The agribusiness incursion in education: An analysis of the environmental discourse of the Associação Brasileira do Agronegócio (ABAG)

Abstract

The analysis of the insertion of agribusiness in education, considering its intentions and effects, is the central objective of our investigations. In this article, the analytical focus focused on the environmental dimension of the discourse in this sector, which can be inserted into the Environmental Education (EE) component. To this end, we conducted a literature review on the subject, followed by documentary research through the examination of current legislation and the environmental discourses found in the Módulos do Programa Educacional “Agronegócio na Escola” (PEAE) developed by the Associação Brasileira do Agronegócio da região de Ribeirão Preto (ABAG/RP). The study, with a qualitative approach, is based on the historical and dialectical materialist method, as well as drawing on contributions from the theoretical strand of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). As a result, it was possible to verify that the agribusiness investment in the country's public schools aims to spread positive images of the sector in terms of sustainability, disassociating and/or denying its relationship with environmental problems.Thus, the insertion of agribusiness into education, including the entrepreneurial approach of EE provision in formal education, through a pragmatic and conservative conservative  Educação Ambiental Empresarial do Agronegócio (EAEA), appears to be an ongoing and potentially adverse process, as it weakens both education and Environmental Education of their critical potential.

Keywords: Environmental education. Agribusiness. Sustainability.