Good Works at a Profit

Outside the little (pop. 5,230) town of Jacarezinho, 335 miles upcountry from Sao Paulo, several hundred farmers watched a big tractor rip a stump out of the rich red earth. Said one grizzled farmer to Nelson Rockefeller, who had come all the way from New York for the occasion: "I've seen you do in five minutes what it would take me five weeks to do with my horse." Already Rockefeller's Empresa de Mecanizac,ao Agricola, S.A., (Agricultural Mechanization Co.) had enough orders for pulling stumps and clearing land to keep it busy for months.

In January 1947, Nelson Rockefeller had set up the International Basic Economy Corp. to carry out the idea that good can be done at a profit by helping Latin American countries increase their food output. In Venezuela, some of his model farms were already about to show a profit. But there, the government and the oil companies had put up part of the capital, and smoothed the way. In Brazil it was different.

Santa Glaus & 5%. Many a Brazilian still preferred a flyer in Rio real estate, for a possible 200% profit, to Rockefeller's 5% projects. Others found it hard to believe that Rockefeller was not just trying to give away his money. Some xenophobes spread the story that the projects were just fronts for spying out oil deposits.

Today, after false starts and heavy going, Rockefeller has four projects (besides the mechanization company) that can argue for themselves. On an 867-acre hilltop farm near Jacarezinho, a mixedcapital company has completed its 32nd cross of Brazilian seed corn, has harvested 32 tons of high-yielding hybrid, and sold the lot to Parana and Sao Paulo farmers. For the world's third largest corn producer, the possibilities of hybrid were scarcely less revolutionary than they had proved for Iowa.

More Normal Granaries. A third Rockefeller enterprise, formed with Cargill, Inc. of Minneapolis, is planning grain elevators for Sao Paulo and Parana. At harvest time in southern Brazil, wheat and corn take a back seat to coffee. Through poor storage, as much as 80% of the wheat crop has been lost to rats and rot. Lacking storage space, farmers often sell at panic prices. By renting space in the new company's elevators, farmers can hold off for better prices from middlemen, and Brazil will have to import less wheat. Another joint company has set up four model hog farms in Sao Paulo State, where farmers can get the word on scientific breeding and feeding. Local packers on the lookout for better meat have been persuaded to invest heavily in this outfit.

The fifth Rockefeller enterprise, Helicoptero Comercial, S.A., was formed only last week. Its aim: to contract with Sao Paulo coffee growers to spray their plantations against the deadly broca borer. Rockefeller's technicians found out that ordinary aerial spraying was missing the bugs, but that helicopters, hovering just over the trees and beating the chemical dust right down to the ground, could get them every time.

Rockefeller's technicians are out to sell their skilled services and teach Brazilians U.S. know-how. They like to point out that, however small its beginnings, their operation dovetails perfectly with President Dutra's giant five-year plan for national development. Says one: "What we are trying to do is to encourage the investment of Brazilian capital in companies that not only will show a profit but will assist in the economic and social development of Brazil."

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