Since 2020, Veja has had some of its sneakers made by Aniger, a Brazilian company. Every day, 6,000 pairs of the French brand leave the Quixeramobim factory in Nordeste. Here May 11, 2023. JULIETTE GARNIER / DIE WELT
The Bicudo ruins Anselmo Algaroba’s cotton fields. Fifteen days before the harvest of the white down bundles, which is scheduled for early June, this 73-year-old Brazilian producer, owner of six hectares in Veneza, in the heart of the state of Ceara in northeastern Brazil, does not have more than 1 hectare of remedy against the cotton weevil : Unable to use pesticides, he and his wife Roseli hand-pick each infested and dried flower early in the morning and immediately burn it to prevent the spread of the larvae that infest it contains.
Joao Felix, a cotton producer who has switched to organic farming, also fears an attack in Riacho do Meio, 150 kilometers away. The rain that could wash the plants and drown the worms is long overdue. And heavy rains in February and March complicated the first sowing in January and hampered emergence on its sandy fields. Only 60% of the 171 growers in his Esplar cooperative managed to plant on time. The rows of Joao Felix’s cotton fields are sparse. And the plants affected by Bicudo bear only a few flowers.
The beetle destroyed Brazilian cotton plantations in the 1980s. Since then, pesticides have spread everywhere, in large, highly mechanized farms, like in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
These highly effective insecticides are sprayed in abundance there. Especially since the country, the world’s fourth largest cotton producer behind India, China and the USA, says it will continue to increase its production and become the leading cotton exporter in 2023. To the chagrin of all those who denounce the damage done to this industry and the impact of pesticides on health. “I was often doused in pesticides,” recalls Juan Felix Dantas, a 77-year-old farmer who switched to agroecology in 2001.
“This poison has no future”
In Ceara, however, hundreds of producers are resisting or resisting the temptation to use pesticides. “Everyone knows that this poison has no future,” says Anselmo Algaroba. And in his opinion “organic cotton is well worth it”.
Because despite the attacks of the bicudo and the chaos caused by the climate crisis, these producers make a living off their cotton land, subsisting on the rows of corn, beans, sweet potatoes and sesame seeds planted nearby. On the Jardim farm near Taua, the cotton harvest, which will require a month’s work, is said to be “good”, agrees Francisco-Veloso de Oliveira, who has been an organic producer for five years. His remuneration is guaranteed under a multi-year fair trade contract between his cooperative ADEC, which brings together 220 producers around Taua, and Veja, a French sneaker brand.
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