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A few meters away from the public gate of Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) there is a separate private gate. To better understand who has access to one of Brazil’s most powerful ministries, investigative organization Reporter Brasil investigated. Get private log People who entered through the second door between January and November 2023. Human Rights Watch helped digitize the 381-page handwritten list and convert it into a searchable database.
Brazilian journalist Identified the top ten visitors to the ministryThey include João Henrique Hummel Vieira, who helped found the Parliamentary Front of Agriculture (FPA), the largest group representing industrial agricultural interests, and Thinking about agriculture (Agricultural Thought Institute), a powerful think tank Known The logs show Vieira made 12 visits. The specific agenda of each meeting he and others had with MAPA officials remains unknown.
Likewise, the investigative team O Joio e O Trigo Recent Reviews A review of 752 meetings between federal government representatives and agribusiness and chemical lobbyists between October 2022 and July 2024 found that descriptions of the meetings were often blank or general.
These new investigations highlight the opaque nature of lobbying in Brazil and the urgent need for strong regulations requiring that what is discussed and with whom be disclosed and made available to the public through searchable registers.
The lack of transparency is particularly concerning because the Agriculture Ministry’s power over pesticides increased dramatically after it passed the “Poison Plan” in May, overriding President Lula’s veto. Notably, O Joio e O Trigo’s investigation found that agribusiness, chemical lobbyists and corporations increasingly visited federal offices during April and May 2024, when Congress was deciding whether to overturn President Lula’s veto on the “Poison Plan.”
Widely criticized Local organizationsThe Poison Plan gave MAPA major power over pesticide regulation, and Opened the gate Brazil is already one of the countries in the world with the strictest regulation of hazardous pesticides. Biggest user of “highly hazardous” pesticides.
Mandatory lobbying disclosures and searchable public registers are at the heart of good governance. While they alone are not enough to curb corporate influence over public officials, they bring transparency. European Union, Canadaand the United States have publicly searchable registries.
Global conglomerates that produce, import or export pesticides, as well as companies that source from Brazilian farms, should be aware that operating in an environment of reduced stringency in pesticide approvals and covert corporate lobbying carries heightened human rights risks.
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