By Madalyn Kermicle, Mason Schoolcraft & Erica Weng

January 8, 2013

PHOTOS: CLICK HERE

Cock-a-doodle doo!! That is what we hear every morning when our tour guide, Nadiel, tries to wake us up! This morning after contemplating McDonalds’ breakfast across from our hotel we decided to continue with our Brazilian emersion and it paid off with bacon being served at the hotel buffet.  After breakfast we drove to Cocamar, which is the second largest co-op in the “land of co-ops.”

Cocamar organizes production of cotton, juice, oil, coffee, and the traditional agriculture commodities for its nearly 11,000 farmer members.  Coffee was their first agriculture product, but after the great Brazilian frost of the 1970s that swept across the region they were forced to diversify.  They did this originally through the cotton business and then continued to grow.  They were a one-stop shop for farmers in the north and were the only business these farmers would ever need to go to.

The first building we toured was the cotton-manufacturing center that produces thread and yarn. We were given some protective earplugs that would rival Beats by Dre in the coolness department. Cocamar starts by cleaning the cotton (which consists of a scary beeping noise), and then they use four machines that look similar to a Build-A-Bear factory to fluff the pure cotton. During this process we were in approximately 190 degree Fahrenheit weather and walked up hill both ways. Our conversions of Celsius to Fahrenheit have been slightly off so this may be an exaggeration. The cotton was then put on a smaller spool that was similar to string. After it is in string form they steam the cotton, and it passes through a black light test.

Then to continue our trip through the Sahara desert we visited the coffee factory. We got to wear some attractive hairnets so we were prepared to go in! This co-op produces 900 tons of coffee each year. Cocamar also provides technical support to farmers. Once they have bagged the coffee beans they store it for five hours to make sure there are no holes and that it is ready to deliver. The coffee has a one year shelf life and they have 5 different varieties.

Then we went to the juice box (the nickname for the juice factory given by Mason).  It was currently under maintenance and construction, but we were still able to tour the whole facility. Cocamar produces 9 different flavors of juice. Most of them were very delicious! The flavors range from passion fruit to guava, and they even made cold cappuccino.

After lunch we visited ALCOPAR, the Bioenergy Producers Association of the State of Parana. We visited their corporate office in downtown Maringa.  We watched 9 short videos that took us through the processes of sugarcane planting and ethanol production. Brazil is the largest sugar producer and exporter and they provide 20% of world production of sugar cane.  When talking about ethanol storage and distribution we learned that 80% of ethanol is consumed domestically. The United States and the European Union are the largest importers of Brazil sugar cane and ethanol. ALCOPAR has 30 plants in the state of Parana. Brazil also imports ethanol from the United States because our corn ethanol has different qualities and characteristics than the ethanol produced in Brazil.

Another interesting part of the trip has been questioning which DVD Nadiel will play next.  On today’s bus ride a movie was requested, but instead we got an incredibly interesting Brazilian samba video. We have also watched live concerts of CCR and the Bee Gees. So when he put on a DVD near the end of our 2-hour bus ride today we were surprised to see none other than…….Beyonce LIVE!

By Kelsey Abbott, Amelia Martens & Zach Orwig

January 7, 2013

PHOTOS: CLICK HERE

After an eventful evening with a power outage in our hotel, we woke up at 6am, so that we could be out the door and on the road by 7 a.m.  By 8 a.m. we were at Klabin, a 113-year-old company, and the biggest paper producer and exporter in Brazil.  Klabin exports products to more than 60 countries.

Klabin is big on sustainability and recycles everything; in addition, its goal is to produce wealth without jeopardizing the future of the planet.  The company specializes in pine trees and eucalyptus.  They have 11,000 hectares and 70 percent of it is natural forest.  They make 100 percent recycled paper products.

In order to make the paper, the company does a lot of research on the seedlings, to ensure that they will be productive trees.  Klabin plants 30 million seedlings per year.  Pine produces softwood and longer fibers, but they produce a stronger paper.  Eucalyptus produces a harder wood, with shorter fibers.  Pine trees take 14 years to harvest, while eucalyptus takes seven to ten years to harvest.

Klabin makes corrugated cardboard, carton board, paper, and industrial sacks.

In addition to making paper, Klabin produces “phytotherapy” products, like cosmetics, sunscreens, herbal remedies, tea, etc. for its employees, and they also sold some of them to us when we stopped at the pharmacy store.  These products are created from the eucalyptus tree and are very good for you.

As a part of its sustainability measures, Klabin has set up a little “zoo” on their nature reserve land.  They keep animals that are normally found in forested areas for tourists to stop by and see.  We saw monkeys, parrots, cougars, a wild cat, snakes, and other exotic animals.  We certainly have seen a variety of wildlife on our trip.

There was a bit of a translation or pronunciation barrier, as our guide from Klabin pronounced paper pulp like “poop” and after holding in laughter for a long time, we finally all lost it.  We felt pretty bad for laughing, but his pronunciation provided some much needed comic relief.

The paper factory was extremely hot, but it was amazing to see the huge rolls which weighed several tons coming off of the production line.

When we finished touring the paper production facility (we were not allowed to take photos inside), we went on a cable car ride.  On the way back, it was nearly filled to its capacity, leaving many of us feeling a bit claustrophobic, but it makes for a cool story.

Later in the afternoon, we had a four-hour ride to Maringa, where we are spending the night in another Hotel Deville.  We made a short pit stop at a Dutch restaurant, where Nadiel encouraged all of us to order pie.  Those who ordered said the pie was very tasty, and they really enjoyed it.

We are looking forward to another full day of learning tomorrow before we head for Iguassu Falls later this week.

By Jacob Burrus, Ethan Koehler & Fernanda de Barros Dias

January 6, 2013

PHOTOS: CLICK HERE

We started the morning at 8 a.m. and went to a safari farm outside of Tibagi. Itay’s mineral water well and purification plant is located there and has a 2% fee assessed by the government. The farm is 1200 hectare, and 400 of that is preserved. They have 170 head of Red Angus cattle from Rio Grande do Sul. We started off by seeing a lot of antelope and deer on the safari preserve. The guide, Romeu, walked through the pens whistling and calling out in Portuguese to bring in the deer. He seemed to have magical powers over the animals as he does everything on the safari farm. We decided he needed his own TV show. We then moved to the central area and were greeted by about 20 llamas, a camel, a horse, javali, turkeys, emus, peacocks, macaws, parakeets, toucans, a baby ocelot, tortoises, an ass, coati, owls, and ponies. Our guide then took us over to see the lions, Simba & Nala, and her 22-day old cub. Jacob got to give Nala a good scratching behind the ear. Next we saw the two tigers, Gao and his mate. They don’t have a cub yet, and they must be kept separate because the 3 ½ year old female has not yet been in heat.

After lunch at the safari house, we drove to Ivo’s family farm. The farm we visited had been in the family since 1921. On the specific location we visited, there were 7500 acres of grain. All of his planted grain was conventional for human consumption. He planted corn, soybeans, dry beans, white oats, wheat, and barley. He planted Pioneer corn and Embrapa soybeans. His wheat makes an ingredient used in Brazilian Kit-Kat Bars. He had 18 tractors, 8 combines, 2 sprayers, 4 planters all of the John Deere brand. Ivo employs 40 people to help him with his day to day operations. After leaving the field we went to a pasture to learn about his beef cattle. He had 450 head of Brahma, Red Angus, Charlais, and blends of the trio. Castrolanda and a veterinarian have partnered with Ivo to transplant embryos from dairy cattle into the beef cattle. They are doing this so that there are more dairy cattle being born as this will help increase milk production for Castrolanda Co-Op (which is experiencing a significant increase in demand). Ivo stores some of his own crop and uses it to feed his animals. He harvests at a very high moisture, 28-30%, and dries it down to 15%. Each bin holds 15 tons of grain and he has 8 of these bins. Corn is the only crop that he buys new seed every year. Every other crop he grows is 80% planting of the previous year’s crop. He also raises 3500 head of sheep and has a 750 head per month turnover. This is because he buys nearly anything people sell to him and after fattening them up, sells them at a high value to the market. He wants to expand this branch of his operation and increase concentration on his farm so that he can build a distribution center.

We then traveled back to the hotel in Tibagi. Ivo treated us to dinner and right after dinner the power went out. We finished dessert and were surprised outside by a drum and dance circle that was similar to some of the traditional singing and dancing during the Brazilian Carnaval Festival. Most of us got into the circle and danced around with the beat. It was a great to experience the culture of the country in such a unique fashion.

In our down time and on the bus, we tend to get bored. In this time we have been giving each other animal nicknames in Portuguese. We couldn’t think of a better day to talk about our animal nicknames than today. Here’s the list!

By Amelia Martens and Erica Weng

January 5, 2013

TRIP PHOTOS NOW POSTED HERE

Our 6:30 a.m. wake-up call felt extra early this morning, as many of us are having a tough time adapting to the time change.  Many of us have a hard time falling asleep, like our internal clocks are still wired to the central time zone.

We departed the hotel at 7:30 a.m. for another farm visit.  The farmer and his family farm in three different locations and have approximately 3,000 total acres, in addition to 230 sows.  The farmer (Bernardo Bouwman) plants corn, soybeans, and dry beans in the summer, and black and white oats and wheat in the winter.  He has eight employees for the grain operation and five for the swine side.  He discussed his crop inputs with us and how he stores his grain.  The farmer did not have any storage on his farm, so it was shipped off-site.  When asked if he’d considered putting storage on his farm, he said that off-site storage has worked well for him, so he hasn’t given on-site storage much thought.

A John Deere man (we were in his machine shed, and most of the equipment was indeed green), the farmer said his brother only runs red machinery (CASE IH).  All of the corn the farmer planted was Pioneer.  Eighty percent of his soybeans were GMO and 20 percent were conventional. In addition, he also invited us to visit his office. We were impressed by his office because everything there is tidy. He also shared his family history and pictures with us during the office visit.

The farmer had three children, two girls and a boy.  The oldest girl was in college at Fatec, studying precision agriculture.  She spoke English very well and spent six months in the United States studying in Orlando during high school.

The Bouwman family also invited us to visit their house. We were excited about it because this was the first Brazilian family home that we visited. Their house is beautiful. In addition, we had Fanta (orange soda) and coconut cookies in the farmer’s house.  Their hospitality was so kind and we were all a bit sad to leave.

After the farm visit, we visited a supply store of the Castrolanda Cooperative.  It was similar to a mini U.S. Rural King store.

Our tour guide, Nadiel, gave us a tour of the Castrolanda Cooperative.  Here, we learned about seed production and how fertilizer and seed are distributed to farmers.  One of the key takeaways from this visit was that GMOs and conventional seed are kept separate, as non-GM seed receives a better premium.

We ate lunch at the Dutch Windmill owned by Castrolanda.  The windmill was created in celebration of Castrolanda’s Jubilee (50^th anniversary) in 2001.  It was 10 stories tall, and had replica flour-making grinders and pulleys for the flour-making process.  Nadiel explained to us that the windmill will have another addition on it, as soon as they raise enough money for it.

During the afternoon, we visited the dry beans business unit of Castrolanda.  We learned about the entire process of ensuring quality of the beans, to drying and storing them, to cleaning them, and then packaging them.  The dry beans business is relatively new.  This division of Castrolanda opened on November 30, 2012.  Their first bags of beans will be marketed at the end of next week.  So we got to see the product before it hit the market!

This business is expanding as well, and within the next year they will be preparing, packaging, selling, and distributing pre-cooked beans, in addition to selling beans in bulk and in small (one kilogram) size bags.  As our ultimate goal as a NAMA team is to create a marketing plan, Castrolanda was kind enough to share their marketing plan for the dry beans unit with us.  We enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions about various aspects of their marketing plan.

After the visit, the manager provided coffee and snacks for us. Nadiel introduced us to Brazilian milk. The size of their milk containers is much smaller than the milk in the U.S, because their refrigerators are small and cannot store gallon-sized milk. Brazilian milk tastes very good and we finished the whole box.

We arrived back at the hotel around 5 p.m. and had a break until 8.  We went to the Country Club in Ponta Grossa that Fernanda’s parents belong to and had appetizers, supper at 10:30, and dessert.  It was a great evening and we were able to meet many of Fernanda’s Brazilian friends and some of her family.

By Cathryn Ayers and Drew Beard

January 4, 2013

PHOTOS NOW HERE

Today was our first full day in Ponta Grossa and was full of information. Our first stop was FT Seeds a family operation started in 1972 by Francisco Terasawa.  This was the first private company to research soybeans in Brazil, before this time there was not a lot of information or production of soybeans in the area. Tarasawa’s son Mauricio recently completed a PhD in Agronomy from the University of Illinois; both he and his brother will continue to partner in research and development of the company.

At FT seeds we were greeted by Mauricio, an employee of 6 years, and joined by Claudio Purissimo, an agronomist at a local university who got his PhD in Agronomy from the University of Illinois in 1996.

Mauricio, with translations from our guide Nadiel provided us an overview of the company and production in Brazil. Soybean production is divided into two regions: the middle savanna where there is much more land available and the south. They have at least two crops in the summer (November through April), for example beans followed by corn. The typical farming practices are 100% no-till but they always rotate crops. The middle region is where FT Seeds had their first experimental fields and also released their first soybean variety. The research facility we are at in Ponta Grossa was founded in 1981 and has around 350 acres for research. In 1995 and 1996 the company was facing financial struggles and started selling 60 varieties to Monsanto, at the time FT seeds held 54% of the soybean market share in Brazil, compared to today’s 7% due to increased competition from multinationals. They currently produce 77,000 different lines and it takes 8-9 years to breed a new variety, compared to the 25 year process in the past. Breeding that would take three years in the United States can be done in one year here. The Terasawa family also enjoys fishing and see it as an opportunity for profit and enjoyment. They have ponds on their land and sell the fish to local market once a year during holly week; all the profits are put back into the community as a social work contribution.

Following the presentation along with Claudio and Mauricio we were joined by another employee and took a tour of the experimental fields. The beans were knee high by the 4th of January, in total they normally grow 205 feet tall and have a 100 -110 day cycle. They do not have many problems with weed resistance to round-up and the largest problem they face is rust. In many cases they will harvest and replant a field in the same day.  We also saw dry beans, which are the same as black beans grown in the south. These beans do not get taller than knee high and are troublesome because their pods open immediately once touched. Dry beans are considered a staple crop here and are grown by almost all small farmers; most do not use chemicals. Typically they are able to get 35-40 bushels per acre and they only have a 90 day growing season. Corn grows very well behind these beans lasting 120-130 days. Then the farmers decide if they put on a cover crop or another cash crop such as wheat. In some cases they can get as many as 3 crops in one year. They do not drill beans at all and the typical row spacing is 15 inches though for experimental purposes they have 22 inch rows.

In addition to looking at plants we also went out to the ponds to “catch our supper.” On our way to the pond we saw giant rodent-looking animals known as Capivara.  They are common near swamps and normally hunted and eaten. The fishing techniques were quite different from what was expected. They had metal baskets sitting in the water filled with corn that fish would swim in to eat and then could be lifted out to be caught. Also when wanting to attract fish, the farmer would toss corn and ground grain into the water which attracted many fish. The fish were fresh water and called Piau.

We ate a BBQ lunch at Estrella de Prata which translates as “Silver Star” and is one of the traditional Brazilian churrascurias (steakhouses). Like other restaurants we have encountered thus far there was a buffet style open for any food you wanted and also servers bringing around many cuts of meat from lamb, pork and beef. The meal was graciously provided and no one left hungry. Brazilian beef really is phenomenal.

After lunch we headed to Castro to visit the ABC Foundation technical research institute. The acronym comes from the name of 3 Dutch cooperatives that have come together for the benefit of farmers. They are A: Capal in Arapoti, B: Batavo in Carambei, and C: Castrolanda in Castro. The Foundation was established in 1984 to help cater to farmers’ needs. The major function of the foundation is to research. Farmers pay money to become members and in return are given the most local information. They do not grow anything of their own but they test everything and recommend what is good.  In addition to the 3 founding cooperatives many others contribute such as private companies and other cooperatives. They do not do any political lobbying such as the Farm Bureau would in the United States.  This research foundation serves the same purpose as the University Extension services at land-grant institutions in the states.

Our tour guide Nadial used to work for ABC Foundation and specifically Castrolanda Cooperative. This cooperative was started in 1951 and mainly based in milk production. However today they have potato farms, grains and seeds, deforestation farms, animal feeds and much more. They have around 800 members. Around 70% of famers have 125 acres or less, 15% farm 125-20 acres and 10-15% are very large with 2,000-3,000 acres.

The next stop for the day was a local dairy farm which is part of the Castrolanda cooperative. It is a Dutch family farm that has a total of around 2,000 head of cattle.  Of this 980 are milking cows, 100 are Angus and there are also dry cows, cows in heat and calves. All of the cattle are artificially inseminated and they are never given antibiotics. If a cow requires antibiotics they are taken to a special parlor in a separate area. On average a cow will produce 30 liters per day which is about 8 gallons. The typical cow in the United States will produce 10-12 gallons per day. However when comparing prices they are about the same. The farm has 25 employees that milk their cows twice a day at 3am and 3pm and it takes about 5 hours each time. They have a 2-row milking parlor that can each house 16 cows and all milking is mechanical.  In total they export 32,000 liters or 8,450 gallons of milk each day. Most feed for the cows is produced on site with 650 acres of silage and sand is used for bedding.

Our group was also able to watch the birth of a calf. This was a unique event and though some did not want to watch the whole process, it was a great experience for the group. After the tour they were kind enough to offer us come chocolate milk and answer any of our questions.

Upon arrival back at the hotel a local newspaper interviewed Jessa, Nick, and Cathryn to report on our experiences here and what our group has though of our visit so far. We concluded our evening with a wonderful dinner hosted by the Terasawa family and employees of FT Seeds. It was a wonderful meal including Piau (the fish we were fishing for earlier today), steak, potato salad and more. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was great. We were able to spend time as a group with our new Brazilian friends; it was very kind of them to host us. It was a very enjoyable evening and a great way to end the night!

A note about photos – please refer to the flickr link by clicking HERE, as we’ve run out of memory on our University sponsored web blog.

By Madalyn Kermicle and Mason Schoolcraft

January 2, 2013

After two plane flights (totaling 11 hours in the air) we have finally arrived.  Even though this is our first day here, we have hit the ground running. A charter bus picked us up from the airport and we went straight to a Botanical Garden in Curitiba. Our bus driver and tour guide, Winderson and Nadiel, will stay with us for the entire trip. They are both friendly and full of energy. The Botanical Garden was very colorful and it was a good chance for us to stretch our legs after traveling for so long.  Nadiel compared it to a miniature NYC Central Park for Curitiba’s downtown community. After we visited the garden we checked into our hotel to rest and get ready for dinner. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant; the food was served family style and they just kept bringing it to the table. At the restaurant, there was a live band and dancing! This restaurant can seat 5,000 guests. They allowed us to see the kitchen. Needless to say it was huge!

Since Brazil is 4 hours ahead of central time back home, we are trying to get adjusted. We have an early rise tomorrow morning – and are heading out to Paranaguá Port to experience one of South America’s largest port facilities. Off to bed we go. Goodnight!

A group of 13 College of ACES students led by faculty member, Nick Paulson, and experiential learning coordinator, Jessa Barnard, depart from Chicago O’Hare on January 1st, 2013 for Brazil.  Stay tuned for updates on our travels!