Tofu Politics
China’s appetite for Brazilian-grown soy beans is helping soy farmers there to flourish, but government officials want China to do more than just buy raw materials: President Hu Jintao hasn’t come through on a promise to make sizable investments in South America and attitudes there are hardening. From NPR’s Morning Edition:
China is emerging as an economic powerhouse throughout the world — including in the backyard of the United States.
Hungry for trade with mineral- and agriculture-rich Latin America, the Chinese are binding themselves closer with the continent, snapping up commodities such as Brazilian soy and Chilean copper in record amounts.
In Brazil, the soy bonanza is changing the fortunes of soy farmers, as well as the landscape. …
Listen to the story here.
