Agriculture in Northeast Brazil is in crisis. The irreplaceable coastal Atlantic rainforests have been destroyed, to make way for sugar cane, to produce alcohol as a substitute for oil. In the interior, slash and burn farming practices have led to the degradation of soil structures. Drought is an additional problem and means those small farmers and their families face starvation, so they are quitting the land. Plantas do Nordeste, or PNE, is a scientific initiative attempting to show that this trend can be reversed. A new Information Center has been opened in Recife. Its role is to disseminate valuable agricultural and other information and put it within the grasp of the farmers.