Political Ecology of Brazil-China Relations
My current book project is a critical global ethnography of Chinese investments in Brazilian agribusiness. This long-term research project focuses on the formidable role of Brazil and China in restructuring global agroindustrial production, investments, and trade—which drive geopolitical and economic transformations of critical importance for climate change and global environmental governance.
Environmental Justice in the Amazon
I am member of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN-SDSN) Science Panel for the Amazon. We are co-authoring an interdisciplinary report analyzing changes to landscapes and livelihoods driven by commercial agriculture, timber and mineral extraction, and infrastructure construction, which addresses major drivers of climate change and the cultivation of environmental justice in a global biodiversity hotspot.
Impacts of COVID-19 on Food Supply Chains in the US
I am Co-PI of an interdisciplinary research project examining disruptions to food supply chains in California, Florida, and the Midwest due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our team has been awarded $1 million from the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (USDA) to undertake this project from 2020 to 2022. We are adapting surveys originally developed for climate change-induced disruptions of agricultural production by incorporating greater attention to issues of gender, race, social equity and resilience along the entire food supply chain.
Selected publications
27. Oliveira, G. de L. T., B. McKay, and J. Liu. 2021. Beyond Land Grabs: New Insights on Land Struggles and Global Agrarian Change. Introduction to special issue of Globalizations. DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2020.1843842
26. Oliveira, G. de L. T. 2021. The Political Ecology of Soy in South America. In The Political Ecology of Industrial Crops. A. Ahmed and A. Gasparatos (eds.), London and New York: Routledge. In press.
25. Oliveira, G. de L. T., and B. McKay. 2021. BRICS and Global Agrarian Transformations. in The Edward Elgar Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies, Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Kristina Dietz, Bettina Engels, and Ben McKay (eds.), Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar. In Press.
24. Oliveira, G. de L. T., and M. Myers. 2020. The Tenuous Co-Production of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Brazil and Latin America. Journal of Contemporary China. DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2020.1827358.
23. Oliveira, G. de L. T., G. Murton, A. Rippa, T. Harlan, and Y. Yang. 2020. China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Views from the Ground. Introduction to special issue of Political Geography (82): 102225.
22. McKay, B., Oliveira, G. de L. T., and J. Liu. 2020. Authoritarianism, Populism, Nationalism and Resistance in the Agrarian South. Introduction to special issue of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies 41(3): 347-362.
21. Oliveira, G. de L. T., C. He, and J. Ma. 2020. Global-local interactions in agrochemical industry: Relating trade regulations in Brazil to environmental and spatial restructuring in China. Applied Geography 123: 102244
20. Oliveira, Gustavo de L. T. 2020. Soy, Domestication, and Colonialism. In The Routledge Handbook of Critical Resource Geography, Matthew Himley, Elizabeth Havice, and Gabriela Valdivia (eds.), London and New York: Routledge. In press.
19. Oliveira, Gustavo de L. T. 2019a. Boosters, Brokers, Bureaucrats, and Businessmen: Assembling Chinese Capital with Brazilian Agribusiness. Territory, Politics, Governance 7(1): 22-41.
18. Oliveira, Gustavo de L. T., and Susanna B. Hecht (Eds.). 2018. Soy, Globalization, and Environmental Politics in South America. London and New York: Routledge.
17. Oliveira, Gustavo de L. T. 2018a. Chinese Land Grabs in Brazil? Sinophobia and Foreign Investments in Brazilian Soybean Agribusiness. Globalizations 15(1): 114-133.
16. Oliveira, Gustavo de L. T. 2018b. The Battle of the Beans: How direct Brazil-China soybean trade was stillborn in 2004. Journal of Latin American Geography 17(2): 113-139.
15. Oliveira, G. de L. T. 2018c. A resistência à apropriação chinesa de terras no Brasil desde 2008: Lições e alternativas agroecológicas (The resistance to Chinese land grabs in Brazil since 2008: Lessons and agroecological alternatives). Revista Idéias 9(2): 99-132.
14. Goetz, A., T. Searchinger, T. Beringer, L. German, B. McKay, G. de L. T. Oliveira, and C. Hunsberger. 2018. Reply to commentary on the special issue Scaling up biofuels? A critical look at expectations, performance and governance. Energy Policy 118: 658-665.
13. Oliveira, Gustavo de L. T., B. McKay, and C. Plank. 2017. How Biofuel Policies Backfire: Misguided Goals, Inefficient Mechanisms, and Political-Ecological Blind Spots. Energy Policy 108: 765-775.
12. German, L., A. Goetz, T. Searchinger, J. Tomei, G. de L. T. Oliveira, and C. Hunsberger. 2017. Sine Qua Nons of sustainable biofuels: Distilling implications of under-performance for national biofuel programs. Energy Policy 108: 806-817.
11. Oliveira, Gustavo de L. T., and Susanna B. Hecht. 2016. Sacred Groves, Sacrifice Zones, and Soy Production: Globalization, Intensification and Neo Nature in South America. Introduction to special issue: Soy Production in South America: Globalization and New Agroindustrial Landscapes, Journal of Peasant Studies 43(2): 251-285.
10. Oliveira, Gustavo de L. T. 2016a. The Geopolitics of Brazilian Soybeans. Journal of Peasant Studies 43(2): 348-372.
9. Oliveira, Gustavo de L. T. 2016b. Regularização Fundiária e a “Corrida Mundial por Terras” no Brasil (Land Regularization and the “Global Rush for Land” in Brazil). (An updated, translated, and revised version of an earlier publication in Development and Change). Revista Campo/Território11(23): 43-75.
8. Oliveira, Gustavo de L. T., and Mindi Schneider. 2016. The Politics of Flexing Soybeans: China, Brazil, and Global Agroindustrial Restructuring. Journal of Peasant Studies 43(1): 167-194.
7. Oliveira, G. de L. T. 2014. “Environment and citizenship in Latin America: Natures, subjects and struggles.” (Book review) Journal of Peasant Studies 41(3): 440–444.
6. Oliveira, G. de L. T. 2013a. Land Regularization in Brazil and the Global Land Grab. Development and Change 44 (2): 261-283.
5. Oliveira, G. de L. T. 2013b. Land Regularization in Brazil and the Global Land Grab. In Governing Global Land Deals: The Role of the State in the Rush for Land, W. Wolford, S. M. Borras, Jr., R. Hall, I. Scoones and B. White (eds.), Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 71-92.
4. Eitzel, M., S. Diver, H. Sardiñas, L. Hallett, J. Olson, A. Romero, G. de L. T. Oliveira, A. Schuknecht, R. Tidmore and K. Suding. 2012. Insights from a Cross-Disciplinary Seminar: 10 Pivotal Papers for Ecological Restoration. Restoration Ecology 20 (2): 147–152.
3. Oliveira, G. de L. T. 2010. Prescrições Agroecológicas para a Crise Atual (Agroecological Prescriptions for the Current Crisis). Revista NERA (the Journal of the Center for Studies of Agrarian Reform of the São Paulo State University) 13(16): 33-47.
2. Oliveira, G. de L. T. 2009. Uma Descrição Agroecológica da Crise Atual (An agroecological description of the current crisis). Revista NERA (the Journal of the Center for Studies of Agrarian Reform of the São Paulo State University) 12(15): 66-87.
1. Oliveira, G. de L. T. 2006. On Recent Scientific Advances and Incompatibilist Freedom. (Winner of the Edith and Gerrit Schipper Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Paper at the 51st Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association.) Florida Philosophical Review 6 (1): 17-30.