Producing ‘the Company’: Cultural Politics and the Crisis of Brazil’s Embrapa

• In Event: National Identities and Transnational Science and Technology during the 20th Century: Historical Perspectives

Abstract

The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) is a public company that “provides research development and innovation solutions for the sustainability of agriculture in the benefit of Brazilian society”. Embrapa was established at the height of the military dictatorship and Cold War politics in 1973. Their claim to fame is the modernization of Brazilian agriculture over the past fifty years. Embrapa’s model is based on the concentration and adaptation of Western scientific expertise by funding the education of Brazilians abroad over decades (mostly in the U.S.). My paper analyzes the cultural politics and identity of Embrapa and its scientists to show the ways in which transnational relations (through education and research collaboration) shapes and is shaped by the Brazilian state and national politics. Embrapa is the ‘crown jewel’ of the Brazilian state and, until recently, has been held up as a national treasure. Over the last decade, however, party politics has entered Embrapa’s administration and stifled scientific research by overly burdensome bureaucratic regulations. I argue that the institutional culture at Embrapa is the product of a belief in Western scientific expertise as an organizational principle for the company combined with a constant struggle against and fear of the institution’s bureaucracy and national politics. The paper draws on, critiques and contributes to Brazilian literature on national identity and politics as well as the burgeoning subfield of postcolonial Science and Technology Studies. It is based on ethnographic research conducted at Embrapa headquarters, its various research centers and government ministries throughout 2017.

Author

• Ryan Nehring, Cornell University