It is clear that beef is being raised for export. This has a variety of impacts. First, large areas of forest have been cut down to provide the open grasslands needed to raise cattle. Second, available land is converted from crops to cattle-raising because beef is more income intensive. My interpretation of all of the above is that hunger in Brazil is not a matter of lack of food.
Hunger is the result of a series of political and economic decisions.
The heart of these decisions is what I call Savage Capitalism, or profit without perspective. Not really at any cost, because the suffering caused by the unrestrained search for development is invariably borne by the most vulnerable. The abundance of food in the fields of Brazil is a witness to the abundance Brazil has to offer. The hunger and oppression in the countryside and the city is a witness to political and social decisions to sacrifice the many for the wealth of the few. I see no signs of this happening.