Brazil's new agribusiness elite, is driving economic development in the upper Amazon basin. The axis of the nation's agriculture, long concentrated in the southeast, is moving north as cheaper and more productive land is brought under the plow. Pushing back the frontier, of course, raises environmental concerns. The recent free-for-all as large farmers and timber and mininig companies moved into the virgin forest caused the World Bank and other alarmed multilateral agencies to cut off highway aid. Brazil itself, albeit sluggishly, has gotten around to cancelling tax breaks for new pastures. Officials have been empowered to halt forest destruction, but there's little funding for enforcement.