A Michigan suburb in the Amazon
In 1928, Henry Ford began constructing a prefabricated American town deep in the Brazilian rainforest. The site, named Fordlandia, was an ambitious industrial project designed to secure a source of rubber for his car company and break the British monopoly on the material. Ford's concession from the Brazilian government gave him control over roughly 10,000 square kilometers of land along the Tapajós River, an area larger than some U.S. states. The plan was to create a city for 10,000 people, complete with Cape Cod-style houses, a modern hospital, a school, a golf course, and a swimming pool.
The industrial infrastructure was substantial. A power plant provided electricity, and a large sawmill processed jungle timber. The most prominent structures, still visible today, are the 45-meter-tall water tower and large factory warehouses. Ford’s managers, imported from the American Midwest, attempted to recreate a Michigan lifestyle. They enforced Prohibition, organized Saturday night square dances, and served American food like hamburgers and canned peaches in the communal dining hall. Local workers, accustomed to different rhythms and diets, chafed under the strict 9-to-5 work schedules in the equatorial heat. In December 1930, resentment boiled over into a riot. Workers destroyed machinery, smashed the hated time clocks, and drove American managers into the jungle.
The blight of monoculture
The project's downfall was not cultural, but biological. Ford's engineers, lacking horticultural expertise, planted millions of rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) in dense, orderly plantations. This monoculture approach ignored the tree's natural ecology. In the wild, rubber trees grow sparsely throughout the forest, which prevents the easy transmission of pests and diseases. By planting them closely together, Fordlandia created a perfect breeding ground for South American Leaf Blight, a disease caused by the fungus Microcyclus ulei.
The fungus attacks the young leaves of the rubber tree, causing them to fall off and eventually killing the tree. The blight spread rapidly through the plantation, destroying the trees. By 1934, the original site was largely abandoned, and Ford shifted efforts to a new location downriver called Belterra, but the blight and other pests followed. Despite a total investment of over $20 million (equivalent to more than $350 million today), not a single drop of latex from Fordlandia ever made it into a Ford tire. In 1945, Henry Ford II sold the entire holding back to the Brazilian government for just $244,200. Today, the ruins are a reminder of ecological hubris, with a population of about 3,000 people living among the decaying structures.