O endereço abaixo não existe na globo.com maybe too big for this coffee and cattle town in the mountains of southeastern Brazil So when she turned 18 and word came that a family friend in São Paulo needed a nanny she jumped at the chance — and took the overnight bus south and for a while those dreams seemed to recede She discovered a gift for taking care of children; but miscarrying a dozen times before finally giving up When she got back on her feet and saved up a bit of cash bejeweled skirts she designed and stitched herself The house suffered from water outages and chronic mold and the fabric would often rot before she could finish her work a part-time metalworker and something of a recluse complained constantly about the people coming in and out another link in a growing chain of unrealized ambitions But it was never in her nature to be bitter; it was a shrug And that was how Silvia first came into our lives Working for an American-Brazilian family like ours with two young kids who enjoyed exotic meals like sesame chicken and Frito pie and shouted across the apartment at each other in a mix of English and Portuguese But Silvia fit in right away and — in an auspicious sign of things to come — she immediately taught herself enough English to navigate the cookbook we kept on the shelf making careful notes in pencil next to the recipes and doing the imperial-to-metric conversions herself our house echoed with Silvia’s sing-song voice pealing laugh and the daily hiss of the pressure cooker producing another batch of her delicious feijão Silvia mentioned she had learned how to bake cakes while working briefly for a caterer asked if she might make one for our son’s birthday that I heard Erica shout in delight — “Oh my god!” — from across the apartment The cake featured a Batman logo and a dark once we finally brought ourselves to cut it It confirmed what we had already begun to suspect: We were in the presence of a true genius someone blessed with God-given artistic talent and incredible craftsmanship there was a cake with a blond girl sitting on her bed and — finally — an elaborate production with a train tunnel and airplanes that could only be described as our seven-year-old son’s wildest dream come to life People at our parties were rightly stunned selling cakes to the small anglophone expat community of São Paulo with more business than she could possibly handle swapping recipes and telling stories while watching Silvia obsessively labor over her creations and grow ever more ambitious in their scale and detail Silvia sometimes came with us to weekend piano recitals and soccer games and treated our children as if they were fully her own in mid-2015 I received an offer for a fantastic job in New York Our kids were reaching an age where we wanted them closer to family It was time for the Winters to leave Brazil Breaking the news to Silvia was the hardest I tried to explain that we could never afford help in the United States like we had in Brazil that the economics were so dramatically different; that a visa would be impossible to get She nodded with sad acceptance — Fazer o quê I asked Silvia if she had thought about making cakes full time She smiled and said her sister and several friends had encouraged her to do so But she couldn’t work out of her own home — that had failed once before — and she didn’t have money to do anything else When I asked if she might consider applying for a loan at a bank like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard they’d never give money to somebody like me.” with an expat family of friends around the corner Her posts on Facebook tried to maintain a happy face: “Sad today God in control alwaysssssssss!!!” On my return visits to Brazil for work for me to describe our relationship with Silvia She was also our friend — and somehow more than that in the long Brazilian tradition of domésticas and babás people come into your house and you spend long days together and share your lives and sometimes they become as much a part of your family as an aunt I know there are issues of class and power — “Senhor Brian” — and race and history wrapped up in all of this Or … maybe it was actually none of these things Maybe Silvia was just one of those magical souls who come into your life is that the bond the five of us forged was greater than any label We knew we had a relationship that would last forever we received word that Silvia had suddenly passed away only some cryptic posts from her friends and family on Facebook Erica exchanged a few texts with her sister I made the five-hour drive from São Paulo to Guaxupé and met her sister and mother at a churrascaria for lunch The mood was bright and jovial; we were all happy to be talking again about Silvia they laughed and told me how Silvia would take the overnight bus home just to attend family parties and then go straight to the bus terminal and head back to São Paulo I showed them some pictures of us together They said Silvia had gone into an urgent care facility on a Thursday morning according to the death certificate: colon cancer Where “somebody like me” is not a liability Reading Time: 7 minutesWinter is the editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly and a seasoned analyst of Latin American politics with more than 20 years following the region’s ups and downs Americas Quarterly (AQ) is the premier publication on politics We are an independent publication of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas PUBLISHED BY AMERICAS SOCIETY/ COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAS Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world A worker inspects coffee trees during a harvest on a farm in Guaxupe 2024 at 12:41 PM EDTBookmarkSaveSugar futures headed for a weekly loss as weather concerns in Brazil and India the world’s largest producers of the commodity Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Simon Webb Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Covers agricultural commodities and biofuels, including production, trade and transportation, based in New York. Former Brazil correspondent and climate/environment reporter. Brazilian, holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree and has done post-graduate studies in Environmental Reporting from Germany's InWent Institute and Foreign Policy and International Political Economy from Harvard University. Avid soccer and tennis player. , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved in the southwest of the state of Minas Gerais - climate change will affect production again this year and the consequences may be felt even next year MILAN – Arabica coffee futures recovered in yesterday’s session the main contract for May delivery rose marginally (+0.3%) to close at two-week high of 390.95 cents London Robusta coffee futures lost $30 to settle at $5,497 Brazilian weather continues to support prices in the New York market According to the Brazilian cooperative giant Cooxupé – based in Guaxupé in the southwest of the state of Minas Gerais – climate change will affect production again this year “Until the first week of February we were optimistic but there were 40 days without rain and high temperatures,” said Luiz Fernando dos Reis during an interview at an event promoted by the cooperative Vice-president of Cooxupé detailed how high temperatures affect the plant and grains the plant takes up to a week to return to normal But what happened in February 2025 was worse than in November2023 with record temperatures and in the worst phase the high temperatures have harmed the development of trees which will have fewer branches and the impact will also be felt in the 2026/27 harvest Rabobank’s latest monthly report is less pessimistic the main coffee-producing regions experienced drier and warmer weather in February,” writes Rabobank’s Senior Analyst Guilherme Morya “This period is crucial for coffee bean development and the return of rains in mid-March has brought relief Brazil exported 3.3m bags (60kg) of coffee 5.4% lower compared to the same period in 2024 “This decline in exports was expected given the current scenario of limited stocks in Brazil This situation is likely to continue at least until the 2025/26 Brazilian harvest enters the market,” says the report © Copyright 2025 | Editoriale Comunicaffè P.IVA 05752870963 | tel the objective of Comunicaffe International has been to provide an updated punctual and essential information service to operators in the sector cocoa and tea supply chains in order to develop critical thinking and debate Comunicaffe International is also a daily newsletter sent to 38.000 professionals in Italy and more than 85.000 worldwide and coffee one of its best-loved delivery mechanisms It is grown in more than 70 countries; more than 2bn cups are drunk each day It helps support the livelihoods of an estimated 125m people including your Californian correspondent (though not his tea-drinking British editor) by supplying them with a jump-start every morning This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “A warming planet threatens the world’s favourite drug” Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents Some say the trial is unethical. Others, that not doing it would be immoral Childhood exposure to a common gut bacterium could be responsible For now, the evidence for neuromodulation products is slim Many will still be culled under false pretences Registered in England and Wales. No. 236383 | Registered office: The Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6HT | VAT Reg No: GB 340 436 876 Last week, we published a story about US families hiring searchers to help reunite their adopted Guatemalan-born children with their birth parents It's a process that can be emotionally taxing for both the adoptive and birth families born in Brazil and adopted by her biological aunt and uncle who moved with her to the US when she was four her return to Brazil in her early 20s and again this year to see her birth mother was driven less by her own desire to connect with her mother and more by her adoptive mother's guilt for having taken her away from her birth mother Thaisi Da Silva is an editor/ program coordinator at PBS NewsHour delivered to your inbox every weekday morning Thanks to our sponsor PRX is a 501(c)(3) organization recognized by the IRS: #263347402 FOUR PRODUCERS affiliated with Cooxupé (Regional Cooperative of Coffee Growers in Guaxupé) the world’s largest Arabica coffee cooperative were added to Brazil’s Dirty List for slave labor updated by the Brazilian Labor Ministry (MTE) on April 9 The farmers were included in the list after labor inspectors identified 36 workers—among them a teenager—working under conditions analogous to slavery on farms in Minas Gerais state The inspections on the Cooxupé members’ properties happened between June 2023 and July 2024 the MTE found that the workers had no formal contracts Cooxupé said that upon learning of the updated Dirty List, it “preventively blocked the listed members,” suspended coffee purchases from the involved farms, and “segregated any stockpiled batches to ensure traceability and integrity of the products delivered to customers.” Read Cooxupé’s full statement here Cooxupé recorded the highest revenue in its history: 10.7 billion BRL (1.8 billion USD) Of the 6.6 million bags of coffee received by the cooperative that year Cooxupé alone accounted for 10% of Brazil’s total coffee exports during the period At the Córrego do Jacu and Paquera farms in Juruaia a 16-year-old teenager was harvesting coffee barefoot when labor inspectors arrived according to an MTE report accessed by Repórter Brasil he had traveled over 850 km from Chapada do Norte The teen told labor auditors he had been instructed to remain only on the farm due to being under 18 he once went into town without permission and was punished by being forced to work alone without access to a mechanized harvester Repórter Brasil reported that Souza was a Cooxupé member The workers told inspectors they sometimes had no drinking water as supplies were not replenished at the work sites and they were left without water during the entire workday Repórter Brasil attempted to contact Marcos de Souza through his attorney but received no response The space remains open for future statements 11 workers were rescued from Cachoeirinha Farm in Nova Resende where they were harvesting coffee for producer Vagner Freire da Silva these workers had not received full wages for two months The complaints regarding labor abuses on Silva’s and Souza’s properties were submitted to the MTE by Adere-MG (Articulation of Rural Workers in the State of Minas Gerais) “We received the report directly from the workers themselves,” said Jorge Ferreira dos Santos Filho “The Guaxupé microregion—just beyond Cooxupé’s immediate area—is plagued with rights violations and illegal recruitment of labor from outside the region.” Through his lawyer, Silva said he “disagrees with the conclusion that the situation constituted slave-like labor, as he believes the elements found do not meet the legal criteria for such designation,” adding that the workers were seasonal. He confirmed that Cooxupé suspended him immediately following the inspection. Read the full response here. owned by Leandro Aparecido Machado in Altinópolis The inspection report states that four lived in a house adjacent to a corral where calves were kept A makeshift window opened directly into the animal area It’s like being treated like an animal,” one of the rescued workers told Repórter Brasil You never think you’ll go through something like that He explained that for the past three years he had traveled from Bahia to work in Minas Gerais during the harvest but he had never experienced such dire conditions He had spent around 2,000 BRL (340 USD) on transportation Sacks and cloths were some of the equipment used in the harvest that the workers had to pay for out of their own pockets The inspection report points out that the employer “even with the benefits he obtained as a member of the Regional Cooperative of Coffee Growers in Guaxupé” acquired the “sacks and cloths needed for the harvest and resold them to the workers” Lene Francisco Vilela da Silva was fined for subjecting 14 workers to slave-like conditions on June 28 The group lived in accommodation that had broken walls and they tried to improvise a bedroom by dividing the living room with tarpaulins and belongings were scattered or hung on wires nailed to the walls The kitchen window was covered with plastic I don’t even like to remember it,” one of the rescued women told Repórter Brasil the lack of facilities was even more humiliating and said she felt threatened after the rescue I just wanted to go back home.” She had left her nine-year-old daughter behind in Bahia “I kept thinking about her… This year Repórter Brasil tried to contact Lene da Silva and his attorney but received no response Cooxupé seeks a 30 million USD loan from FMO is expected to be used by the cooperative to acquire and trade coffee certified by the Rainforest Alliance standard The negotiations between FMO and Cooxupé have been ongoing since August 2024 With the slogan “Banking for a better world,” the Dutch Development Bank is funded by both public and private resources and is supervised by the Dutch Central Bank the financing for Cooxupé “has a 100% Green label and potentially 100% Reducing Inequalities label.” “The first item on FMO’s exclusion list is slave labor These cases show that the bank is not operating in line with its mission to support sustainable development as it is financing large companies and prioritizing profit,” says Merel van der Mark coordinator of the Forests & Finance Coalition a platform that analyzes financing potentially linked to socio-environmental harm She argues that the Dutch government is responsible for oversight so it must ensure that this money is being properly used and that the policies are being effectively implemented FMO stated that it is still in negotiations with the cooperative and that “working conditions on Cooxupé farms remain a critical and recurring topic in the discussions.” The bank also said that if an agreement is reached it intends “to include technical assistance to help strengthen the existing program monitoring labor conditions among its suppliers.” Cooxupé declined to comment on “ongoing negotiation topics and matters” and emphasized that it “has a consolidated Integrity Program, widely communicated to internal and external stakeholders, which defines best labor practices and respect for Human Rights.” The full statements can be read here Among the companies that purchased coffee from Cooxupé between 2024 and 2025 in the years following documented cases of slave labor according to customs data accessed by Repórter Brasil These companies purchase green coffee beans in producing countries and export them to clients responsible for roasting and retailing the beverage Volcafe did not mention the specific cases highlighted in the report and said it had initiated an internal investigation to “understand the details of the matter and the nature of the allegations being made.” LDC (Louis Dreyfus Company) stated it has no direct commercial relationship with the mentioned producers and that Cooxupé assured the company that the coffee supplied to LDC did not come from farms found to be using slave labor a German group considered the world’s largest green coffee trader also stated it does not buy coffee directly from the four producers listed in the registry the company said it had been informed by Cooxupé that the coffee from the four farms was also not sent to other subsidiaries of the group The companies’ full responses can be read here coffee grower Lene Francisco Vilela da Silva—one of the farmers included in the most recent update of Brazil’s Dirty List for slave labor—was also a supplier to Exportadora de Café Guaxupé This is evidenced by invoices attached to the labor inspection report The company exports coffee beans to clients such as Melitta according to export records reviewed by the report the Melitta Group stated it did not purchase coffee from the Ouro Verde farm and that Exportadora de Café Guaxupé with which it maintains a “trustworthy commercial relationship,” regularly visits and audits its suppliers and also checks the Dirty List Italian brand Lavazza said it has had a commercial relationship with Exportadora de Café Guaxupé since the 1960s and that the company “is one of our most historic and trusted coffee suppliers.” According to Lavazza the Brazilian exporter guaranteed that it traced all coffee acquired from Fazenda Ouro Verde and that none was sent to Lavazza JDE also denied receiving coffee from the farm. “To ensure our commitment to proper practices, we have due diligence procedures in place to assess and monitor our suppliers, including measures to prevent forced or slave labor,” the company stated. Read all responses here Sua contribuição permite que a gente continue revelando o que muita gente faz de tudo para esconder Receba as investigações daagência de jornalismo daRepórter Brasil no seu e-mail. JORNALISMODiretos HumanosMundo do TrabalhoPovos TradicionaisQuestão AgráriaSocioambientalTrabalho EscravoEnglishEspeciais PESQUISAImpactoSobreO que fazemosParceriasBibliotecaEnglish  PODCASTS  Cova medidaEsperançaJornadasTrabalheira VÍDEOSReportagensDocumentáriosOutros SOBRE NÓSQuem somosEquipeTransparênciaPrêmiosContato Diretos HumanosMundo do TrabalhoPovos TradicionaisQuestão AgráriaSocioambientalTrabalho EscravoEnglishEspeciais ImpactoSobreO que fazemosParceriasBibliotecaEnglish EDUCAÇÃO PODCASTS Cova medidaEsperançaJornadasTrabalheira ReportagensDocumentáriosOutros Quem somosEquipeTransparênciaPrêmiosContato Receba as investigações da agência dejornalismo da Repórter Brasil no seu e-mail. Desenvolvido por Studio Cubo e Design por Paula Carvalho HomeImpactoSobreO que fazemosParceriasBibliotecaEnglish HomeCova medidaEsperançaJornadasTrabalheira HomeReportagensDocumentáriosOutros APOIE Receba o conteúdo da Repórter Brasil direto na sua caixa de email With prices for the robusta coffee she grows down 18 percent in 2017 Thom has sold just a tiny fraction of the 6 to 7 metric tons she expects to gather this season The rest she plans to hold back until after the Tet holidays that celebrate the Lunar New Year in mid-February "We would suffer a big loss if we sold coffee beans at this dirt-cheap price," said Thom "The remainder of my harvest I think I would sell in February Eleven thousand miles away in top producer Brazil grower Joao Luis Carneiro Vianna is holding back half of this year's harvest more-expensive arabica beans he produces is down 8 percent this year Such reluctance to sell too cheaply by well-capitalized farmers in Brazil and Vietnam could upset speculators' bets that a glut will weaken the market further Prospects of a bigger Vietnamese crop this year a bumper Brazilian harvest in 2018 and a resulting surplus have helped drive down prices Export Trading Group sees a surplus of 5.5 million bags in 2018-19 a coffee research manager at the company in Switzerland "These are two of the countries where farmers are more sophisticated," Jose Sette executive director at the International Coffee Organization There's no enthusiasm for selling quickly." Vietnamese production is expected to rise 5 percent to 10 percent rebounding from last year's rain-hit harvest traders expect production to expand as arabica trees enter the higher-yielding half of a two-year cycle While increases in both countries could reverse a shortage ETG estimates at 3.1 million bags in the season that started in most countries on Oct hoarding may temporarily withdraw excess from the market Some will also be used to replenish carry-over stockpiles that have fallen in both Brazil and Vietnam "What the world ignores is that the carry in this year is small so total availability is the same" in Vietnam a director at RCMA Commodities in the nation the carry in is very low so the pipeline needs to be built out again." Coffee inventories in Brazil will fall 61 percent to 1.04 million bags by June 2018 stockpiles fell 69 percent to 1.18 million bags at the end of last season The market is also counting on a large crop in Brazil when there's still a lot of time before the harvest starts Brazil's crop may not be as "massive" as some traders expect as weather conditions haven't been ideal and there's also pressure from disease including coffee-berry borer "I'm not 100 percent sure that it's going to be this massive massive crop," she said in an interview in Ho Chi Minh City "This crop that everyone is talking about needed perfect conditions and we didn't get it." Any unfavorable turn in the weather is also a threat as 66 percent of global production now comes from Brazil the trading unit of China's largest food company said at the Asia International Coffee Conference in Ho Chi Minh City That concentration leaves the market much more vulnerable to weather shocks "Any weather hiccups in any of these big procures would cause a supply shortage," Strychalski said While Vietnamese farmers are selling more than previously expected partly due to rising wages that will ease as soon as they manage to cover their costs They will continue to hold back if prices fall below $35,000 dong ($1.54) a kilogram "We know the farmers have the coffee but obviously the market has come lower," Jonathan Clark a joint venture of commodities trader ED&F Man Holdings in Vietnam "Farmers don't like the price because obviously they got higher prices last year Vietnamese speculators who typically invest in assets like property have become more involved in the coffee market in the past five years chief executive officer at trader NC Group Ltd. said in an interview in Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday They are able to hold large quantities of stocks to profit from rising prices later many growers are organized in large cooperatives and own bigger farms which allows them to hold back sales if prices don't reach desired levels The drop in the local currency also means farmers have made more money in past years In the country's top arabica region of Minas Gerais grower Vianna has gathered 1,300 bags this year but now says he only plans to sell the rest of his beans when prices reach 500 reais ($154.55) a bag "I'm selling only what's necessary to maintain cash flow," he said "I'm watching to see if there's a window of better prices to sell my coffee." Urbanist who created new disciplines at FAU-USP dedicates herself to studying the São Paulo macrometropolis Léo Ramos ChavesRegina Meyer enjoyed teaching at the University of São Paulo’s School of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU-USP) so much that when faced with the sudden interruption of reaching retirement age in 2011 she decided to “go in denial.” “I was in full flight,” she says “I was still researching and trying to create new disciplines.” The enthusiasm of her students was contagious Regina invests her energy in new research projects and in supervising her graduate students and the city became the primary focus of study for her entire career Facing an impossible labyrinth of a selection process for the architecture college The psychology course at the University of Geneva was internationally renowned thanks to the innovative work of Jean Piaget But I had to cut my studies short at the end of the second year to return to Brazil.” On arriving in Brasília where her husband had accepted an invitation to create a new Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine of the University of Brasília (UnB) she found that local psychology courses adopted a predominantly behaviorist approach she resumed her long-standing interest in architecture starting a career that would lead her to urbanism and urban planning which is in a central neighborhood of São Paulo The building was designed by architect Rino Levi in the 1940s and decorated with tiles by landscape architect and plastics artist Roberto Burle Marx have always been characterized by an intense focus on changes to the practical terrain fulfills an endeavor that was started during my PhD days and continued with my observation of the changes taking place in the metropolis in the 1990s our research was advancing towards an enlarged urban scale — that of the macrometropolis; a concept that has gained more support in the last few decades because of the enormous territorial expansion of many cities and metropolises it is the conjugation of the São Paulo metropolises which are located in a large territory of 53,000 square kilometers and have a population of 30 million inhabitants across 173 municipalities This immense set of cities gravitating around a group of metropolises creates an area of almost continuous occupation that radiates from São Paulo on various axes The study underwent many important developments the São Paulo state government produced an ambitious Macrometropolis Action Plan There have not yet been any practical results because plans need time to take root but formal discussion of this powerful territory — home to 73% of the state’s total population 83% of its Gross Domestic Product [GDP] and almost 30% of the national GDP — has gained ground the objective is to write articles that focus on the urban dynamics of this macrometropolitan scale Raising awareness of this post-metropolitan territorial organization contributes to bringing about public policy that takes this scale into account Did the functions of each city change with the formation of the macrome-tropolis The formation of the macrometropolis is a historical process It is an urbanization process that creates distinct urban characteristics during its development the questions that we need to ask also change recognition of the region’s potential in contemporary terms is very important and although public policies have always existed those aimed at strengthening the coordinated functioning of the territory are still new the nucleus of this macrometropolis because it has the functional characteristics inherent to a powerful center Just as Paris and London dominate their surrounding areas regional hegemony is observed in São Paulo because of many factors the research and knowledge based there because of its great universities This does not mean that metropolises the size of Campinas and São José dos Campos which also host important research centers will not play important roles in the future São Paulo is where the public and private decision-making institutions are located even though the workforce and productive innovation are distributed among the other metropolises What were the milestones of your career that led you to your current studies I wanted to embark on a study of the urban transformations that we were experiencing in São Paulo who had recently completed his PhD in urban economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] and was teaching at the Getulio Vargas Foundation [FGV] and many undergraduate and graduate students I formed a working group that united FAU-USP and the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning [CEBRAP] The results of six years of work were published in a book São Paulo Metrópole [São Paulo Metropolis] The main objective of the research was to identify and analyze São Paulo from an urban perspective in the 1990s The data and a large volume of analytical cartography sought to reflect a process of change that had been maturing since the 1970s which led the metropolis to a stage at which industrial activity began to lose its hegemony Our central interest was to analyze the urban territory The research received a decisive boost in the year 2000 when the Center for Metropolitan Studies [CEM] was created as one of the Research Innovation and Dissemination Centers [CEPID] financed by FAPESP the State Data Analysis Foundation [SEADE] TV Cultura and the Social Service of Commerce [SESC; today the CEM also has offices at USP’s School of Philosophy the FAU-USP group separated from CEPID and set up the Metropolis Urbanism Laboratory [LUME] It was one of the most important initiatives that I participated in at FAU-USP The creation of LUME paved the way for further research we began a new study that resulted in a second book on the São Paulo metropolis: A leste do centro: Territórios do urbanismo [East of the Center: Territories of Urbanism] Regional hegemony occurs in São Paulo because of many factors It was a study focused on urban growth and the transformations of a sector of São Paulo that stretched from the central area to the city periphery The initial emphasis was on the historical transformation of a region defined as the “vector east of the Center,” covering the traditional industrial neighborhoods as far as the eastern border of the municipality including content on the city’s historical construction urban structuring promoted by public transport and an environmental evaluation We also attempted to define a set of guidelines for urban projects We introduced a new planning and design tool: the Metropolitan Interest Zone [ZIM] We were able to evaluate the impact of the mass transport links between the city center and its more populous periphery where the greatest number of housing developments were installed by the government in the 1960s and 1970s these developments were constructed with no consideration of the daily commute that residents would ultimately face The study reinforced the idea that rather than treating cities as “still lifes” we must work with them as spaces in permanent movement How did your activities change after you retired Retirement did not signal the end of my academic involvement I still participate in many activities at the university supervise master’s and doctoral students and teach graduate courses My academic career has been a little sui generis Most professors have taken more diversified career paths Mine was marked by great didactic activity with new course proposals working in teams and supervising many graduate theses and taking a very critical view of the past I think I enjoyed the academic activities associated with the classroom Perhaps I could have balanced my activities better and dedicated myself to attending more conferences I spent considerable time involved with day-to-day university life The emphasis on getting published in foreign journals came a little late for me I was recently guest editor for a special São Paulo issue of Revista de Urbanismo Iberoamericano [Ibero-American Urbanism Magazine] It is a very reputable publication that specializes in urbanism and is published simultaneously in Buenos Aires and Barcelona I have only recently started doing this kind of work I created elective disciplines for contemporary urbanism But it became important to teach students the difference between issues of urbanization and those of urbanism The understanding that urbanization is a process while urbanism is the effects this process has through the implementation of all kinds of projects was introduced at FAU-USP in the 1960s through studies and books by professor Nestor Goulart Reis It was valuable work that greatly influenced teaching both within the college and outside it some courses still failed to make the distinction that urbanism is inseparable from design and is always propositive This was my contribution to the students and young architects who graduated in the 1990s and 2000s I think it was necessary to be clear about which issues related to urbanism and which related to the urbanization process there was another issue to be faced in urban planning there is a set of disciplines exclusively concerned with urban planning taught by some very active and productive professors these subjects differ from those that address urbanism and urbanization Urban planning promotes a procedural perspective as is required to implement urban projects It is interesting to remember that these distinctions were always very clear in courses on the history of urbanism The materials that make up these histories are distinct it is important to recognize the difficulties that arise from the disconnect between a plan that does not materialize because of the absence of adequate urban projects and projects and plans that are drawn up without properly considering the urbanization process What is the key to solving the city’s problems today Solving the problems of the city and the metropolis is a continuous and complex goal that can only be approached in stages The word “strategic” has been incorporated into planning vocabulary and gives an idea of the need to constantly review the objectives and above all the tools of action One possible route to understanding the current dilemmas faced by the city of São Paulo is considering the consequences of its limitless and ungoverned territorial growth particularly the pattern of outward expansion of its peripheries One enlightening perspective may come from the evolution or rather the “devolution,” of its public transport system and this pattern of urban expansion While working on the themes of the 1950s for my thesis we did not just choose an operational model for the city; we chose a destination Opting for the construction plan proposed by the mayor at the time it is clear that one of the city’s greatest problems is the traffic and lack of public transport Since the arrival of the freeways and with the growing number of motor vehicles mobility and traffic issues have monopolized urban proposals in São Paulo Mayor Prestes Maia argued that a subway was the best solution in terms of mass transportation but inadequate as an urban proposal for São Paulo at that time it was necessary to first establish a strong and coordinated road system and then to introduce a subway network later Did the fact that you studied your undergraduate degree in Brasília a city renowned for its excellent planning Brasília at the time was a true laboratory for urban functionalism and architectural modernism there seemed to be no other way of thinking about cities I studied and lived in Brasília in a very uncritical way My three-year-old son walked to school alone while I watched him from the window I boasted about this to mothers I knew in São Paulo who took their children to school by car I considered my life on the superblock a wonder the city was still under construction in the early 1970s and we all felt similar to “builders” that were a part of the process despite living under a military dictatorship When did you start to see Brasília more critically I got to know many people who worked in Plano Piloto [the administrative region] and lived in the satellite cities (Gama People commuted from a long way away every day and needed to get to the bus station located in the geometric center of the city they had to reach their workplaces on the superblocks or in other sectors of Plano Piloto It became clear to me that there was an unresolved issue I realized that the plan had not addressed the issue of spatial/urban segregation very well And what is your opinion of the Brasília project today I think it is a city that was born from a theory which had already completely defined its adult image during its infancy it was not capable of incorporating the transformations it went through what with being the child of functionalism’s most orthodox theory There is no denying that Brasília showed its weaknesses quickly; everyday life has made it clear that this is not the best way to design the cities of the future designed based on the conditions of the 1950s I think it was the intense experience of living in Brasília that led me to urbanism as the subject of my study and work How was your vision influenced by the graduate program in London I arrived at the Architectural Association School of Architecture [AA] in 1976 The school is at the vanguard of architecture and I found many texts that were critical of the purposes of orthodox functionalism I reluctantly realized that I needed to review my preconceptions What I knew was an urbanism created to solve the problems faced by industrial cities built from scratch guided by the organization of their functions — living leisure and movement — all addressed separately I realized that cities built from scratch no longer represented the challenges of contemporary cities I did not want to ignore everything I had learned Almost as a return to that phase of my studies at the beginning of graduate school I recently wrote an article about the book Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies by Reyner Banham published in 1971 but translated into Portuguese just four years ago published in the FAU-USP journal Revista Pós Banham was a professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture where I studied during the second stage of my graduate program after leaving the AA His thinking influenced me considerably at that time were you able to apply what you had learned I was given the opportunity to lead the city’s Department of Historic Heritage [DPH] I made a great effort to confront the issues and themes related to preservation of the historical heritage specific to São Paulo during which time I was involved in the development of the ctiy’s master plan coordinated by architect and Planning Secretary Jorge Wilheim I began to think that the preservation of heritage would be better managed by a planning agency Secretary of Culture Gianfrancesco Guarnieri was very angry with my position on the matter My participation in the discussions and development of the master plan in the early 1980s sparked an interest in the issues regarding central São Paulo to which I later returned I took a position at the State Department of Culture where I managed a project proposed by Secretary Jorge da Cunha Lima called Luz Cultural [“Cultural Light”] The aim was to create a neighborhood where culture would be the primary focus It was influenced by projects in Europe that sought to create urban spaces designed for cultural activities which would promote urban regeneration processes the migration of large food markets from city centers to more peripheral areas paved the way for radical redevelopments Despite the logical intuition of the proposal I do not think the cultural function would sustain the urban transformations desired for the region the planning departments in São Paulo were important agencies they have played a much less decisive role Architecture and urbanism were shaken by the impact of the Modern Movement in the 1960s and 1970s which inevitably affected practice and teaching which should have had a heavy impact on course content but reviewing our convictions and consequently the teaching methods themselves proved a difficult task There was a degree of entrenchment against the new theories particularly those that called aspects of modernism and urban functionalism into question This opposition to new theories greatly affected urban planning and urbanism Here is a compelling example: there was an emblematic urban planning agency in London called the Greater London Council [GLC] which coordinated and united all the required information for urban planning and design It was envied worldwide for its efficiency and forward thinking after Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister [1979–1990] The rise of Thatcherism in London’s case sent urban planning and urbanism into a rapid retreat the municipal and state planning departments in São Paulo were important agencies All this hindered the acceptance of important criticisms that arose at that time How did you approach these changes in your teaching known as “Intervention in existing cities: the process of urban design.” The objective was to discuss foreign and Brazilian projects with the aim of developing the student’s ability to critically analyze contemporary urban projects We made a great effort to ensure that the exercises developed in class and the course in general encouraged an understanding of the complexity of contemporary cities — existing cities — so that the students could then extract from it the different possibilities of these projects The determining factors of this complexity should be the starting points of the project This course was the main reason for my involvement at the undergraduate level Brazil was heading in the opposite direction with the social functions of housing defined by the 1988 Constitution the master plans… This contrary direction actually comes down to important developments in the legal frameworks some of which are still incomplete and lacking essential elements The Ministry of Cities itself is not very effective Despite the dominance of urban areas in Brazil the ministry does not play a very significant role in how the country thinks about its cities and metropolises Its only highlight is the introduction of the Minha Casa which has now spent somewhere around R$300 billion producing housing projects that have all the characteristics of the dismal pattern of peripheral expansion of the 1960s Planning has taken an almost irrelevant position Somebody in planning should have checked the cost of building transport links against the value of the land Many housing projects do not even consider the impact of building a subway line and stations The transport network in São Paulo is expanding and soon the subway will reach areas that are still lacking in basic infrastructure but we must defend the arrival of mass transport which is essential to improving the lives of residents You have always defended an idea that was once controversial of increasing the population density in the center of São Paulo Defense of the densification was not controversial There was almost a consensus that the city center was becoming unoccupied because there is clearly sufficient infrastructure there to house many more people There was a time when residents of the city center were moving to the peripheries that it was necessary to repopulate the center Population density is a way of taking advantage of the infrastructure already in place The central region provides the second-largest number of jobs in the city The sectors of the municipality with the highest traffic today are strictly residential districts of very low population density it is possible to get almost anywhere on foot Published in April 2017 © Revista Pesquisa FAPESP - All rights reserved Two of the world's biggest coffee companies have admitted their beans may have been harvested using slave labour on plantations in Brazil which account for 40 per cent of the global market said they could not rule out human rights abuses in their supply chain because they don't know the names of all the plantations that grow their coffee The admissions came after an investigation by media and research centre Danwatch found that slave-like conditions were still widespread across Brazil's coffee-producing industry The Denmark-based group claimed workers were trafficked for little or no pay forced to live on rubbish heaps and made to drink water alongside animals may have harvested beans for Nestlé and Jacobs Douwe Egberts because the firms sometimes bought from middlemen in a muddled supply chain The report said: 'This means that when you buy coffee in the supermarket you risk taking home beans that were picked by people whose accommodations lack access to clean drinking water 'Or by workers who are caught in a debt spiral that makes it practically impossible for them to leave the coffee plantation 'Both companies admit that coffee from plantations where working conditions resembled slavery may have ended up in their products.' Nestlé also confirmed to Danwatch that it bought coffee from two plantations where workers were freed from slave-like conditions by Brazilian authorities last July Danwatch says workers are often trapped in 'debt bondage' not given contracts or protective equipment and forced to live in accommodation without mattresses contravening Brazilian and international law The group claims Brazilian workers earn just £1.40 ($2) to fill a 60-litre sack of coffee representing just two per cent of the retail price lead researcher on the Danwatch investigation said: 'When the companies don't even know what plantations they're buying from I think the problem is much bigger than what we've seen here – it's just the tip of the iceberg.'  Nestlé and Jacobs Douwe Egberts told The Guardian they took Danwatch's allegations seriously.  Nestlé said: 'We do not tolerate violations of labour rights and have strongly maintained that forced labour has no place in our supply chain.  'Unfortunately, forced labour is an endemic problem in Brazil and no company sourcing coffee and other ingredients from the country can fully guarantee that it has completely removed forced labour practices or human rights abuses from its supply chain.' Jacobs Douwe Egberts said: 'We are committed to working with governments, non-governmental organisations, suppliers, farmer cooperatives and the entire coffee supply chain to improve the working conditions for coffee farmers throughout the world.  'We currently support 15 such programmes in nine countries, including Brazil.' Major terror attack 'was just HOURS away' before it was foiled by the special forces and police:... Victim of acid attack 'plotted by his ex-partner who teamed up with a gang' dies in hospital six... We are trapped in unsellable newbuild homes after a £52m dual carriageway was built on our... Horror as $4.5M influencer-laden yacht SINKS off Miami... after glam women made a rookie maritime... How Meghan's biggest cheerleader brokered Harry's disastrous BBC interview - three months after... Woman dead and three others including a child injured after car ploughed into pedestrians: Man, 49,... 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Was YOUR morning coffee harvested by slaves?Commenting on this article has endedNewest{{#isModerationStatus}}{{moderationStatus}} Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information A worker separates coffee cherries during harvest at a plantation in Guaxupe 2019 at 12:00 AM EDTBookmarkSaveLock This article is for subscribers only.News out of Brazil just keeps getting better for Starbucks Corp and other buyers of smooth-tasting arabica-coffee beans Favorable weather and currency weakness in the South American country are behind a sixth straight quarterly decline in arabica prices coffee futures are posting a string of superlatives.