ABSTRACT
The colonial period Brazil’s basis for agricultural development was the large plantation producing for export. Food production for the internal market has always been considered secondary. Some took place on the poorest lands of the large farms to provide food for the workers (or slaves); some was undertaken by free workers living on lands lying between the latifundios (where an important labour reserve for the large landlords was concentrated, a mass of population obliged to supplement their income by working for the landlords, because of the insufficient plot of land (minifundio) allowed them); finally, food production took place on the ever-expanding agricultural frontier. Meat production was carried out by the large farms involved in extensive cattle breeding. This kind of farm played an important role in land concentration and monopoly.
