|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Fazenda Tamanduá: an
Example of Social Responsibility in
the Rural Sector |
|
On
August 12, 2002, Fazenda Tamanduá went to Bagé, Rio Grande do Sul (in the
South of Brazil), to share its success story with its friends there. As one
of the few examples of socially responsible management in the rural sector,
we crossed the country in order to present our social responsibility
practices. At the First Regional Seminar on Social Responsibility, organized
by an NGO called Parceiros Voluntários (Volunteer Partners), we
spoke about how we face the challenges posed by our region, creating
opportunities by innovating and using the full potential of regional
resources. We also spoke about the positive results of the DEMETER
conversion and the next steps towards formalizing the social responsibility
in our management: the FairTrade Seal and the implementation of norm AA1000.
|
 |
|
Iranise
Pedro presenting Fazenda Tamanduá in Bagé |
|
Among
the participants in the Seminar were Humberto Ruga, Chairman of the
Deliberative Council of Parceiros Voluntários, who spoke about the
Third Sector and Social Responsibility; João Vontbel and Hermes Gazzola,
who spoke about the case of the Prato Popular (People’s Dish)
Project, the result of an association between the companies Vonpar and Puras
do Brasil; and José Airton Menezes, who presented the case of ASM Materiais
de Construção, a company in Bagé committed to social responsibility.
Representing the
public sector, André Imar Kulczunski, from the State Department of
Labor, Citizenship and Social Assistance, spoke about the Bill that is
intended to stimulate social responsibility in corporations, which
will have the option of allocating up to 75% of the tax on the
circulation of goods and services ( ICMS ), which they would otherwise
pay to the State, directly to social projects of their choice.
Congressman Luis Augusto Lara, State Secretary for Tourism, Sports and
Leisure, spoke about how the Department with the smallest budget in
the State is making a revolution in the tourist sector of Rio Grande
do Sul, by modernizing public administration, giving a concrete
example of the power of partnerships.
Next
came the presentation of Iranise Pedro, representing Fazenda Tamanduá. And
finally, concluding the presentations, Alceu Nascimento, director of the
Maurício Sirotsky Foundation, explained the communications campaign of Rede
RBS (the local channel for the Rede Globo TV network), and discussed the
fundamental role of the media in disseminating the culture of social
responsibility.
|
| The
cold weather was compensated by the warm welcome of the kind, hospitable
people of that beautiful town, at which Rede Globo’s recent short serial
“Casa das Sete Mulheres” – an absolute success in audience –
was filmed. Bagé, with 150,000 inhabitants, is also famous for its stud
farms, with the ideal conditions for breeding English thoroughbred horses;
and the production of fruit and excellent quality wines is also advancing in
the region.
|
| Fazenda
Tamanduá is grateful for the opportunity to take a little picture of life
in the North-East to the South, and congratulates “Parceiros Voluntários”
for their initiative in promoting the exchange of information and in
bringing together these two regions of our huge Brazil, so different in
their riches. How did they reach us? The wonders of technology: the Internet
making the world smaller. The invitation arose out of a visit to the Fazenda
Tamanduá site: www.fazendatamandua.com.br
|
|
|
| DEMETER
Certification! |
|
The annual inspection of Fazenda
Tamanduá by our certifying body was carried out at the end of August by Mr.
Pedro Jovchelevich, president of the Biodynamics Association (ABD).
This inspection took several days’
work, involving visits to the fields, analysis of reports, interviews and
informal talks, and resulted in the award of the Demeter
certification to our fresh and dehydrated mangoes.
|
|
|
This is the crowning achievement of
the work that has been carried out in the last few years at Fazenda Tamanduá,
diversifying and integrating vegetable, animal and forest exploitations,
recycling the residues, using biodynamic formulas, seeking solutions to the
difficult ecological, economic and human problems of the sertão in
the quest for self-sustainability.
This certification is the result of
the dedication of the whole Fazenda Tamanduá community, which deserves our
congratulations and our very warm thanks for this new landmark in the farm’s
history. We still have many other challenges ahead of us,
knowing that this certification is not an end in itself, but the
continuation of a long process and an adventure in the North-Eastern
semi-arid region.
|
|
Click
here to see the document attesting DEMETER Certification to Fazenda
Tamanduá |
 |
|
|
| Quadrilha
/ Quadrille |
|
In 1994, the Fazenda Tamanduá
community decided to celebrate the June feast-days (“festas juninas”),
dedicated to Saints John and Peter, in a befitting way. These saints are
very dear to, and much venerated by, the people of the North-East region.
|
 |
|
Quadrille
at Fazenda Tamandua |
|
The recently built sports court of
the Polonordeste primary school was the ideal place to bring a lot of people
together and to promote the famous quadrilha dances of the June
festivities.
As always, Eliete was at the head of
this challenge: she herself designed the costumes for the participants and,
with a large group of friends, sewed them together; she trained the young
people and soon the “Arraiá Tamanduá” party had become a success.
Inventing new choreographies year
after year, introducing new steps and figures, the quadrilhas this
year brought together 8 couples of boys and girls and 18 couples of
adolescents and adults. The rehearsals lasted around 5 weeks, right up to
the great day.
Initially a home festivity within
Fazenda Tamanduá, this event, in which a growing number of people from the
neighboring communities and the town of Patos participate, has become a
tradition.
|
|
The Arraiá Tamanduá always takes
place in the month of July or August, precisely when there are less
festivities going on elsewhere.After the presentation of two quadrilles, the forró (popular dance) begins, and it lasts
till dawn,.
The mayor of the town of Santa
Terezinha always gives significant support; he supplies a band to reinforce
the Tamanduá Trio, whose hits continue giving a lift to the
quadrille dancers and their friends.
|
|
|
|
|
Did
you know? |
|
|
During a large part of the 20th
century, “mocó” cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, was
the “white gold” of the sertão region.
Mocó was the best of all “cash
crops”: farmers received a good price because of the length of its fiber (ranging
from 36 to 44 mm.), in addition to the cotton-seed cake, which factories and
cooperatives offered at preferential prices as a proportion of the amount of
cotton on the seed that was delivered. This represented a very rich source
of protein for their animals in times of drought. As it was a perennial cotton, with
cycles of up to 7 years, the people of the sertão did not have to
plough the soil every year, and the low productivity of the first year was
offset by co-planting corn and beans.
Finally, after the harvest, starting
in the month of September – already in the most critical time of the dry
season – the cattle could eat the still green leaves of this manna of the sertão
before pruning was carried out.
Mocó cotton was the driving force
behind a large part of the sertão’s economy, with processing
companies producing fibers, cotton-seed oil and cake, ensuring work and
income for a lot of people.
The C 71 variety – which was the result of
advanced genetic improvement work accomplished by SUDENE (a federal body
charged with furthering the development of the North-East of Brazil), under
the direction of Drs. Wolkmar Vasconcelos and Jacques Boulanger – stood
out for its productivity, which could reach as much as 1,000 kg per hectare.
In the State of Paraíba, this
cycle was interrupted at the end of the long drought that lasted from 1979
to 1984, which ended the seed selection and multiplication program
maintained by the State’s Agriculture Department.
From 1977 on, and up to 1984,
Fazenda Tamanduá, which belongs to Mocó Agropecuária Ltda, participated
enthusiastically in the multiplication fields.
The arrival of seeds acquired
outside the State marked the arrival of the insect “bicudo” (Anthonomus
grandis), and started the decline and end of the mocó cotton.
In fact, because of the long flowering period, the
need to control the “bicudo” made it economically unfeasible to
grow this species. At that same time, the demand for long-fiber cotton
dropped and the prices fell into line with those of short-fiber cotton. That was the end of mocó
cotton.
|
|
In fact, because of the long flowering period, the
need to control the “bicudo” made it economically unfeasible to
grow this species. At that same time, the demand for long-fiber cotton
dropped and the prices fell into line with those of short-fiber cotton. That was the end of mocó
cotton.
But why, after all, was this type
of cotton called “mocó”?
It’s simple : its seed,
without linter, bald and black, reminds one of the droppings of the rodent
Kerodon rupestris, also called mocó, which was hunted (until it
finally disappeared in certain regions …) and very much appreciated by the
men of the sertão.
This photo, in which the seeds and droppings are
mixed together, is proof of the similarity!
|
|
|
|
Which
are seeds? |
|
|
