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Michelin’s Rubber Plantation: Bahia’s Green Gold
Truth is, until I visited Michelin’s rubber plantation in Bahia, Brazil, I never really thought about where rubber comes from or how tires were made.
But I don’t feel so bad. Apparently, I’m not the only person that thinks that tires were born on cars. The other night, I asked a well-heeled group of people at a dinner party if they knew that rubber was tapped from trees. And they all just looked at me with surprise.
Tiremaking 101
 Yes, rubber does, in fact, come from trees, in the form of a white liquid called latex. Hevea (rubber) trees are individually tapped, just as maple trees are tapped for syrup.
In brief, here’s how that goo gets turned into tires: The “tapper” cuts the tree every few days to release the latex and places a small bucket under the cut to catch the liquid. It is then carted by a very low-tech donkey-powered buggy to the rubber refinery a few miles away, where the latex is processed into blocks and shipped to Michelin’s factory in South Carolina to be formed into tires.
The White Stuff
 You know that happy looking all-white rubber Michelin Man? He’s white for a reason. When tires were created they were white (as in latex is white when it comes out of the tree). In the early 1900s, the industry entered carbon black into the mix because it’s a better binder. Thus, black tires! And colors? BF Goodrich, Michelin’s brand company, experimented with colored tires a few years back but the market wasn’t interested.
Going to the Source
Michelin’s Bahia Plantation, which they bought from Firestone in 1981, is located in a coastal area of southern Bahia State. The plantation has 5500 hevea (rubber) trees.
On a recent trip, a group of us tucked into tall rubber boots and hiked into Michelin’s plantation in the Atlantic Forest with Dr. Peter Flescher, Michelin’s chief researcher for the CIRAD (Center for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development).
The Atlantic forest ranks second behind only the Amazon forest in terms of biodiversity and is also one of the world’s most endangered forests. Michelin is committed to preserve what’s left, since 500 years of forest operations (illegal foresting, poaching, deforestation for agricultural purposes, extension of crop areas and industrial and urban development) have eliminated 95 percent of the original woods.
Rubber Know-How
Natural rubber accounts for 30 to 40 percent of the weight of a truck tire and 15 to 30 percent of the weight of a car tire. Tire manufacturers consume nearly 70 percent of the world’s production of natural rubber.
When a rubber tree reaches maturity, at six to seven years of age, it will produce latex for around 30 years. It takes a year for a rubber tree to create 11 pounds of the white sap, which equals enough rubber for a tire of a small car!
The Plague
Despite the strength of the rubber industry, a fungal parasite is threatening global production. Microcyclus ulei attacks rubber trees, eventually killing them. Currently contained in South America, the parasite would seriously impact plant production and the 10 million people employed in the rubber industry if it were to continue to spread to Asia and Africa.
“The fungus is like a living being, a black box from an airplane,” said Flescher. The blight began when Firestone, the former owner of Bahia plantation, unknowingly brought their equipment from Amazon to Bahia. The fungus, unfortunately, was still living in the equipment.
In a partnership with CIRAD, Michelin initiated a program in 1992 to combat the fungus, including the development of resistant hevea. Currently, 14 fungus-resistant varieties of hevea are being tested, but the process is slow: it takes 20 years to create and develop a heartier range of hevea.
Green Gold
In 2003, Michelin launched an initiative at its Brazilian operations called Ouro Verde, or green gold (green for air and gold for money), which is designed to improve the plantation’s economic status, expand agronomic research and protect the environment and the Atlantic Forest.
 Among other effects, the initiative has helped to upgrade working conditions. For example, a rubber tapper works a seven hour and 20 minute day with a one-hour lunch break, taps 900 trees a day and makes $320 a month with medical benefits included. That is nearly three times the typical minimum salary of $120, without the benefits.
Michelin also decided to grow cocoa alongside hevea in an effort to create more jobs, use the land more efficiently and double up on income. The planting of the cocoa has also made it easier for women to work in the fields - and in the case of family farms, wives can now work along with their spouses.
Beyond the Plantations
After a few days of learning everything we ever wanted to know about hevea and, for that matter, Michelin, we left the great Atlantic Forest and jetted off to Salvador, the second-biggest tourist city in Brazil next to Rio.
 We stayed in the stunning 16th-century Convento do Carmo Hotel, a former convent whose 70 rooms and suites are arranged around a central garden in the cobblestone-paved historic district. After filling up on seafood and local beer, we took off the next day for Ipanema beach and Rio! Our next round of eating included churrascaria, the legendary all you can eat Brazilian barbeque; our next round of drinking included caipirinha, the national drink made from tons of crushed fresh lime, sugar and rum.
With or without a three-day rubber tour, I can guarantee this: after one or two of those, you’ll be speaking Portuguese and learning to dance the samba!
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