used for biofuel, which contributes to the high cost of

production.2 While these mostly physical factors have certainly contributed to the

challenges facing the development of a castor oil-based biofuel economy in Bahia, this

paper argues that it is also necessary to look to deeper into the history of the castor plant

in the region in order to understand why castor as a social fuel fails to deliver the

promised benefits for its farmers. A view of the plant in both its historical and

geographical contexts shows that the castor economy in Bahia is, in fact, not new or

undeveloped; that it has been, for centuries, intimately tied with larger regional and

global economies; and in Bahias serto, particular social relations and histories govern

its production and lines of trade, affecting rural development outcomes to this day.

This paper will attempt to trace this crop from Bahian farmers fields to its myriad

destinations, from folk and ritual uses to cutting-edge international industry, outlining

how, at various points in history, the trade in castor oil has been articulated into major

national and international economic processes and transformations. It will focus on three

2Arnoldo Anacleto de Campos and Edna de Cssio Carmlio, "Construir a Diversidade da Matriz Energtica: OBiodiesel no Brasil," inBiocombustveis: A Energia da Controvrsia , ed. Ricardo Abramovay (So Paulo: EditoraSenac, 2009).


3/47

Figueroa 3

major periods in Brazil in which castor has had a substantial presence: 1) The slave-based

sugar economy of colonial Brazil from the 17th-19th centuries; 2) the industrial

transformations, inside and outside Brazil, of the mid 20th century (1930-1950); and

3) the push, from the 1970s to the present, to establish a renewable energy-based

economy through the production of biofuels. Castor oil plays a somewhat unsung but

integral role in each of these economies, prompting a surge in production and trade, as

well as attempts at large-scale commercialization. The paper then looks back at local

systems of production in these larger contexts and explores how, despite its substantive

contributions to these global economic transformations, conditions have remained largelythe same for those who form the backbone of Brazils castor oil production: the peasant

farmers of Bahias serto.

Castor, the African Wonder Tree: Origins and Uses

A member of the plant family Euphorbiaceae, castor (Ricinus communis) is

generally thought to be native to tropical Africa, and was dispersed throughout tropical

Asia and the Mediterranean from as early as 2000 B.C.3 It is a woody shrub that can be

cultivated annually, or can grow as a perennial tree, reaching as high as 10m tall.

Castors palmate leaves (earning it the name Palma Christi or Hand of Christ) and

spiky seed pods give the plant its distinctive profile.

3H. M. Burkill, J. M. Dalziel, and J. Hutchinson, The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa, Ed. 2. ed. (Kew,Richmond, Surrey: Royal Botanic Gardens, 1985).


4/47

Figueroa 4

Fig. 1.Ricinus communis.The plant is sub-spontaneous and naturalizes very quickly after its introduction

into new landscapes. This quality, combined with the antiquity of its association with

human settlement, has allowed castor to achieve a near world-wide or cosmopolitan

distribution. The average temperature at which the plant thrives most is between 20 and

30C,4 although it has been known to withstand extremes of up to 10C and 41C

respectively before the seeds fail to set.5 Despite its reputation for drought tolerance, the

plant requires a minimum amount of rainfall (at least 500mm)6 during its vegetative stage,

but also needs a significant dry season in order for the seeds to harden and mature.

Because of its propensity for higher temperatures, the plant is best adapted, and thrives the

most, in tropical semi-arid areas (such as the African Sahel and Northeast Brazil) as well

as Mediterranean climates (such as California and Southern Europe).

4 Antonio da Cunha Bayma,Mamona (Rio de Janeiro: Ministrio da Agricultura, 1958).5 Francisco Jose A. F. Tvora,A Cultura da Mamona (Fortaleza: EPACE, 1982).6 Arnaldo da Silva,Mamona : Potencialidades Agroindustriais do Nordeste (Recife: SUDENE, 1983).


5/47

Figueroa 5

Few plants match the remarkable ethnobotanical versatility ofR. communis.

Almost all of the plants parts are useful to humans, but its seeds are especially prized,

mainly for its oil content (around 50-66%).7 Castor seeds and oil are among the worlds

oldest commercial products...So ancient is their usage that the plants original

domestication is now lost in the mists of antiquity.8 The earliest known evidence of its

cultivation and use is found in Ancient Egypt, where it was included in burial sites.9 This

has suggested to researchers that the plant was domesticated in East Africa or Ethiopia.

Castor also proliferates throughout tropical West Africa, where it is incorporated in a

wide variety of medicinal and cultural uses (see Table 1).

7 Burkill, p. 135.8 E. A. Weiss, Castor, Sesame and Safflower(London: Leonard Hill, 1971).9 Burkill, p. 133.


6/47

Figueroa 6

Table 1. List of traditional uses.

Sources: (a) H.M. Burkill, Useful Plants of Tropical West Africa vol. 2; (b) Edward S. Ayensu,Medicinal Plants ofWest Africa; (c) Robert Voeks, Sacred Leaves of Candombl; (d) E.A. Weiss, Castor, Sesame, and Safflower.

COUNTRY / REGION PART OF PLANT USED HOW USED

Worldwide (a) Seed (oil) Illuminant

Worldwide (a) Seed (oil) Purgative

United States (b) Seed (oil) Treatment of warts

Uganda (d) Stems, Stalks Housing material

Togo, Hausa (a) Leaves of sauvariety Crushed for eyewash

Tanzania (a) Leaves Treatment for wounds, skin diseases

Tanzania (a) Sap from twigs, fruit Dressing for wounds

South Africa (b) Seed (oil) Destroys mosquitoes

South Africa (b) Seed (oil) Treatment for parasitic skin disease, childhood sores and boils

Senegal (a) Leaves Applied to varicose veins in pregnant women

Senegal (a) Leaves Decoction to treat schistosomiasis

Nigeria, Libya, Somalia, India,Europe (a)

Leaves Applied as a poultice to increase milk flow

Nigeria, Brazil, U.S. (a) Seed (cake) Detoxified for Animal Feed

Nigeria (a) Leaves Eaten to stimulate menstrual flow

Nigeria (a) Leaves Boiled with potash to relieve jaundice

Nigeria (a) Leaves Heat-treated pulp applied to guinea-worm sores to extractparasite

Nigeria (a) Twigs Abortive irritant

Nigeria (a) Root Treat gripes in horses

Ivory Coast (b) Seed (oil) Treatment for leprosy

Ivory Coast (a) Leaves Treatment for pneumonia and febrile conditions

Ivory Coast (a) Leaves Painkiller

Ivory Coast (a) Leaves Poultice to relieve swelling

India, Somalia (a) Leaves Treatment for rheumatism, lumbago, sciatica, etc

India, Europe (b) Seed Poison (ricin)

India (b) Flower Treatment for glandular tumors

India (b) Leaf Treatment for boils

India (b) Leaves, root Boiled with goat's milk and water to treat ophthalmia (eyeinflammation)

India (b) Root Anti-inflammatory, fever reducer

India (b) Root Treatment of flatulence, abdominal pains, diarrhoea

India (b) Root Treatment for kidney and bladder issues

India (b) Seed (oil) Treatment for palsy, asthma, colic, dropsy, goutIndia (a) Seed (oil) Anodyne for rheumatism

Hausa (a) Root Mouthwash, treatment for toothache

Greece (a) Seed (oil) Vermifuge, emetic

Ghana (a) Root Treatment for headache

Ghana (a) Root bark Purgative

Gabon, Ghana, Liberia Entire live plant Conducting lightning flashes; prevent injury from lightning

Gabon, Brazil (a) Leaves Applied to arrest milk flow

Gabon (b) Root Dried root used to treat nervous disorders

Gabon (a) Leaves Crushed and mixed with 'false shea butter' to massageepileptic children

Europe, Venezuela, Chile (b) Leaves Treatment of tumors

Ethiopia (a) Leaves Treatment for hemorrhoids

Egypt (d) Oil, stem Cosmetics (kohl)

East Africa (various) (d) Seed (oil) Body paint, hairdressingEast Africa (various) (d) Seeds Ritual divination

Brazil, India, U.S. (b) Seed (oil) Treatment of tumors, cancer

Brazil (c) Stem Stop painful lactation

Brazil (c) Leaves Ritual bath


7/47

Figueroa 7

Besides its potential as biofuel, castor oil is also an integral part of modern

industry, and is useful for a multiplicity of industrial applications (see Fig. 2). Brazil has

figured prominently in the world export market for castor, and is currently the worlds

third largest producer of castor, behind India and China.10 However, the role for Brazil as

a producer for castor was historically much higher, having a one point accounted for over

50% of total world production.11 Within Brazil, the state of Bahia is far and away the

largest producer of castor, commanding about 82% of total national output.12

Fig. 2. Industrial uses.Source: Arnaldo da Silva,Mamona : Potencialidades Agroindustriais do Nordeste. Recife: SUDENE, 1983.

10 UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAOSTAT 2008,http://faostat.fao.org.11 Adriana Leiras, Silvio Hamacher, and Luiz Felipe Scavarda, "An Integrated Supply Chain Perspective Evaluation forBiodiesel Production in Brazil,"Brazilian Journal of Operations & Production Management5, no. 2 (2008).12Joffre Kouri and obrio Ferreira dos Santos, "Aspectos Econmicos do Agronegcio da Mamona no Brasil,"(Brasilia: EMBRAPA, 2007).
http://faostat.fao.org/http://faostat.fao.org/http://faostat.fao.org/http://faostat.fao.org/


8/47

Figueroa 8

Mamona in Bahia: Political Ecology in Space and Time

In a recent interview conducted in central Bahias Chapada Diamantina region, a

castor bean farmer recounted how he was most likely born in a field ofmamona...sameas my father, my fathers father, his father, and all my brothers. Mamona has been part

of our lives for a very long time.13 This statement, signifying an intimate,

intergenerational knowledge of and relationship with the castor bean, is hardly unique in

the region. Its ubiquitous presence in dooryard gardens and subsistence fields, where it is

usually intercropped with beans and maize, suggest a deep traditional connection with the

peasant population of central Bahia. Other interviews revealed that, unlike cassava, corn,

and various fruits cultivated in the same fields, these generations of farmers did not grow

castor primarily for household use, but for sale; a small amount had been used in the past

for home use, but the bulk of the crop had always been sold or traded away. For these

farmers, mamona hasbeen an essential cash crop for much longer than many

development economists may recognize, and it has formed part of a range of livelihood

strategies long adopted by people living under unpredictable and often difficult climatic

and social regimes.

By approaching the study of castor in Bahia within a political ecology framework,

we can begin to surface the hidden processes behind castor cultivation throughout the

periods studied, and explore how this has hindered the ability of farmers at the point of

production to share in the benefits from these pulses of economic and physical expansion.

Political ecology is particularly useful as an analytic toolkit for this study in several ways.

13 Interview conducted by author in Iraquara, Bahia, Brazil, May 2009.


9/47

Figueroa 9

First, it represents a departure from mainstream modernization narratives that frame

problems of environment and development as the result of inadequate adoption and

implementation of modern economic techniques of management, exploitation, and

conservation, which implicates a way of thinking...underpinned by a commitment to

economic efficiency.14 Political ecology steps away from technological and economic

efficiency (or the lack thereof) as the point of explanation, and instead situates local

ecologies and systems of production within larger political economic contexts.

In this view, castor appears not as a marginal agricultural footnote that simply

needs to be modernized but rather as part of a complex agroecological landscape with a

variety of uses, social histories, and political dynamics. Drawing from political ecology,

the analysis follows a mode of explanation that evaluates the influence of variables

acting at a number of scales, each nested within another, with local decisions influenced

by regional policies, which are in turn directed by global politics and economics.15 This

multiscalar approach allows one to reframe the subjects under analysis, from inefficient,

backward peasant farmers in need of modernist transformation to peasant societies

marked by the presence of the markets, social inequalities, conflict...associated with their

integration into a modern world system.16 Within the throes of complex forms of

capitalist transition,17 power relations as well as power struggles inhere in these

landscapes and the everyday economic processes that unfold within them, which in turn

influence individual outcomes.

14 Paul Robbins, Political Ecology : a Critical Introduction, Critical Introductions to Geography (Malden, MA:Blackwell Pub., 2004).15 Ibid., p. 11.16 Richard Peet and Michael Watts,Liberation Ecologies : Environment, Development, Social Movements , 2nd ed.(London ; New York: Routledge, 2004).17 Ibid.


10/47

Figueroa 10

Another issue in this analysis concerns questions of the invisibility of castor

bean farmers in discussions around production. This is evident not only in the paucity of

historical sources that explain the presence of castor cultivation in Bahias semi-aridzone, but also in the significant silence that surrounds the questions ofwho produces

castor and whatthe agricultural regimes are that support them. Even though the physical

properties of the castor plant have been extensively studied and utilized, the people,

social relations and histories behind its cultivation have remained largely invisible. This

invisibility is influenced by three main factors. First, the invasive, sub-spontaneous

nature of the plant itself obscures the fact of its cultivation, which often occurs in

agroecological systems and landscapes that, until recently, have not been well

understood. Secondly, the predominant social relations in the Northeast, established as a

result of the colonial slave economy, created a commodity chain structure that placed

castor bean farmers at great physical and social distances from their ultimate markets.

Finally, attempts at large-scale plantation systems for castor during these production

surges further obfuscates the role of small farmers, even as small-farm production

remains the dominant form.

These farming systems have remained hidden also because mainstream views

of nature and agriculture depend on the presence of specific features that define them

as such, drawing distinctions between ordered agricultural landscapes and wild

nature. Places containing semi-wild species such as castor are not often seen as

cultivated landscapes because agronomists and development experts are not trained, nor

is it in their interest, to see it as such. This issue becomes particularly salient on the


11/47

Figueroa 11

question of biofuels, as states and corporations identify idle land for expansion of

commercial agrofuels...in many cases, lands perceived to be idle, under-utilised,

marginal or abandonedby government and large private operators provide a vital basis

for the livelihoods of poorer and vulnerable groups, including through crop farming,

herding and gathering of wild products.18 The failure of development agents to see

idle land for the complex agroecological matrices they are reinforces not only the

modernization narratives that underlie their policy prescriptions, but also the land grabs

and processes of private property consolidation by commercial and industrial models of

agriculture that has contributed to the further marginalization of small farmers and theirsystems of production.

Finally, the analysis in this paper makes use of history, positioning the particular

social dilemmas of castor production in time as well as space. It shows how, in

concordance with other political and social justice-centered analyses of Brazils

Northeast,19 unequal social relations surrounding castor and the small-farm economy,

rooted in historical structures of colonialism and slavery, remain in a sense stuck in time

but are also contested over time, even as the commodity itself moves through wider periods

of global economic transition.

18 Philip McMichael, "A Food Regime Perspective on Millennium Developments,"Journal of Peasant Studies(forthcoming).19 See Josu de Castro,Death in the Northeast(New York: Random House, 1966).


12/47

Figueroa 12

A Plant for Masters and Slaves: Castor in Colonial Brazil

The agent and method of castors introduction into Brazil is unknown, but

evidence suggests that the plant was established in the Northeast quite early on in thecolonial period. A mid 17th century painting by Dutch artist Albert Eckhout, depicting a

mameluca (a mixed European-Indian woman) in Brazil, features the plant in the

background, suggesting that by this time the plant either could already have had

economic significance or naturalized itself in the Brazilian landscape (its inclusion with

native plants, such as the cashew tree, could attest to the latter).

Fig. 3. On left: Albert Eckhout,Mameluca Woman, c.1641-44.Fig. 4. On right: Detail of painting, featuring the castor plant.

Although the historical record is sparse regarding castor specifically, there is much

to consider on the possible role of the Transatlantic slave trade in introducing the plant to

Brazil. Although it had been well-established in Europe for centuries, and was already in


13/47

Figueroa 13

widespread use as a medicinal and illuminant, the sheer plethora of West African medicinal

and ritual uses highlight its importance to enslaved Africans as well.20 The rapid growth of

the Portuguese presence in West Africa due to the slave trade established the pattern of

dependence upon African societies for surplus food.21 Essential provisions for slave ships

bound for the Americas were stocked from African markets, and given its common utility

to both Africans and Europeans, castor could very likely have found its way from Africa to

Brazil via one or more of these slave ships. Castor leaves, valued by Africans for the

treatment of various ailments and skin disorders, were also utilized by Portuguese slave

traders in Brazil to rub on the scabies of newly arrived slaves in order to make them appearfit for sale.22

Fig. 5. Detail of Johann Moritz Rugendas,Negros Novos (c.1830s), with castor leaf in the foreground.

20 Refer back to Table 1.21 Judith Carney and Richard Rosomoff,In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa's Botanical Legacy in the New World(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009).22 Luis Antnio de Oliveira Mendes,Memria a Respeito dos Escravos e Trfico da Escravatura entre a Costa

D'africa e o Brazil (Bahia Brazil: P555, 2004).


14/47

Figueroa 14

Sugar in Bahia, especially during its boom periods in the 17th and late 18th-early

19th centuries, represented one of the major forms of slave-based, export-oriented

agriculture that dominated colonial economies during the mercantilist phase of capitalist

globalization. The BahianRecncavo, the ecological zone surrounding the Bay of All

Saints whose massap soils best supported the cultivation of sugarcane, was primarily

devoted to the cultivation of sugar monoculture. Castor products served many roles in

the formal sphere of Bahias slave-based sugar economy. Castor oil not only provided

illumination and medicine, but actually lubricated the mancais, or rollers, in the

machinery of the sugar mills.

23

The growth of an export economy of such magnitudedirectly and indirectly fostered, and even required, the growth of a vigorous local

market24 in the Recncavo and surrounding areas for essential foodstuffs and non-food

staples such as castor oil. Plantation accounts from the period did indeed include

purchases of locally produced castor oil, along with a host of other products.25 An early

expedition to establish large-scale commercial cultivation of castor in the region was

actually undertaken in 1759 by a Bahian doctor on order of the Portuguese court, but he

eventually gave up on the project, as the unpredictable climate rendered it unprofitable.26

The presence of a huge, numerically dominant African population in Bahia also

defined, to a large extent, the nature and dynamics of the local market. Of the estimated

11 million Africans forcibly brought to the Americas via the slave trade, about 4 million

23 da Silva,Mamona : Potencialidades Agroindustriais do Nordeste.24 Bart J. Barickman,A Bahian Counterpoint : Sugar, Tobacco, Cassava, and Slavery in the Recncavo, 1780-1860(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998).25 Ibid.26 S. Fres Abreu,Alguns Aspectos da Bahia (Rio de Janeiro: Typ. do Jornal do Commercio, de Rodrigues & C., 1926).


15/47

Figueroa 15

disembarked in Brazil.27 Bahia, the reigning center of Brazils sugareconomy and site of

its colonial capital, received around one-quarter of the total slaves sent to the colony,28

and by the early seventeenth century, sugar mills...were dominated by African as

opposed to indigenous chattel slaves.29

Bahias second sugarboom, between 1780 and 1860, led to rapidly expanding

demand for both slaves and subsistence provisions to feed its growing slave workforce,

and so plantation and nonplantation forms of slave-based agriculture, together with a

vigorous local market, allowed the growth and expansion of the Bahian export

economy.30 Africans, carrying with them the knowledge of tropical food systems from

their homelands, formed the backbone of the local agricultural support system,

cultivating African food and medicinal staples along with indigenous crops in subsistence

fields allotted to them by the plantation owners.31 These subsistence fields also provided

a space where slaves could exercise some autonomy in their lives, and they could even

gain an independent income by selling the surplus on the local market.32 Castor appears

to have been a regular feature in these subsistence plots, or roas, and could very well

have been cultivated for sale and marketed along with food surpluses.

27 David Eltis, Volume and Direction of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade from All African to All American Regions (cited10 December 2009); available from http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces.28 Instituto Brasilero de Geografia e Estatistica,Desembarque Estimado dos Africanos (IBGE, [cited); available fromhttp://www.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/tabelas/negros_desesembarques.htm.29 Robert A. Voeks, Sacred Leaves of Candombl : African Magic, Medicine, and Religion in Brazil, 1st ed. (Austin:University of Texas Press, 1997).30 Barickman,A Bahian Counterpoint : Sugar, Tobacco, Cassava, and Slavery in the Recncavo, 1780-1860., p. 2.31 Carney and Rosomoff,In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa's Botanical Legacy in the New World. p. 122.32 Bart J. Barickman, "A Bit of Land Which They Call Roa,"Hispanic American Historical Review 72, no. 4 (1994).


16/47

Figueroa 16

Fig. 6. Johann Moritz Rugendas, Habitao de Negros (c.1820).The castor plant, to the right of the house, is highlighted in white.

Castor and Slave Resistance: Candombl and Quilombos in the Serto

It seems that castor was not only an integral component of the Bahian sugar

economy, but also figured into means of resistance to the slave labor system in a number

of ways. A high degree of association among slaves, the limited autonomy available to

them through their provision grounds, and the vast, sparsely settled interior of the

Northeast provided cultural and physical spaces for both temporary and permanent

escape from the ravages of slavery. The religious and medicinal qualities of castor in

candombl, or Afro-Brazilian religion, provided temporary respite for especially African

women, while for the thousands who fled to quilombos, or runaway slave communities in

the semi-arid backlands of the serto, castor seems to have provided physical as well as

material support.


17/47

Figueroa 17

Candomblin Brazil is a syncretic assemblage of various, mainly West African

religious traditions that were preserved and carried to Brazil by slaves from diverse

homelands. Known in other parts of the Americas under various names (voodoo,

santera, obeah), these traditions represent complex cultural, ritual, and medicinal

survival strategies for African slave communities in the New World. Based in a

cosmology rooted primarily on the dynamics of community and healing, candombland

other African-based religious systems rely heavily on the use of plants, and in Brazil, a

vast pharmacopeia of African and indigenous plants, including castor (ewe lar, in

Yoruba) is utilized for a variety of ends.

33

Terreiros, or houses of worship, were placesin which candombldevotees could find sanctuary during days-long initiation rites, and

castor leaves was used in ritual baths (banhos de descarga) at the end of the ceremonies.

Also, during the slave period, African women in Brazil were often pressed into service as

amas de leite, or wet-nurses, for white children as well as orphans and wards of the

state.34 Following the ritual-medical traditions ofcandombl, women would wear castor

stems around their necks as an amulet to gain temporary respite from painful lactation.35

For those who chose to run away completely from the oppressions of slavery,

Bahias sparsely populated serto region presented a major opportunity, and slaves ran

away in droves to establish hundreds ofquilombos, or maroon communities, in Bahias

vast interior. The semi-arid serto - climatically and ecologically similar to the Sahel -

not only provided refuge for African people, but African plants as well, and the

distribution of castor seems to have followed a similar pattern to areas of runaway slave

33 Voeks, Sacred Leaves of Candombl : African Magic, Medicine, and Religion in Brazil. P. 4.34 A.J.R. Russell-Wood, Slavery and Freedom in Colonial Brazil (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1982).35 Voeks, p. 110.


18/47

Figueroa 18

settlement. There, castor trees may have been used as a means of camouflage and

defense as well as in African live-fencing practices to contain cattle.36 The connection of

quilombos to castor cultivation can also be read in quilombo place names throughout

Brazils Northeast region; communities named after various iterations of Mamoneira,

Mamona, and Carrapateira (another Portuguese name for castor) appear in the

Northeastern states of Bahia, Maranho, Cear, and Piau.37

Fig. 7. Comparative distribution ofquilombos remanescentes (remnant quilombos) in Bahia, andcastor production as of 1940, the year of the first Brazilian agricultural census.38 Maps by author.

This is not to say that castor in the serto is purely a quilombo legacy; indeed, in

the interior the crop was also widely grown on legitimate plantations and small farms.

The German naturalist Karl Philipp Friedrich von Martius chronicled castors presence

and common use as a medicinal during his trek through the Bahian serto in 1817,39 and

36 African live-fencing practices in the New World are outlined in Chris S. Duvall, "A Maroon Legacy? SketchingAfrican Contributions to Live Fencing Practices in Early Spanish America," Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography30 (2009). Personal observations of castor as live-fencing in modern day quilombo settlements also contributes to thisconjecture.37 Rafael Sanzio Arajo dos Anjos, Quilombos : Geografia Africana, Cartografia tnica, Territrios Tradicionais(Braslia: Mapas, Editora & Consultoria, 2009).38 Instituto Brasilero de Geografia e Estatistica,Recenseamento Geral do Brasil (1. de Setembro de 1940) (Rio deJaneiro: Servio Grfico do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatstica, 1940).39 Johann Baptist von Spix and Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, Viagem pelo Brasil (So Paulo: Melhoramentos,1938).


19/47

Figueroa 19

its presence on small plantations, orfazendas, has been mentioned in other 19th century

travel accounts.40 The expansion of peasant farms and medium-scalefazendas in the

serto supplying manioc, beef, and other products, including castor, to the local market

proceeded along with the growth of the sugar economy, especially in the years of the later

sugar boom. As this economy grew, so did the slave labor force, slave and peasant

agricultural production for the local market, and quilombos.41

The presence ofquilombos (or mocambos, as they are otherwise known) in the

interior of Bahia could however have played a role in shaping the contours of the local

market structure of the region. In contrast to more popular perceptions of escaped slave

communities as remote, isolated mountain communities (a model inspired by the most

famous Brazilian quilombo, Palmares), it seems that the vast majority of Bahian

mocambos...remained close to towns and farms...and the internal economy of the

mocambosmade proximity to settled areas a prerequisite for success.42 The serto, in

particular, supported a large number of free black and mestizo peasant farmers,43 and

combined with the marketing of surpluses from slave roas, there are good grounds for

believing that the local economy was largely dominated by persons of African descent.44

This would have provided both opportunity and cover for quilombolas to, in a sense,

hide in plain sight while trading and/or otherwise obtaining essential items for their

communities.

40 Ibid., Richard F. Burton, Explorations of the Highlands of Brazil, vol. 2 (London: Tinsley Brothers, 1869), CharlesHastings Dent,A Year in Brazil (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1886).41 Stuart B. Schwartz, Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels : Reconsidering Brazilian Slavery,Blacks in the New World(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992).42 Ibid., p. 109.43 Herbert Klein, "Nineteenth-Century Brazil," inNeither Slave nor Free, ed. David W. Cohen and Jack P. Greene(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974).44 Russell-Wood, Slavery and Freedom in Colonial Brazil. P. 200


20/47

Figueroa 20

The dynamics of isolation and interdependence that characterized the relationship

between quilombos and centers of slave-based production in Bahia45 created a necessary

friction of distance between quilombo communities and the economies that sustainedthem, as well as the authorities that would re-enslave them. The role ofatravessadores,

or middlemen, became especially important in this regard. A.J.R. Russell-Wood notes

that freedmen of African descent were prominent as go-betweens in the black market of

foodstuffs, which was a conspicuous feature of colonial Brazil, and describes the role of

these middlemen in the Bahian context:

The free coloured person...had the edge over the slave in extra mobility and

financial independence. After buying at the source, he or she could resell to the

highest bidder, or channel the produce through four or five intermediaries before

the final sale was made. This wheeling and dealing process was known as

carambola. In Salvador at the end of eighteenth century the sale of meat and

fish46 was largely governed by such intermediaries.47

This market structure, set up to take advantage of the needs and benefits of a

growing export economy while avoiding the dangers of the exploitative social system of

slavery, placed free peasants and self-freed quilombolas at great physical distances from

their ultimate consumers. While this obviously provided an advantage during the slave

period, the persistence of these market structures eventually became a liability for their

descendants and neighbors in subsequent periods, leading up to the present.

45 Schwartz, Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels : Reconsidering Brazilian Slavery.46 It must be noted that beef, along with castor, are mainly products of the serto, and fish from the region could havebeen obtained from quilombo communities that thrived all along the Rio So Francisco.47 Russell-Wood, Slavery and Freedom in Colonial Brazil. P. 55.


21/47

Figueroa 21

Interlude: Post-Slavery Disruptions and the Politics of Invisibility

A brief discussion of significant economic and agricultural developments in Bahia

at the end of the 19th century provides some context for the next period of castor

expansion in the mid 20thcentury. The converging crises of the collapse of Bahias sugar

economy, abolition and the transition from slave to wage labor, and catastrophic drought

at the end of the 1800s engendered severe disruptions in the population, agrarian

structure, and economy of the serto. Aggressive land consolidation, dispossession,

tightening labor control, and political upheaval intensified social conflict in the region,reaching a dramatic climax in the Canudos Rebellion of 1896-97.48

The abolition of slavery in Brazil, signed into law in May 1888, legally put an end

to that reviled institution, but also exacerbated a number of processes already in motion

that destabilized the support structures and precarious social compacts that sustained

small farmers, sharecroppers, slaves, and quilombolasin Bahias interior. Plantation

owners were no longer responsible for slaves sustenance, and therefore found no reason

to maintain the roas that had been spaces of autonomy and income generation for slaves.

At the same time, the cattle economy was on the rise, stepping into the breach that

sugars decline had created, and the rush to acquire vast land holdings for cattle defined

and reinforced the role of oligarchic structures in the Northeast.

48 Canudos was a utopian millenarian community of about 35,000 people, established under the leadership of religiousfigure Antnio Conselheiro, that attempted to live independently of state control in Bahias outback, and fought offthree full-scale military campaigns launched against them by the Brazilian military before eventually being crushed. Itis the subject of Euclides da Cunhas classic book Os Sertes, known in English asRebellion in the Backlands.


22/47

Figueroa 22

The consolidation of land had enormous impacts on the many ex-slaves and small

farmers who had, until then, found a degree of social security in the norms of the sugar

economy: People may have been nominally free, but the land became captive...the social

pacts, such as they were, between landowner and cultivator were changing profoundly.49

The criminalization of cultivation on titled lands, per the Land Law of 1850, became used

as a means of expelling or tightening labor control over small farmers.50 With the onset

of the Great Drought in 1877, whole populations ofroceiros (ex-slave agricultural

producers), agregados (sharecroppers), and moradores (tenant farmers) were violently

dispossessed, pushed onto marginal lands or coerced into leaving altogether to supplycheap labor for Amazonian rubber forests or the coffee plantations of So Paulo. Still

others fled to quilombos or joined millenarian communities, the most famous of which

became Canudos.

The legal mechanisms that facilitated land grabs in the serto involved the

accounting and valuation offazenda properties and their economic activities. Land titles

had always been precarious in Brazil, saturated with corruption and machinations of

people in power, and the contested terrains of the serto were no exception. Record-

keeping during this time in Bahia tended to only reflect dominant industries -- cattle and

sugar -- and so rendered invisible the mainly small-scale production of castor, manioc,

and myriad other items that were still produced and circulated in local markets.

Agricultural reports to the states authorities reflected this bias: In the point of view of

49 Susanna B. Hecht, The Scramble for the Amazon: Imperial Contests and the Tropical Odyssey of Euclides da Cunha(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).50 Monica Duarte Dantas, Fronteiras Movedias : A Comarca de Itapicuru e a Formao do Arraial de Canudos(Relaes Sociais na Bahia do Sculo XIX) (So Paulo: Editora Hucitec : Aderaldo & Rothschild Editores : FAPESP,2007).


23/47

Figueroa 23

the [village] council only the production ofrapadura [a sugarcane product] andfazendas

for the raising of livestock deserved to appear in the documents sent to the President of

the province.51 Acknowledging castor, manioc, or any other small-scale agricultural

activity would legitimize those producers claims to the land, and it was much more

advantageous for the oligarchy and its associated functionaries to define and delimit what

economic activities counted in the region.

The wholesale uprooting of people due to drought and the politics of land grabs,

and the high degree of mobility and conflict that characterized the last several years of

the 19th century, contributed to the processes that made small-scale agriculture in the

serto invisible. Yet, whether ignored by authorities, the natural outgrowth of vestigial

landscapes or a feature of clandestine escape agriculture52 practiced by a tenurially

insecure people on the move, castor does seem to have persisted, invisibly, in Bahias

backlands, later to reappear as economic transformation again changed the face of Brazil.

Liquid Engineering: Bahias Castor Oil Enters the Industrial Age

As Bahia grappled with drought, economic stagnation, rebellion, and the feudal

politics of landed oligarchies, the countries of the Global North (mainly Britain and the

US) were at the height of industrialization, and in the process were beginning to discover

castor oils many useful properties in industrial life. Already used in the manufacture of

paints, varnishes, and soaps in Europe and the US, by the early 20th century castor oil

51 Ibid. P. 5752 James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed : An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 2009).


24/47

Figueroa 24

would literally grease the wheels of transport innovation as well as industrial warfare. In

1899 Charles Wakefield, a British businessman, quit his job at the Vacuum Oil Company

(which later became Mobil) and set out on his own to manufacture lubricants for trains

and heavy machinery. By 1909 his new company, Castrol, was established, making

castor oil-based engine lubricants for motorcycles, automobiles, and a new invention, the

airplane.53 Due to castor oils high viscosity and ability to withstand extreme

temperatures, it was uniquely suited for the rotary engines of early propeller aircraft.

Castor oil figured prominently in the execution and iconography of the worlds

first industrial war, World War I. The oil was almost exclusively used as a lubricant for

the Gnome pioneer airplanes that fought the first air battles over Europe. These early

engines lacked a sump to retain the oil, and so the signature silk scarves that World War I

era pilots wore were used to wipe the oil off of their faces during flight.54 The war

ramped up demand for castor oil, especially in the United States, which by 1916 had

virtually ceased what little domestic castor production it had.55 As a result of the USs

entry into the war, it dramatically increased imports of castor seed, especially from

Brazil. In 1916 Brazil had only exported 947 tons of castor seed, but by the end of the

war was exporting over 23,000 tons, most of it leaving from the ports of Recife and

Salvador.56

53 Castrol, Our History (cited 6 June 2010); available fromhttp://www.castrol.com/castrol/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=8268008&contentId=6003300.54 Blaine Lee Pardoe, Terror of the Autumn Skies : The True Story of Frank Luke, America's Rogue Ace of World War I(New York: Skyhorse Pub., 2008).55 R. O. Weibel, "The Castor: Oil Plant in the United States," Economic Botany 2, no. 3 (1948).56 Bayma,Mamona. P. 76.


25/47

Figueroa 25

As is the case today, military uses often lead to civilian industrial applications,

and industrial uses for castor products in the US proliferated in the interwar period.

Castor oil was used for a broad range of applications, from lubricants to paints, to

chemicals for plastics and synthetic fibers. The pomace, or meal left from castor seed

after oil extraction was used as a nitrogen-rich fertilizer, and the ricin from castor leaves

were developed into chemical insecticides. The woody castor stems were also utilized

for the manufacture of cardboard, newsprint, kraft and other paper products.57

With almost no domestic production to speak of, the United States imported

around 95% of its castor from Brazil and Mexico.58 Between World War I and II, the

United States became the premier importer of castor products from Brazil, accounting for

the vast majority of Brazils exports. Exports from Brazil mushroomed, increasing from

around 17,000 tons of seed in 1929 (11.1% of world exports) to almost 120,000 tons in

1937 (57.6% of world exports).59 Because of the high demand for castor seed, its value

spiked as well, and the total value of exports from the ports of Salvador increased more

than tenfold in the same period: from 2,214,748 mil-ris in 1929 (about $522 per 60kg

sack) to 31,041,755 mil-ris (around $761 per sack) in 1937. Bahia was, by far, the

largest producer of castor - in area cultivated, tons produced, and in export value.60 The

many industrial uses for castor, as well as its increasing value on the world market,

earned the notice of the modernizing Brazilian state as well. By 1940, the Estado Novo

57 Edmund H. Fulling, "Utilization Abstracts - Castor Beans," Economic Botany 1, no. 1 (1947).58 W. E. Domingo, "The Development of Domestic Castor Bean Production," Economic Botany 7, no. 1 (1953).59 Diva de Carvalho Faria,A Mamona Sob o Trplice Aspecto : Cultural, Industrial e Econmico (Rio de Janeiro:Oficinas Grficas do Servio de Publicidade Agricola, 1939).60 Ibid.


26/47

Figueroa 26

administration of President Getlio Vargas issued laws governing its commercial

production and export.61

World War II again highlighted the relationship between war and Brazilian castor

oil, as it found its way into many aspects of Allied war equipment and the European

theater. The following bulletin from a 1943 issue ofScience News-Letterprovides a

summary of its versatility of uses in the war:

Castor oil is bad medicine for the Axis; presently Mussolini and his pals will

be wishing theyd never heard of the nasty stuff. It turns up at war in all sorts of

unexpected places, all the way from the hydraulic fluid that fills the recoil-

absorbing cylinders of big guns to the paint that protects ships bottoms...Castor

oil mixed with alcohol makes a good fluid for recoil cylinders, hydraulic brakes

and the shock absorbers on airplane landing gear because it retains its consistency

at all outdoor temperatures, not thickening and getting stiff as many other oils do

when the mercury slides down below the zero mark. Russian gunners and truck

drivers could tell you a thing or two about that; so could our own fliers who take

Flying Fortresses and Lightnings up into the perpetual Arctic that reigns at the

30,000-foot altitudes. Another usefulness of castor oil to aviators is hidden in the

white folds of their nylon parachutes, for from castor oil comes sebacic acid, one

of the chemical building-blocks of nylon in one process of manufacture.62

On the other side of the war, Mussolini was also utilizing the nasty stuff in diabolically

imaginative ways: the fascist Blackshirts rounded up Communists and other dissidents

and force-fed them gallons of castor oil as a torture method, inducing severe diarrhea and

dehydration.63

61 Decreto no. 6.255, issued 11 September 1940, established regulations on the classification and quality of seed and oilexports, and defined the amount of taxes to be levied accordingly. See Bayma,Mamona. P. 71.62 Anonymous, "Castor Oil Serves Many Purposes in the War," Science News-Letter, April 3 1943.63 Charles F. Delzell, "Remembering Mussolini," The Wilson Quarterly (1976-) 12, no. 2 (1988).


27/47

Figueroa 27

By the end of the war, Brazilian exports of castor to the US had reached its height.

Exports declined slightly after the war,64 then took off again in 1947, reaching another

peak in the mid 1950s, when the country dominated the world market in castor

production.65 This second wave of postwar production had a slightly different character

than in previous decades. Brazil in the 1950s was itself in the throes of industrialization

and a decidedly modernist trajectory, and, perhaps spurred by the exponential growth of

value and demand for castor, took on industrial projects of its own. The main evidence to

illustrate this change of direction was the decision, mainly led by industrialists in So

Paulo, to increase domestic crushing of castor beans and shift the main exports toprocessed oil, instead of the whole bean as it had before the war.66 Industrial agriculture

was also taking off in the south of Brazil, which increased demands for nitrogen fertilizer,

and castor bean cake, or torta, became an important source of agricultural inputs.

The high demand for castor products in both Brazil and the United States spurred

research in both countries throughout the 1950s, which sought to develop improved

varieties and ways to mechanize and commercialize production of castor on a large scale.

Agricultural and scientific literature during this period were filled with reports of

experiments and studies on plant genetics and chemical properties to develop new

industrial applications, as well as trial plantation settings to improve yields of the seed

641945 Vegetable Oil Exports Break ecord, July 15, 1946, in Industry and Commerce of Brazil Ministry of Labor,"Brazilian Bulletin (Vol. 3)," (New York: Brazilian Government Trade Bureau, 1946).65 Bayma,Mamona. P.88.66New Castor Oil Synthetics Spurs Brazilian Producers, November 1, 1948, in Industry and Commerce of BrazilMinistry of Labor, "Brazilian Bulletin (Vol. 5)," (New York: Brazilian Government Trade Bureau, 1948), MamounMohammed Yassin, "Apsects of World Production and Marketing of Castor Beans and the Position of Sudan,"(Khartoum: Department of Agriculture, Agricutural Economics Division, 1963).


28/47

Figueroa 28

that is worth gold.67 However, just as with the Bahian expedition in 1759, large-scale

commercial production proved difficult and, ultimately, economically unprofitable.

Some of the difficulty stemmed from the nature of the plant itself. Its high

toxicity, due to the ricin in the leaves as well as the seeds, made mechanized harvesting

highly risky and subject to contamination. The use of combines required the physical or

chemical defoliation of the castor leaves before harvesting, which increased the cost of

production. Hand labor remained the safest and most economically efficient way to

harvest the seeds, and agricultural manuals from the period even recommended the use of

family labor to save on costs -- bringing it all the way back to the small-scale production

methods that had dominated castors cultivation for centuries.68 Indeed, even while So

Paulos agro-industrial sector began to produce a moderately competitive volume of

castor, the peasant producers of Bahia continued to dominate, accounting for a majority

percentage of Brazils total production.69

Northeastern Farmers and the Castor Boom: An Exercise in Exclusion

One can see the half-breed of the Brazilian Northeast wasting away on a hungerdiet of beans and manioc meal the year round -- in the fertile lands of the canefields, which brought more wealth to the Portuguese of the seventeenth centurythan all the luxurious imports of the Orient. -- Josu de Castro, The Geographyof Hunger70

67 R. Pimentel Gomes, "Mamona : A Baga que Vale Ouro," (Rio de Janeiro: Servio de Informao Agricola, 1942).For a comprehensive collection of articles from this period, also see Eliezita R. de Carvalho and Benedito R.M.Bortoletto,Bibliografia de Mamona (Brasilia: Setor de Informao e Documentao, 1977).68 Bayma,Mamona.69 Ibid.70 Josu de Castro, The Geography of Hunger(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1952).


29/47

Figueroa 29

In 1952, Brazils castor export industry had hit its heights. While the US became

embroiled in the Korean War and began to erect trade barriers to boost domestic

production, Brazils trade relationship with the US in terms of castor continued to thrive.

By 1951, castor exports from Brazil had increased almost 500 percent from the end of

World War II, with a total value of over 151 million cruzeiros.71 While industrial So

Paulo established itself as a center of processing of castor oil and related products, Bahia

remained a center of primary agricultural output, producing over 48,000 tons worth

around 113 million cruzeiros.72 The industry surged amid a general recovery of Bahias

export economy, as the Recncavo also experienced a resurgence in agriculturalcommerce beginning in the 1920s, producing tobacco and cacao as well as renewed

quantities of sugar.73

It would have seemed incongruous, in the face of such economic growth,

including growth based on peasant production in the Northeast, for one to talk about

hunger in the same regions where such wealth was being produced. Yet in that same

year, 1952, Josu de Castro, a Brazilian scientist working with the UN Food and

Agriculture Organization, released his seminal work The Geography of Hunger, which

thrust the plight of the Northeastern peasant onto the world stage. The semi-arid areas of

Northeast Brazil, as de Castro described it, was a place where men were born only to

die, and feed the earth more than it fed him.74 In Bahia, de Castro found that nearly 40

percent of the school children were found to be suffering from anemia.75The Geography

71 Industry and Commerce of Brazil Ministry of Labor, "Brazilian Bulletin (Vol. 8)," (New York: BrazilianGovernment Trade Bureau, 1951).72 Bayma,Mamona. P.73.73 Dain Edward Borges, The Family in Bahia, Brazil, 1870-1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992).74 de Castro, The Geography of Hunger.75 Ibid.


30/47

Figueroa 30

of Hungernot only called world attention to the grave poverty and suffering of the

Northeast (a place later described by Eduardo Galeano as a concentration camp for

thirty million people76), but also framed the question of hunger as one of political and

socioeconomic inequalities rather than prevailing Malthusian narratives of drought and

inexorable famine. De Castro was one of the first prominent analysts on the world stage

to explicitly implicate colonialism as a primary driver of contemporary problems, saying

outright that starvation in South America is a direct consequence of the continents

historical past. This history is one of colonial exploitation along mercantile lines. It

developed through successive economic cycles, the effect of which was to destroy, or atleast upset, the economic integrity of the continent...one finds a whole region giving itself

up to entirely to the monoculture, or monoexploitation, of a single product -- at the same

time forgetting everything else.77

Another interesting feature of the social dynamics of the Northeast during the

wartime castor boom is the fact that the same period is also marked by intense forms of

peasant resistance and organizing. Bahia and other parts of Northeast Brazil in the 1920s

and 1930s became infamous through the exploits of its cangaceiros, bandits who roamed the

interior -- the most celebrated of whom was the Bonnie and Clyde-like pair of outlaws,

Lampio and Maria Bonita. It is argued that Lampio and other cangaceiros of his day

were not simply criminals but rather practiced social banditry -- crime as a kind of social

movement, a proto-rebellion against intractable power relations.78 Other, more articulated

rebellions also took place during this period. In 1926 the Prestes Column marched through

76 Eduardo H. Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America; Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent(New York:Monthly Review Press, 1973).77 de Castro, The Geography of Hunger.78 Eric J. Hobsbawm,Bandits, New ed. (New York: New Press : Distributed by W.W. Norton, 2000).


31/47

Figueroa 31

Bahia as part of their long campaign throughout the national territory, in a show of force

against the coronelismo79 that characterized rural social relations in the Northeast.80 In the

1950s, the socialist Peasant Leagues attracted world attention through their campaigns in the

Northeast for agrarian reform, leading de Castro to remark that The United States that had

vaguely discovered the Brazilian Northeast during the second world war...again discovered,

this time with astonished and bewildered curiosity, this unknown land.81

The backdrop of dire poverty and social unrest in Bahia and the Northeast that

existed parallel to the growth in castor production during the wartime and postwar years is

illustrated here not to draw direct causal relationships between the two phenomena. It is

presented to buttress the notion that poverty in the Northeast and its responses are not

simply borne out of climatic vicissitudes or cultural backwardness, but rather are

functions of wealth, economic growth, inequality and social exclusion. As Josu de Castro

put it, it is the economic evolution of recent years that has given rise to this new

polarization...economic evolution has laid bare the basic problems and pushed Brazil to the

crossroads.82

In the context of the castor boom, the dynamics of exclusion is expressed in the

profound silence that surrounds a remarkably large portion of the castor that appeared in

the markets and ports of Bahia. While scores of articles were published during this

period on the applications and improvements being developed on the castor plant, as well

79Coronelismo refers to the highly corrupt and violent systems of patronage that pervaded the Northeast, dominated byan oligarchic structure of local landowners, or latifundarios.80 Ernest A. Duff, "Lus Carlos Prestes and the Revolution of 1924,"Luso-Brazilian Review 4, no. 1 (1967).81 Josu de Castro, Sete Palmos de Terra e um Caixo; : Ensaio Sbre o Nordeste, rea Explosiva (So Paulo: EditraBrasiliense, 1965).82 de Castro,Death in the Northeast.


32/47

Figueroa 32

as statistics and business publications on the dramatic increase of the volume of seeds and

processed oil leaving the port of Salvador, nearly nothing is said about where the castor is

actually comingfrom. What little was said about castor production in Bahia did not

acknowledge the ubiquity of small-scale cultivation, but rather assumed that the products

were simply gathered in the wild. A Brazilian study from 1938 stated that [castor] is

considered spontaneous in certain regions of the country, such as in the zone of the Rio

So Francisco basin, where one does not perform a proper cultivation, but simply a

collection of the castor that there exists in abundance.83 This persisted well into the

1970s, as an article from a So Paulo-based agricultural magazine in described castor asdo fundo do quintal (from the backyard).84 A 1974 United Nations document noted

that a large portion of the important Brazilian output, perhaps as much as 50 per cent, is

gathered from wild-growing castor...while it is rather difficult to make an accurate

assessment of the percentage of wild-growing castor, the one given here is probably on

the low side.85

Part of this could have stemmed from the inability of surveyors and economists to

read agriculture in a way that included traditional and indigenous agroecological

systems. A common agricultural practice in the serto was to plant castor in an

intercropped system (em consorciao) with beans and maize, which could be

recognized readily enough. But if castor was, indeed, part of a quilombo legacy in Bahia,

it could (and did) form part of much more complex agroforestry systems that combined

several crops together in ways that mimic natural landscapes. unaway slaves in the

83 Faria,A Mamona Sob o Trplice Aspecto : Cultural, Industrial e Econmico. P. 37.84 Anonymous, "Mamona do Fundo do Quintal a Exportao,"Dir. Rural 1973.85 United Nations, "Castor Oil Production and Processing," (New York: United Nations Industrial DevelopmentOrganization, 1974).


33/47

Figueroa 33

colonial period often formed quilombos in alliance with local native populations, and

often became repositories of indigenous agricultural knowledge.86 Practices of

agroforestry in these quilombo communities persist to the present day, including castor as

an integral part of the system, either intercropped within the field or as live fencing.

Fig. 8. Castor in a quilombo agricultural field in central Bahia. Photo by author.

Studies done on peasant production, especially in Bahia and the Northeast, also

tended to concentrate mainly on food products, leaving secondary use plants such as

castor, fiber plants, and other useful crops out of the picture. Indeed, for most crops that

did not figure into the main commercial (and, in the 20th century, agroindustrial)

complexes of the Northeast, the failure to adequately record them perpetuated the same

dynamics of invisibility that justified the land appropriations of the late 19th century.

86 Carney and Rosomoff,In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa's Botanical Legacy in the New World.


34/47

Figueroa 34

Such assessments, taking for granted the ubiquitous presence of castor throughout

the serto, failed to acknowledge the multi-generational farming traditions that the

sertanejo castor farmers in Chapada Diamantina described so vividly when asked. It is

significant because they ignore the human agency, the people who are responsible for

maintaining castors widespread presence in the Bahian landscape -- thereby excluding

these small producers from their place in the economic process. What is evident is that a

number of factors, including invisibility of peasant production, prevailing political and

market structures, and a historical bias towards large-scale commercial production and

the powerful landowners that promoted it, ensured that economic gains from the mid 20

th

century castor export boom were not remitted to the majority of farmers that were still

responsible for its cultivation.

The postwar boom drew to a close as the development of synthetic lubricants in

the United States led to a drop in demand and collapse of world prices, but domestic

demand for castor persisted from the chemical and plastics industries. The company

Sociedade Algodeira do Nordeste Brasileiro (SANBRA) opened a plant in Western

Bahia, and became the primary buyer for most of central Bahias crop. Bahias castor

trade became small and local once more, until a crisis in world energy again brought it to

the notice of national as well as commercial interests.

Biodiesel in Bahia: Social Fuel As Sustainable Development

The world oil price shocks of the 1970s sent a wake-up call to the world not only

to the total dependence of industrial society on fossil fuels, but also to the finite, non-


35/47


36/47

Figueroa 36

left-leaning Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores or PT), a party formed at the end

of the military dictatorship as a coalition of trade unionists, rural social movements, and

environmental groups.89 These movements coalesced to form the political basis for

governmental social policies that have prioritized the rural poor of the Northeast.

Brazils National Plan for the Production and Use of Biodiesel (PNPB or Pro-

Biodiesel)90 was signed into law in 2004 and implemented in 2005, its main objective

being to guarantee the economically viable production of biodiesel, and its major goal

being social inclusion and regional development.91 Following on the success of the

countrys ethanol fuel system, Pro-Biodiesel seeks to diversify Brazils sources of diesel

fuel for its industrial transportation sector by gradually introducing increasing amounts of

plant-based diesel into the national fuel supply. A central feature of the program is the

Social Fuel Seal,92a social inclusion component that provides technical and financial

assistance to small farmers for oil crop production, as well as tax incentives for large

biodiesel companies who purchase feedstock from small farmers.

In Bahia, castor oil cultivation has become a centerpiece of the governments

plans for producing this social fuel in the semi-arid interior of the state.93 The oil plant,

according to government reports, appears to be excellently adaptable to semi-arid lands,

which will promote a sustainable agriculture in the poorest Brazilian region.94 The state

89 Kathryn Hochstetler and Margaret E. Keck, Greening Brazil : Environmental Activism in State and Society(Durham: Duke University Press, 2008).90 G.P.A.G. Pousa, A. L. F. Santos, and P. A. Z. Suarez, "History and Policy of Biodiesel in Brazil," Energy Policy 35,no. 11 (2007).91 Pousa et al., p. 5394.92 Biopact Team, "An in-Depth Look at Brazils Social Fuel Seal," (2007).93 Governo do Estado da Bahia, "Bahiabio: O Programa da Energia," (Salvador: Government of Brazil, 2007).94 Ibid., p. 5395.


37/47

Figueroa 37

of Bahia, in particular, with its agro-socio-economic diversity, presents an extraordinary

vocation for the production of oleaginous cultures,95 which include soy, cotton, and

palm oil along with castor. Bahias PT-controlled state government, in collaboration with

public and private companies such as Petrobras and Brasil Ecodiesel, has aggressively

pushed forward with research and planning, especially in regards to the application of the

Social Fuel Seal in biodiesel development.

However, five years after the implementation of Pro-Biodiesel, in spite of

government rhetoric to the contrary, the situation for Bahias castor farmers has changed

little, if at all. Economic analysts have mainly pointed to the difficulties associated with

the high cost of biodiesel production from castor -- low productivity, viscosity of the oil,

high opportunity costs, and the volatility in returns associated with both climatic and

market conditions.96 Still others point to lack of technology and infrastructure, broken or

difficult-to-manage contracts between companies and small farmers, and a lack of trust

between farmers, creditors, middlemen, and the government.97 It was even found that

Brasil Ecodiesel, the main buyer/processor of biodiesel in Bahia, simply bought the

castor from farmers for the tax incentives promised under the Social Fuel Seal, then re-

sold the castor to the chemical industry, rather than take on the higher costs of processing

it for biodiesel.98 Because of this, even with the Social Fuel Seal castor remains no match

95 Governo do Estado da Bahia, "Bahiabio: O Programa da Energia.", p. 15.96 Paulo Henrique Pereira de Meneses Vaz, Yony de Sa Barreto Sampaio, and Everardo Valadares de Sa BarrettoSampaio, "Anlise da Competitividade da Mamona para Produo de Biodiesel no Nordeste do Brasil," (UFPE, 2008).97 Aldara da Silva Csar and Mrio Otvio Batalha, "Biodiesel Production from Castor Oil in Brazil: A DifficultReality," Energy Policy 38, no. 8 (2010), Marcel Gomes et al., "Brazil of Biofuels : Impacts of Crops on Land,Environment and Society - Soybean and Castor Bean," (ONG Reporter Brasil; Biofuel Watch Center, 2009), AlosioMilani and et al Mauricio Monteiro, "O Brasil dos Agrocombustveis - Soja e Mamona," (ONG Reporter Brasil, 2008).98 Gomes et al., "Brazil of Biofuels : Impacts of Crops on Land, Environment and Society - Soybean and Castor Bean."


38/47


39/47

Figueroa 39

expansion of production. Viability studies for the biodiesel program had assumed an

average plot size of 10 hectares, which does not, apparently, match the reality for the

majority of Bahias small farmers.102

It also seems that between the late 1970s and 2006, castor farmers in particular

were subjected to land and market pressures, due to the expansion of agroindustry in

competing oil crops. The pair of maps below show the quite dramatic compression of

castor areas into the center of the state, as oil palm plantations flourished in the south and

east, and large-scale soybean cultivation encroached onto the west.

Fig. 9. Comparative distribution of castor farms from 1977 to 2006. Maps by author.

Another aspect with which farmers had particular difficulty was access to the

market and their dependence on middlemen for transport and sale of their product. The

traditional practices ofcarambola, established during the slave period, and the distance

which had helped to camouflage the internal trade from quilombos and free black

peasants in the interior, has not helped in the present context. Contemporary middlemen

102 Barufi and Pavan, "Biodiesel e os Dilemas da Incluso Social."


40/47

Figueroa 40

in Bahia range from the traveling trader, or bodegueiro, who goes from farm to farm

bartering food products or other household staples for sacks of castor beans, to the

comerciantes who operate in local and regional markets, to which the farmers

periodically bring their product. As one farmer noted in an interview, We dont have

the conditions to make contracts with Brasil Ecodiesel or the government. Our

production is very small, so we sell to the atravessadores...we dont have contact with the

ultimate buyer, so many times we dont know if the mamona ends up as biodiesel or

some other product. Another farmer, an elderly woman, described how comerciantes, or

wholesale buyers, frequent local markets in order to buy mamona -- then, when they

have enough, they call someone else to resell it to the biodiesel company.103

This system of intermediaries has been, for a long time, the only means of selling

castor to the wider market. As a result, market prices were often determined on the local

level, and gains from higher prices on the world market often stayed in large part with

the middlemen.104

In the case of castor and biodiesel, this has recently led to conflict; in

2006, farmers in the municpioof Irec, Bahias biggest castor-producing area, burned a

large pile of castor seeds in the streets when it was found they had been paid less than

half the going market price for their product.105 Some attempts have been made on the

part of government to reduce the number of middlemen and the value captured by

103 Interview with author in Iraquara, Bahia, Brazil, May 2009.104 Demstenes Azevedo, Marcos Pedrosa Lima, and Emdio Ferreira, O Agronegcio da Mamona no Brasil, 1a. ed.(Braslia, DF: Embrapa Informao Tecnolgica, 2001).105 Eduardo Nunomura, "Superproduo Adia Planos da Capital da Mamona," Estado de So Paulo, March 14 2006.


41/47

Figueroa 41

them,106but it seems that a predatory system of intermediaries still exists in many

areas, especially in areas of the serto where traditional markets and upsell chains persist.

Because of the larger socioeconomic inequalities and relations that have plagued

the peasant populations of Bahias serto, the mainly market-based approaches in the

development of castor for biodiesel have not been able to deliver its promised social

benefits. Indeed, Embrapa researcher Liv Soares has observed that the success of PNPB

[Pro-Biodiesel] in the generation of social benefits depends on a stronger intervention on

the part of the state. According to Soares, if the sector is dependent on the auto-

regulation of the market and stays at the whim of business logic, mamona will not have a

future in the semi-arid region.107

Conclusion: Breaking the Historical Chains

Presented with the larger historical view concerning the social contexts, conflicts,

and challenges concerning castor in Bahia, it becomes necessary to treat the

contemporary push for social development via biofuel as not the first, but merely the

latest of several attempts to commercialize castor, and one of a string of failed schemes

that have sought to develop the Northeast.108 Solutions to development issues are not

simply an issue of creating markets and market opportunities for castor, because markets

have always existed for this crop, and attempts at commercialization are not new. The

106 The Mamona Protocol was implemented in Bahia in 1999, an agreement between the state government, agrarianagencies, and the regional development bank where industry could buy directly from associations of small producers atgovernment-regulated prices. See Milani and Mauricio Monteiro, "O Brasil dos Agrocombustveis - Soja e Mamona."107 Ibid., p. 42.108 John Dickenson, "Innovations for Regional Development in Northeast Brazil: A Century of Failures," Third WorldPlanning Review 2, no. 1 (1980).


42/47

Figueroa 42

schemes have not failed simply because of drought or the inherent hopelessness of a

culturally backward people, but because very particular historical and political forces are

at play. Despite the rhetoric of a socially progressive state, the social relations, market

structures, and land distribution problems that were formed in the Bahian serto during

the colonial period have persisted and even intensified to the present.

Recognition of these historical forces and a commitment to rectifying deep-seated

structural inequalities can also lead to formulating alternative approaches that could help

farmers in Bahia in very real ways. Land reform -- that perennial demand of peasant

movements everywhere -- would be both a socially just and ecologically sound step

towards sustainable development in the region. Other steps could include placing greater

emphasis on forming associations and strengthening farmers role in the productive chain

for biodiesel. Alternative models of biofuel production being tried in Brazils southern

regions, where unions and associations are stronger, offers the possibility of

substantiating the rural development claims of a biofuels program, but on a foundation of

cooperative production relations (as opposed to simple commodity production).109

These models also strengthen and give greater recognition to the kinds of agroforestry

systems that had been rendered invisible and/or perceived as wild nature in the

Northeast.

Finally, it is worth noting that these alternatives have as their organizing principle

a very different vision of political economy -- one not subject to entrenched powers and

the volatilities of a global market but rather rooted in notion of food and energy

109 McMichael, "A Food Regime Perspective on Millennium Developments."


43/47

Figueroa 43

sovereignty, which prioritizes local needs, ecological principles, and democratic decision-

making structures as a way of building and reinforcing viable livelihoods. The viability

of such models are yet to be determined, but as a departure from long-standing systems

and norms of power and privilege, these approaches could represent new and

qualitatively different steps toward resolving the seemingly intractable dilemmas of the

Northeast.


44/47

Figueroa 44

Works Cited

Abreu, S. Fres.Alguns Aspectos da Bahia. Rio de Janeiro: Typ. do Jornal doCommercio, de Rodrigues & C., 1926.

Anonymous. "Castor Oil Serves Many Purposes in the War." Science News-Letter, April

3 1943, 216.. "Mamona do Fundo do Quintal a Exportao."Dir. Rural 1973, 88-93.Arajo dos Anjos, Rafael Sanzio. Quilombos : Geografia Africana, Cartografia tnica,

Territrios Tradicionais. Braslia: Mapas, Editora & Consultoria, 2009.Azevedo, Demstenes, Marcos Pedrosa Lima, and Emdio Ferreira. O Agronegcio da

Mamona no Brasil. 1a. ed. Braslia, DF: Embrapa Informao Tecnolgica, 2001.Barickman, Bart J.A Bahian Counterpoint : Sugar, Tobacco, Cassava, and Slavery in the

Recncavo, 1780-1860. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.. "A Bit of Land Which They Call Roa."Hispanic American Historical Review

72, no. 4 (1994).. "Persistence and Decline: Slave Labour and Sugar Production in the Bahian

Reconcavo, 1850-1888."Journal of Latin American Studies 28, no. 3 (1996): 581-633.Barufi, Clara, and Margareth Oliveira Pavan. "Biodiesel e os Dilemas da Incluso

Social." InAs Novas Energias no Brasil: Dilemas da Incluso Social eProgramas de Governo, edited by Celio Bermann. Rio de Janeiro: FASE, 2007.

Bayma, Antonio da Cunha.Mamona. Rio de Janeiro: Ministrio da Agricultura, 1958.Biopact Team. "An in-Depth Look at Brazils Social Fuel Seal." 2007.Borges, Dain Edward. The Family in Bahia, Brazil, 1870-1945. Stanford: Stanford

University Press, 1992.Burkill, H. M., J. M. Dalziel, and J. Hutchinson. The Useful Plants of West Tropical

Africa. Ed. 2. ed. Kew, Richmond, Surrey: Royal Botanic Gardens, 1985.Burton, Richard F. Explorations of the Highlands of Brazil. Vol. 2. London: Tinsley

Brothers, 1869.Carney, Judith, and Richard Rosomoff.In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa's Botanical

Legacy in the New World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.Castrol. Our History. In,

http://www.castrol.com/castrol/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=8268008&contentId=6003300. (accessed 6 June 2010.

da Silva, Arnaldo.Mamona : Potencialidades Agroindustriais do Nordeste. Recife:SUDENE, 1983.

da Silva Csar, Aldara, and Mrio Otvio Batalha. "Biodiesel Production from Castor Oilin Brazil: A Difficult Reality." Energy Policy 38, no. 8 (2010): 4031-39.

Dantas, Monica Duarte. Fronteiras Movedias : A Comarca de Itapicuru e a Formaodo Arraial de Canudos (Relaes Sociais na Bahia do Sculo XIX) . So Paulo:Editora Hucitec : Aderaldo & Rothschild Editores : FAPESP, 2007.

de Campos, Arnoldo Anacleto, and Edna de Cssio Carmlio. "Construir a Diversidadeda Matriz Energtica: O Biodiesel no Brasil." InBiocombustveis: A Energia daControvrsia, edited by Ricardo Abramovay. So Paulo: Editora Senac, 2009.

de Carvalho, Eliezita R., and Benedito R.M. Bortoletto.Bibliografia de Mamona.Brasilia: Setor de Informao e Documentao, 1977.
http://www.castrol.com/castrol/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=8268008&contentId=6003300http://www.castrol.com/castrol/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=8268008&contentId=6003300http://www.castrol.com/castrol/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=8268008&contentId=6003300http://www.castrol.com/castrol/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=8268008&contentId=6003300http://www.castrol.com/castrol/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=8268008&contentId=6003300


45/47

Figueroa 45

de Castro, Josu.Death in the Northeast. New York: Random House, 1966.. Sete Palmos de Terra e um Caixo; : Ensaio Sbre o Nordeste, rea Explosiva .

So Paulo: Editra Brasiliense, 1965.. The Geography of Hunger. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1952.de Meneses Vaz, Paulo Henrique Pereira, Yony de Sa Barreto Sampaio, and Everardo

Valadares de Sa Barretto Sampaio. "Anlise da Competitividade da Mamona paraProduo de Biodiesel no Nordeste do Brasil." UFPE, 2008.Delzell, Charles F. "Remembering Mussolini." The Wilson Quarterly (1976-) 12, no. 2

(1988): 118-35.Dent, Charles Hastings.A Year in Brazil. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1886.Dickenson, John. "Innovations for Regional Development in Northeast Brazil: A Century

of Failures." Third World Planning Review 2, no. 1 (1980): 57.Domingo, W. E. "The Development of Domestic Castor Bean Production." Economic

Botany 7, no. 1 (1953): 65-75.Duff, Ernest A. "Lus Carlos Prestes and the Revolution of 1924."Luso-Brazilian Review

4, no. 1 (1967): 3-16.

Duvall, Chris S. "A Maroon Legacy? Sketching African Contributions to Live FencingPractices in Early Spanish America." Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography30 (2009): 232-47.

Eltis, David. Volume and Direction of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade from All African toAll American Regions. In The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database: Voyages,http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces. (accessed 10 December 2009).

Faria, Diva de Carvalho.A Mamona Sob o Trplice Aspecto : Cultural, Industrial eEconmico. Rio de Janeiro: Oficinas Grficas do Servio de PublicidadeAgricola, 1939.

Fulling, Edmund H. "Utilization Abstracts - Castor Beans." Economic Botany 1, no. 1(1947): 116.

Galeano, Eduardo H. Open Veins of Latin America; Five Centuries of the Pillage of aContinent. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1973.

Gomes, Marcel, Antonio Biondi, Thas Brianezi, and Verena Glass. "Brazil of Biofuels :Impacts of Crops on Land, Environment and Society - Soybean and Castor Bean."ONG Reporter Brasil; Biofuel Watch Center, 2009.

Governo do Estado da Bahia. "Bahiabio: O Programa da Energia." Salvador: Governmentof Brazil, 2007.

Grupo de Trabalho Interministerial do Biodiesel. "Relatorios Finais dos Subgrupos."Governo Federal do Brasil, 2004.

Hecht, Susanna B. The Scramble for the Amazon: Imperial Contests and the TropicalOdyssey of Euclides da Cunha. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Hobsbawm, Eric J.Bandits. New ed. New York: New Press : Distributed by W.W.Norton, 2000.

Hochstetler, Kathryn, and Margaret E. Keck. Greening Brazil : Environmental Activismin State and Society. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008.

Instituto Brasilero de Geografia e Estatistica. "Censo Agropecuario." IBGE, 2006.. Desembarque Estimado dos Africanos. In, IBGE,

http://www.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/tabelas/negros_desesembarques.htm. (accessed.
http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faceshttp://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faceshttp://www.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/tabelas/negros_desesembarques.htmhttp://www.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/tabelas/negros_desesembarques.htmhttp://www.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/tabelas/negros_desesembarques.htmhttp://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces


46/47

Figueroa 46

.Recenseamento Geral do Brasil (1. de Setembro de 1940). Rio de Janeiro:Servio Grfico do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatstica, 1940.

Klein, Herbert. "Nineteenth-Century Brazil." InNeither Slave nor Free, edited by DavidW. Cohen and Jack P. Greene. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974.

Kouri, Joffre, and obrio Ferreira dos Santos. "Aspectos Econmicos do Agronegcio

da Mamona no Brasil." Brasilia: EMBRAPA, 2007.Leiras, Adriana, Silvio Hamacher, and Luiz Felipe Scavarda. "An Integrated SupplyChain Perspective Evaluation for Biodiesel Production in Brazil."BrazilianJournal of Operations & Production Management5, no. 2 (2008): 29-47.

McMichael, Philip. "A Food Regime Perspective on Millennium Developments."Journalof Peasant Studies (forthcoming).

Mendes, Luis Antnio de Oliveira.Memria a Respeito dos Escravos e Trfico daEscravatura entre a Costa D'africa e o Brazil. Bahia Brazil: P555, 2004.

Milani, Alosio, and et al Mauricio Monteiro. "O Brasil dos Agrocombustveis - Soja eMamona." ONG Reporter Brasil, 2008.

Ministry of Labor, Industry and Commerce of Brazil. "Brazilian Bulletin (Vol. 3)." New

York: Brazilian Government Trade Bureau, 1946.. "Brazilian Bulletin (Vol. 5)." New York: Brazilian Government Trade Bureau,1948.

. "Brazilian Bulletin (Vol. 8)." New York: Brazilian Government Trade Bureau,1951.

Moreno, Camila, and Arunadha Mittal. "Brazilian Grassroots Position on Agroenergy."Terra de Direitos / Oakland Institute, 2008.

Nunomura, Eduardo. "Superproduo Adia Planos da Capital da Mamona." Estado deSo Paulo, March 14 2006.

Ogren, Thomas. "The Terrorists Favorite Weed - the Castor Bean Plant." Inhttp://www.homehighlight.org.

Pardoe, Blaine Lee. Terror of the Autumn Skies : The True Story of Frank Luke,America's Rogue Ace of World War I. New York: Skyhorse Pub., 2008.

Peet, Richard, and Michael Watts.Liberation Ecologies : Environment, Development,Social Movements. 2nd ed. London ; New York: Routledge, 2004.

Pimentel Gomes, R. "Mamona : A Baga que Vale Ouro." Rio de Janeiro: Servio deInformao Agricola, 1942.

Pousa, G.P.A.G., A. L. F. Santos, and P. A. Z. Suarez. "History and Policy of Biodieselin Brazil." Energy Policy 35, no. 11 (2007): 5393-98.

Robbins, Paul. Political Ecology : a Critical Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.,2004.

Russell-Wood, A.J.R. Slavery and Freedom in Colonial Brazil. Oxford: OneworldPublications, 1982.

Schwartz, Stuart B. Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels : Reconsidering Brazilian Slavery.Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.

Scott, James C. The Art of Not Being Governed : An Anarchist History of UplandSoutheast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.

Suarez, P. A. Z., and S. M. P. Meneghetti. "70o Aniversrio do Biodiesel em 2007:Evolu

Documents

MeleizaFigueroa_CastorPaper