AGRI-BUSINESS IN THE BRAZILIAN CULTURAL WAR

METAMORPHOSES OF LARGE LANDHOLDINGS AND POPULAR COUNTER-NARRATIVES

Abstract

The article analyzes the insertion of Brazilian agribusiness into the field of cultural wars, a concept that originated in the United States as a new pattern of social and symbolic conflict in the post-Cold War era and was imported by the Brazilian right wing. We argue that, in Brazil, this pattern of moral and identity battles was appropriated and articulated by Bolsonarism, which made agribusiness a strategic ally in the construction of a regressive cultural hegemony. Historically marked by land concentration, violence in the countryside, and environmental devastation, the sector began to mobilize media and artistic resources—soap operas, country music, cinema, skyscrapers, and cultural sponsorships—to aestheticize its image as the main engine and value of national development. This symbolic operation seeks to neutralize social criticism, legitimize the political-economic dominance of agribusiness, and spread commercial, conservative, and neocolonial values as if they were synonymous with progress and national identity. In contrast, the text highlights the counter-narratives produced by social movements, such as the MST, and by the Popular Agrarian Reform proposal, which articulate agroecology, culture, and new ways of life as emancipatory alternatives. It concludes that the ongoing dispute in contemporary Brazil is not limited to land and economic development, but also involves culture, memory, and the social imaginary—central dimensions of cultural wars in the country.