Frontera en Brasil, patrones globales e impactos locales Una mirada más cercana al estado de Mato Grosso en la región Centro-Oeste.

Expansion of the agricultural frontier is a controversial and much discussed topic in Brazil. It has been represented as a process of integrating areas that are distant or disconnected from the economic and demographic center of the country. It actually echoes changes made earlier to the role played in food chain production by colonization in the past, which also involved a deepening of environmental conflicts. One of the best examples is from the state of Mato Grosso. Initially settled by cattle ranchers, by the end of the 20th century it had moved towards grain production for export based on intensive land use, mechanized cropping and the genetic development of seeds; recently followed by an increase in livestock production and the implementation of regional industrial plants. This paper describes the characteristics of the frontier and shows how understanding it relates to global patterns of food production and consumption and the impacts they have locally on population and the environment.