Abstract

This paper presents evidence that production of some basic food crops in Brazil is characte-rized by singular technical and social features vis-à-vis other food and export crops. After propo-sing an analysis of this differentiated production structure, the paper goes on to argue that these food production’s singularities have the consequences of: 1) making the share of labor cost in total unit cost higher in the production of these food crops; and 2) producing a negative impact of economic growth upon food supply, due to the improved employment opportunities in the urban and rural labour markets. An implication of this analysis is the attribution of lesser emphasis on the inter-relationship food/export crops within agriculture, in favor of greater emphasis on the inter-relationship food production / overall labor market conditions.