Since 2001, Associação Brasileira do Agronegócio (ABAG)-Brazilian Agrobusiness Association -has started to spread agrobusiness by an environmental education program called "Agrobusiness at school", developed by public educational system in various districts in São Paulo state, Brazil. This article discusses the starting of environmental education projects by private organizations in public schools and the implications of business strategies for the school system. This investigation is translated into a case study that considers ABAG as one of the business entities developing educational programs in public schools. The argumentation supported by this work is that public schools and environmental education, by means of business projects, are used as space and instrument of diffusion of a new sociability of rural patronage and of sustainable development ideology. This article concludes that it is possible to identify that the program provides essential elements for the qualification of public schools: teacher´s formation, pedagogical material and educational projects. Nevertheless, the insertion of a program organized by a private entity takes out the possibility of public character of schools, as learning promoted in that space is mediated by market interests.
Environmental education; Public school; Associação Brasileira de Agronegócio; Programa Agronegócio na escola (Agrobusiness at school program)