LACSI Research Talk | Book Presentation
Join us for a conversation on land, soil, and the limits of “flexible” farming in Brazil’s soy frontier. Andrew Ofstehage will discuss his new book Welcome to Soylandia, exploring transnational agriculture, finance, and the material realities that keep farmers grounded.

🗓 Thursday, April 16, 2026
⏰ 3:30 p.m.
📍 Miller Learning Center, Room 268

Open to students, faculty, and the community. See you there!

Event Description

Dr. Andrew Ofstehage will discuss his new book, "Welcome to Soylandia: Transnational Farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado" with a focus on how industrial, transnational farmers manage massive soy farms with a particular focus on their engagement with frontiers and finance. Transnational agriculture in this context depends on flexibility in terms of work, crops, and land that allow the farm owner to detach from typical farming concerns. This flexibility allows the farm owner to focus on investor relations, government regulations, and other business concerns. Yet, matters of land and soil bring farmers' attention back to the material life of farming as they adapt to pedagogical differences in Brazil and create narratives of care and improvement.

Author's Bio

Dr. Ofstehage is a program coordinator for CALS International Programs at NC State University. He completed his PhD in Anthropology in 2018 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he defended his dissertation, "'When We Came There Was Nothing': Land, Work, and Value among Transnational Soybean Farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado." His book "Welcome to Soylandia!" addresses how American farmers encounter ecologies, communities, and infrastructures of soy production in Brazil; how business and farming practices of Brazil are becoming farming models for the rest of the world, and welcomes the reader to the on-the-ground realities of the soy boom through vivid ethnographic storytelling.