My name is Charles Mayfield, and I am a junior in Agricultural and Consumer Economics concentrating in Farm Management. After being on campus for the past three years, one thing that I cannot stress enough is being active on campus. Getting involved is an important aspect of building yourself as an individual and as a candidate for your future employers. Within the College of ACES and University-wide, there are several different clubs and organizations available to students to take part in.

A wise man once said that all good things must come to an end, and IBIP is no exception. On Friday, we had our last two company visits for the entire trip: the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES) and Petrobras. Our day began bright and early with a quick breakfast before we left for the Development Bank in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Once there, our hosts spoke at great length about the bank itself and biofuels department. The Brazilian National Development Bank was established in 2007 with the mission of funding Brazilian projects that are both public and private in nature.

An early morning flight had us running into the São Paulo soccer team (the team we watched the previous night in Curitiba) on their way back home. After our short flight to Rio de Janeiro, we were welcomed by a breathtaking overview of the whole city including the soccer stadium, Olympic arenas, Christ the Redeemer statue, Sugarloaf Mountain, and other landmarks visible in the clear blue sky. While driving to Christ the Redeemer, our first stop in Rio, we circled the city center filled with historical memorials.

Today was the most exciting day yet! We got to spend a whole 10 hours crammed on the bus with a few stops in between. Some of the highlights of the day included taking long naps, watching movies, and eating gas station food. However when we were not partaking in these exciting activities we got to look at the beautiful Brazilian landscape and tour Feira Tecnologica (FT). Feira Tecnologica is located in a town in eastern Parana and is primarily a soybean breeding company that also does some corn breeding as well.

After sleeping and eating breakfast at the Hotel Maestro, we all boarded the double decker toucan bus to start our day. Around 7:30, we departed Toledo City and set our sails for the Coodetec research facility in Cascavel. At this particular facility, they breed for new crop varieties and test crop protection products. We were warmly greeted by several members of the Coodetec staff and informed on their business model and products. Coodetec recently merged with Dow Agrosiences, so it was very interesting to hear about how this particular facility was adjusting to the changes.

It's common for Americans to travel in between multiple states every day, or visit the four corner boundary of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado, but not many can say they've stood and looked at three countries at a time. Well, the members of IBIP were able to today. With a meeting time of 10 a.m., everyone was refreshed and ready for a day of real tourist attractions. We went straight to Foz do Iguaçu National Park, where we hiked down a trail to the bottom of one of the natural wonders of the world, Iguaçu Falls. Selfies and ponchos were in abundance on this visit. 

After a long week in Sao Paulo state, we woke up in Parana state rejuvenated and ready to continue our exploration of the southeast states of Brazil. To start off the day, we had a breakfast buffet supplied by the hotel at 7:30am. It was “Muy Tu Bom” J. After a full, healthy meal to we made our way to the Toucan Bus (a double decker bus) that departed at 8:00am. We had a mellow two-hour bus ride and arrived at our first destination: LAR Cooperative Soybean Facility.  We met with the plant manager and chemical engineer of the factory.

We started the day at the Embrapa Environment, a research center, learning about company history and their work.  Embrapa researches a variety of topics that affect the agriculture sector, including food security, integrated pest management and climate change risk. We had the opportunity to visit one of their trial sites: a coffee field where researchers are focused on the effects of elevated CO2 levels on coffee plants. Walking through the coffee field and seeing the harvested coffee drying on tarps was a really neat experience!

We went back to school bright and early Thursday morning at University of São Paulo School of Agriculture. At 8am we were welcomed by our friend Daniel and Dr. Jamie Finguerut. They enlightened us about the history and statistics of their university. We learned that they have about 89,000 students in São Paulo and 6,000 professors. Brazilian college students do not have to pay for tuition and attend class March-June and August- December. We were then welcomed by a microeconomics class where we learned about crude oil and the relationships between Brazil, Germany and the U.S.

We checked out of the Hotel Feller in São Paulo at 7 a.m. to head for the PepsiCo snack production facility in Sorocaba, São Paulo. An hour and a half bus ride turned into two and a half hours due to a highway accident detour.