2 2 Unexpected Consequences
Ludwig was learning that soil types varied widely across his land.
To compensate, ammonium sulfate was imported to bolster the lack of
nutrients. Gmelina trees were yanked out in some places and replaced
with Caribbean pines. Land stripped of native vegetation and turned
into pasture to raise cattle now required the addition of synthetic
fertilizers.
The Jari project was to have been Ludwig’s swan song at the close of
a lucrative career. Instead, as he sank more money into the effort, the
criticisms intensified and the setbacks continued. With nothing but
red ink and a damaged environment, a tired Ludwig gave up, ceded
ownership back to the Brazilian government, and walked away.
After fifteen years of intense effort and more than a billion dollars
expended, the environment Ludwig set out to conscript remained
beyond his control. The Jari project had met the same fate as Fordlandia.
Both Ford and Ludwig had come with vision, ingenuity, money, and the
latest technology. They possessed immense wealth, power, and drive to
impose their will. They did indeed change the environment, but not in
the way either imagined.
I first learned of the Jari project in my early twenties, just before Ludwig
gave up. He had gone all in. Though I admired his determination, I
also wondered what might have been, had he himself not become the
biggest obstacle. Others knew that the soil beneath the Amazon canopy
was nothing like Midwestern farmland. Likewise, others knew that
transplanting the same species of trees so close together, especially in a
tropical environment thick with insects, would set off a domino response
as living organisms competed for habitat and food to survive, thrive, and
reproduce. Others knew that trying to sow, cultivate, and harvest tens of
thousands of acres of foreign crops in atypical farming conditions was
bound to trigger some nasty surprises.
But what if Ludwig had taken the environment into consideration?
What might the outcome have looked like? After all, nature abounds
with examples of innumerable species and diverse phenomena that
somehow foster harmony. Bees pollinating flowers leads to more honey
and more flowers. Birds picking ticks off cattle benefit both cattle
and the birds themselves. Cottonwood trees utilize wind currents for