Economic development axis and socioenvironmental conflicts generation in Brazil: challenges to sustainability and environmental justice

The 1st National Environmental Health Conference, in December 2009, presents countless challenges to the field of Public Health. It debates key concepts as development, sustainability, production and consumption processes, democracy and public policies; advocating for innovative, interdisciplinary and intersectorial aspects of Environmental Health. The Conference recovers and articulates important themes for the Public Health, and also indicates the need of reflecting the socio-environmental determinants of health at the present time, in order to provide progresses in the construction of guidelines and actions to health surveillance and promotion. This article discusses the characteristics of the Brazilian model of development, its impacts and conflicts within social, environmental and health fields. We use theoretical and empirical contributions from the fields of Ecological Economy and Political Ecology, as well as, experiences of cooperation with the Brazilian Network on Environmental Justice and several social movements. Two cases are discussed in more detail: the first related to agribusiness and the use of pesticides, and the other about the expansion of the iron and steel industry in Brazil. We conclude proposing some elements that could be incorporated by a research agenda committed to the debate about the socioenvironmental crisis.