city of Lorena that began its development with the gold cycle in the 1700s due to the passage through the Paraíba do Sul River. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a group of Trappist religious settled in the Maristela farm in Tremembé, and introduced rice cultivation in the Paraíba do Sul river floodplains, as well as new planting and irrigation techniques. Milk production was introduced with the decay of coffee, which occurred after the world economic crisis of 1929. The industrialization of the Paraíba Valley began in the 1940s during the Estado Novo, a set of new politics implemented at the time, following a diplomatic agreement made between Brazil and the United States, which envisaged an ambitious project: the construction of a steel mill that would supply the demand for steel from the Allied Countries during the Second World War and aid in the development of Brazil. In 1946, one of the largest steel complexes in the world and the largest in Latin America was inaugurated, Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional - CSN, located in Volta Redonda. The start of steel production at CSN served as the basis for the industrialization of the country and, especially, of Paraíba Valley, with the arrival of steel companies in the region, as well as the automotive and aerospace industry. Economy Agriculture and Livestock Farming is still vital to several municipalities in this region, being the main source of revenue and taxes in some cities. Vale do Paraíba is the second largest milk producer in the country. For cyclical reasons, milk production is in decline, but still sustains a large part of the rural population of small municipalities. Rice is one of the most important agricultural products of the region reaching in the 2002/2003 harvest, the mark of 850 thousand bags of 60 kg. Other diversified crops are being tried by some producers in these floodplains. The current land structure of the Paraíba Valley is the result of significant changes in the form of land distribution that occurred after coffee decay, when large farms began to be shredded in family shares and inheritances. This process multiplied as the generations went on, resulting in a region punctuated by small properties and markedly familiar agricultural production. Industry In the 1950s, the region rapidly industrialized. At this time, in São Paulo, the creation of the Aeronautical Technological Institute, the consequent installation of the aeronautical industry with Embraer, the