Introduction
Against All Odds
IN THE AMAZON DELTA OF BRAZIL, cash crops now grow in tidal wetlands previously regarded as unsuitable for agriculture. Rosario Costa Cobral is a diminutive woman with determined eyes and prominent cheekbones. Her family occupies a small homestead on the banks of the great muddy river. With barely enough dry land to eke out a subsistence living, she sought a way to harness the vast swaths of rich delta soil inundated by twice-daily flooding. Rosario questioned the orthodoxy that farming and floodplains don’t mix. A close observer of the Amazon’s daily rhythms and seasonal cycles, she noted that in any given year the contours of the river bottom were relatively stable. Higher patches drained quickly when waters ...
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