Towards a more sustainable soybeans chain: the effectiveness and the receptiveness of regulation in the case of Mato Grosso, Brazil

This study focuses on the evaluation of different types of regulation that promote sustainability in the global value chain of soybeans in Brazil, with a focus on their impacts on the production side. Using the mid-north region of Matro Grosso state as the spatial context, this study presents a critical historical perspective from the Food Regimes to show how the state-led development model that promoted soybeans expansion to that region was also responsible for a massive degradation in one the most biodiverse savannahs in the world, the Cerrado biome. Today, deforestation is the key measurement of sustainability initiatives in the soybeans production in that region, for both private-voluntary programs, such as the Amazon Soy Moratorium and the Roundtable for Responsible Soy (RTRS), and environmental legislation, regulated by the Forest Code. That raises questions of effectiveness, legitimacy and receptiviness from the producers, all questions that are addressed in this study through interviews and literature review from multi stakeholder and voluntary governance initiatives.