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Fires burn on a farm near environmentally protected land in Sao Paulo state on Aug. 24.

Fires burn on a farm near environmentally protected land in Sao Paulo state on Aug. 24.

Photographer: Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg
Green
The Big Take

The Country That Makes Breakfast for the World Is Plagued by Fire, Frost and Drought

Brazil’s crops have been scorched, frozen and then dried out by the worst drought in a century, upending global commodity markets.

No country on Earth puts more breakfasts on kitchen tables than Brazil.

The farms that dot the vast plains and highlands that rise above the Atlantic coast produce four-fifths of the world’s orange juice exports, half of its sugar exports, a third of coffee exports and a third of the soy and corn used to feed egg-laying hens and other livestock.