Brazilian government provides aid for farmers

GUARIBAS, Brazil -- Nearly a thousand miles from Rio de Janeiro's beaches and not far from the Mountains of Confusion, a dirt road with potholes big enough to swallow cars leads to ground zero of "Lula's revolution."\nHere, a rail-thin man named Isais Conrado Alves opens a grimy sack to take out his most valuable possession: A yellow ID card entitling him to 50 reals, or about $17, every month for food.\nThe 61-year-old subsistence farmer was among the first to receive the benefit now being tested by the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is popularly known as Lula and is Brazil's first leftist leader in 40 years.\n"It's the first time I ever got anything from the government," said Alves, who bought enough rice for one month to go with the dried beans his wife cooks every day.\nMore than 40 million Brazilians survive on less than $1 a day, although the country of 174 million people is fertile and the size of the continental United States.\nGuaribas, a farming outpost five hours from the nearest paved, two-lane highway, is among Brazil's poorest towns.\nAnd it's one of the two places Silva picked to start fulfilling his pledge to give all Brazilians three decent meals a day -- even though the town backed another presidential candidate last fall.\nSilva launched his "Zero Hunger" campaign in January, promising to expand the effort to 1,000 towns and 1.5 million people by the end of this year. But the effort already faces criticism for bureaucratic stumbling and slowness in adding areas.