For my brother and me, this is a day to cherish memories of good times and pray for better ones to come.
Over a half century ago, when Joe was eleven and I was six, our lives changed forever because of a fateful decision that our father made.
Even today, it’s hard to imagine anyone with a great job on Wall Street and a beautiful home on Shippan Point moving to a second home in the central highlands of Brazil. But that’s what Dad did back in 1952.
I think it was because he was both a conservative and a conservationist.
He fought for a strong dollar in the country he loved the most, the United States. But he also wanted to help save the rainforest in Brazil, a country he learned to love nearly as much.
Unfortunately, the tide of history was not in his favor. Since 1950, the U.S. dollar has lost 87 percent of its purchasing power; and the Earth, over 60 percent of its forests.
Stability, although always a challenge, has become more elusive; turmoil, although never absent, is now nearly ubiquitous.
Maybe that’s one reason everyone in my family has sought to go back to the farm, each in his own way.
Joe got his Ph.D. in agricultural economics at Cornell, but eventually returned to central Brazil to buy a farm near Formosa, just north of BrasÃlia.
Last time I visited that region it was the dry season, a time when sunsets accentuate the natural redness of the fertile soil.
Meanwhile, my main connection to rural life is through Elisabeth, whose family has had a farm in southern Brazil for 117 years.
Before we got married, they had a lot of cattle. But now, sugar cane is virtually the sole cash crop. And with new demand growing for ethanol, sugar prices are finally improving, after many years of being depressed.
A challenge we still face is how to harvest the cane without first burning off the leafy portions.
(Happily, it adds no harmful chemicals to the air.)
Another thing that has not changed is the fact that many people still get around on horseback.
For some reason, whenever I used to join them, I was the one who usually wound up on the lone mule.
But I didn’t mind.
The sun was warm, the reservoir was cool, and the sugar cane Elisabeth cut and peeled along the way was always juicy and sweet.
That was almost four decades ago.
Now, on average, I go back about once a year, and each time I notice small but incremental changes that make our stay more enjoyable.
On our last trip, for example, it seemed the trees were shadier; and the fish in the pond, more plentiful.
This year, we’re glad to spend the holidays at home in Florida, where the flora and fauna are no less bountiful or beautiful.
We pray your new year also brings you peace and love, with many more to come.
Good luck and God bless!
Martin
P.S. Our next Money and Markets will be published on Tueday, December 26.
