Tester Two

  Brazil's aristocratic educational policies, as stated above, lasted more than a century and contributed to some of the issues that concerned liberal thinkers in the second part of the nineteenth century.  The virtually complete absence of scientific research, the non-applicable orientation of education at all levels, and the lack of a national university system were among the most serious issues. In São Paulo in 1875, it was argued that agricultural production would not meet modern standards unless farm workers learned scientific and technical skills. The commencement of the Centennial Exhibition of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1876 mobilized Brazil's elites, who organized a pavilion to showcase the country's primary exports. In addition to displaying crops and raw materials, São Paulo's economic elites promoted agro-industrial development as a key driver of the country's prosperity. In 1875, Senator Joaquim Floriano de Godoy, who was both co...

  Overall, the system of colleges established since the turn of the century offered courses in economics, agriculture, chemistry, and technical design. Nonetheless, in a slavocratic society like Brazil, where rural activities were left to the lowest layers of the population, the establishment of professional colleges with their technical approach to knowledge was not only viewed as an unnecessary measure, but also as contradicting the tenets of Scholasticism, Brazil's dominant intellectual tradition. These early initiatives to establish professional studies of agricultural labour quickly failed; not unexpectedly, the failure was mostly owing to a shortage of students. Throughout the century, the economy's largely agrarian focus, founded on slavery, hampered technical education. Even if these professional colleges had thrived, they would have remained isolated from the other levels of education provided by provincial governments. In short, the first attempt to implement professi...

  A lot of Americans don't know much about Brazil. Some people may have heard of the "Big Jesus" in Rio de Janeiro, whose real name is Christ the Redeemer. A lot of people know that Carnival happens, but they don't know what it means or that the whole country stops during these four days of joy. A lot of people know the tune to "Girl from Ipanema," which is one of the most famous Brazilian songs, but not many people would say that it was written by the famous musician Antonio Carlos Jobim. Some Americans might know that samba is from Brazil, but they probably wouldn't be able to tell it apart from salsa or zumba. People in the United States think that Brazil has great soccer skills And some of the biggest soccer fans know that Brazil will host the World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. Not many people in the United States know that Portuguese, not Spanish, is the official language of Brazil. Not many people know that Brazil was the first co...

   Encouraging private sector investments. Two things aided the commercialization of agricultural biotechnology beginning in the 1980s: first, the granting of patents on genetically altered plants, and second, the Bayh-Dole legislation, which allowed for the filing of patent protection applications on government financed research. Soon, start-ups from research labs began applying biotechnology to agriculture. Then seed, chemical, fertilizer, and pesticide industries began to use the technique. In the United States, intellectual property protection was one of the elements that encouraged the private sector to engage in industry innovation. The government also approved the Bayh-Dole Act, which permitted universities to claim intellectual property rights over innovations created with public funds. These two aspects improved the appropriability procedures, which stimulate the private sector to develop in agriculture. According to one study, the increase in private agricultural exp...

   Public policies facilitated diversification efforts. In 1975, in reaction to the 1973 oil crisis, the Brazilian government established the National Alcohol Program (Programa Proálcool). The program attempted to lessen the country's reliance on petroleum-based energies by promoting ethanol, obtained from sugar cane, as a substitute. The program's goals were twofold: (i) to minimize its reliance on petroleum-based fuels, and (ii) to promote the development of ethanol from sugarcane as an alternative. The Brazilian government was able to achieve its goal of lowering its reliance on oil by implementing several initiatives to influence the demand and supply of ethanol. On the supply side, the government offered financial incentives to its enterprises that produced ethanol for fuel. The program increased the country's sugar production by 20 times in 16 years. On the demand side, it subsidized the price of ethanol gasoline and cut taxes for people who bought it for their vehicl...

   Market and technological opportunities lead the way. Three elements contribute to São Paulo's success in developing innovative ethanol producing capacities. First, the public sector's National Alcohol Program encouraged the private sector to diversify into ethanol production. Second, the government contributed to the development of indigenous expertise in sugarcane and ethanol production by investing in colleges and research institutions, as well as enabling technology transfer and knowledge sharing between universities and the business sector. Third, there were relevant breakthrough technologies that assisted the Brazilian government in achieving its objectives. One of the first technologies licensed in was the Ford Corporation's hybrid fuel vehicle. This method enabled the combination of ethanol and gasoline to power cars. The Brazilian government and corporate sector worked with international technology owners to create and introduce flex-fuel vehicles into the domest...