The Fat of the Land: A Rural Future

“I am trying to build a little part of the world in which I would like to live. And even if my inspiration is romantic, I require material results, a re-colored reality and so my projects are practical, doable work. Creating these projects, implementing them and succeeding, witnessing one's dreams come true, is my version of happiness" ~ Social Entrepreneur, Fabio Rosa

Making a small farm profitable can pose Sisyphusian challenges. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus). And for some reason, many of our companies equate environmentally friendliness with lost profits.

Fabio Rosa, a social entrepreneur who has brought electricity to more than half a million Brazilions, defies gravity in this regard. Rosa’s electrical and agricultural cost-reduction innovations were driven by his leadership qualities: attention to detail, and charismatic and unwavering devotion to realizing his vision to reverse the trend of rural to urban migration.

Thornbury Farm's solar electric fencing system
is similar to those saving the
livelihoods of the poor in rural Brazil.

Fabio Rosa’s coupling of technological invention with agricultural problem-solving are innovations central to his success. Solar energy, which is clean, renewable, decentralized, easy to install, and ideal for rural electrification “has always had one major drawback: high cost” (Bornstein, 2007, p. 32). Conventional power systems are “three-phase,” meaning they depend on an arrangement of three wires to function. Channeling his entrepreneurial spirit, Rosa adopted the single-wire innovation of a professor at the Professional Technical School of Pelotas named Ennio Amaral and combined it with solar electricity generation. The single wire system, a “monophase” arrangement, made delivering electricity much less expensive. “Using inexpensive materials and simplified construction methods, Rosa’s ‘monophase’ system…reduced electrical distribution costs from $7,000 to $400 per household” (Bornstein, 2006). Rosa applied Amaral’s ideas for cheapening electricity but further innovated by means of solar energy, electric fencing and electricity-run irrigation pumps. In this way, low-cost electricity can increase farmers’ yields while decreasing their negative environmental impact. For instance, Brazilian farmers often struggle with the detrimental agricultural and environmental effects of overgrazing their animals. However, building multiple small paddocks for healthy managed grazing in which animals would be rotated from paddock to paddock reduces soil erosion, cuts dependence on inorganic fertilizers, and boosts meat and milk yields (Bornstein, 2007, p. 35). The only way a most Brazilian farms can afford to build paddocks is using cheap electric fencing. Rosa put an equation together. “Solar energy + polywire + fiber-glass posts = inexpensive electric fencing. And inexpensive electric fencing + managed grazing = higher yields, sustainable land use, a rural future” (p. 37).

The fence consists of electrified threads woven through a fabric

Another innovation springs from another problem: “the tyranny of water” (Bornstein, 2007, p. 23). Red rice was a weed-like enemy facing farmers in Palmares, where Rosa began his first electrification efforts. Because of the overbearing nature of red rice, which can take over fields rapidly, famers in Palmares would cultivate only one quarter of their land each year, allowing the rest to lie fallow. Rosa’s innovated solution involved first providing monophase electric irrigation pumps and then saturating the fields using these pumps to keep oxygen out of the soil, thus preventing red rice from germinating. Only desired rice would grow in prepared paddies, red rice would be absent, and yields and income could be free to increase rapidly for the farmers (Bornstein 2007).

Rosa’s most business-like innovation was developing a rental system for the solar energy. By renting, customers would be spared Brazil’s overpowering sale’s tax, which has been known to drive prices up by over 50 percent. He could easily package the photovoltaic solar energy with “productive tools such as irrigation systems, electric fences and high-yielding organic farming methods” (Bornstein, 2006). To further cut costs, Rosa employs local labor (Rice, 2005).

For the first time, hundreds of families had lights, electric powered pumps, and refrigerators. Studies buttress the importance and effectiveness of Rosa’s projects. “Not only did low-cost electrification stop the flow of residents to cities, it reversed the flow. A study two years after the projects implementation showed that one in every three beneficiaries was someone who returned from the city to resume living in his former rural area. This was in large part because of the newly affordable electric service” (Profile, n.d.). This study substantiates Fabio’s conviction “poor people are not lured to the city because it is better; they’re expelled from the countryside because it’s unlivable for them. Given the means to live better, people stay near their rural roots” (Profile, n.d.). Rosa believes in making marginalized citizens into “active participants and beneficiaries” amidst the economy. People who experience improvements in income become active market producers and consumers (Profile, n.d.)

That's lettuce! Unbelievably tall and beautiful lettuce.

At the beginning of the Palmares experiment, all of the participants lived on or below the minimum wage. Within two years, half of those participants were supplied with Rosa’s water pumps. Now the farmers, able to irrigate their crops, increased their incomes from their farms by 400 percent. 83 percent soon had refrigeration, 70 percent benefitted from electrically heated showers, and 80 percent had television (Profiles, n.d.). Farmers who had moved to the city have begun returning home to the country due to the electricity prices that enable them to refrigerate perishables and irrigate crops. Burdens on city services have been reduced and farmers have been empowered to contribute more to economic commerce (Profiles, n.d.). Otila Maria Rosa dos Santos offers a testimonial. “She says her house is brighter and cleaner than before. The house no longer smells of kerosene. Next summer, dos Santos is looking forward to cooler nights—not having to burn lamps inside the house. But the greatest benefit of electricity is the effect on her son. “My son had told me he didn’t want to continue living in the dark…now he will stay” (Bornstein, 2006). “In one of Rosa’s most unexpected victories, the Brazilian government announced it will use his single wire model to bring electricity to millions of Brazilians”.

Fabio Rosa’s victories came only after devoting all of his energy and skill to navigating poverty’s barriers and bureaucracy’s red tape. He stands out as a leader, a businessman, and a humanitarian—the perfect combination for forging the just society we dream of living in.

Chris, 23, our farm manager and man of many talents backflipping from a rope swing on the Brandywine

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: SEE BELOW.

Fabio’s innovative work is carried by his projects and organizations, involving the labor of many technicians. Sistemas de Tecnologia Agroelectro (STA), the Institute for the Development of Natural Energy and Sustainability (IDEAAS), The Sun Shines for All (TSSA), and The Quiron and Encruzilhada Projects take varied approaches to making electricity affordable, practical, and useable for the poorest inhabitants of Brazil. They are all models for upcoming electrification and agricultural plans in other states and countries.

Rosa’s business savvy has led him to build hybrid ventures: a for-profit corporation, STA, and a not-for-profit organization, IDEAAS. Both have proven to be sustainable through their business models. STA utilizes cost-recovery through its rental system’s products and services, while IDEAAS mobilizes funding from other sources, like philanthropists and the public (Schwab, n.d.). The entrepreneur admits financing is the main difficulty in project expansion. “Brazil’s new government cut lines of credit used by the national development bank to assist small farms. Although [Rosa’s] projects have repaid all loans and become self-sustaining after the initial phase, financing is assured now only for 4,000 out of 200,000 families” (Profile, n.d.). Not to be deterred, Fabio contacted the ministers of social action and agriculture to reestablish credit lines, and The National Development Bank supported his requests. STA was designed to circumvent governmental bureaucratic obstacles, and IDEAAS was designed to overcome corporate, privatized barriers to social and environmental value creation. Rosa also “began “hammering out a business model,” naming it “The Sun Shines for All.” He spent two years making income projections, analyzing the competition, risks, and market, formulating pro forma cash flow, and building a business plan overall (Bornstein, 2006).

At least half of the efforts made to keep the projects sustainable must come from the communities themselves. STA and IDEAAS hold preliminary meetings to establish whether a community finds it prudent to pursue one of Rosa’s projects. After a community commits, local governments administer a survey of electrification needs. Then, organizers plug away to “instill a positive collective sense among participants. Leaders eventually emerge within the groups. The community executes the project and, finally, a community association is formed” (Profile n.d.). Rosa identifies leaders in each community to help him convince their neighbors renting soclar energy will benefit them, and will cost no more than they are already paying for candles, batteries, and lamp oil” (Profile n.d.). In this way communities keep the projects alive. They sustain Rosa’s work. The direct social impact of the projects has been remarkable.