Food sovereignty vs food security in Brazil: tensions and oppositions within agroecology as an objective

Soberania versus segurança alimentar no Brasil: tensões e oposições em torno da agroecologia como projeto

Abstract

Brazil may appear to be a good student regarding food security and governance. Indeed, it implemented a national policy for food and nutrition security (FNSP) which is simultaneously unsectoralised, participatory and decentralised. The advocated model is the result of a significant contribution from social movements whose proposals have nurtured public policies during the last decade and have replaced the global food security framework with that of food sovereignty. This article aims to analyse the social changes that have accompanied the promotion of food sovereignty, which stands as a legacy to the history of the fight against hunger in Brazil. Since the end of the dictatorship, actions towards food sovereignty have been carried out in an unstable context of two development benchmarks within the State itself. The institutional commitment associated with it is epitomised under Lula by the arrival of managers close to social movements in a State still partly in the hands of traditional rural elites. In fact, two agrifood systems clashed and entered into open conflict after the destitution of Dilma Rousself. On the one hand, agribusiness, whose political aim is that of ecological modernization, drove a techno-environmental system. On the other hand, the world of NGOs, social movements and representatives of the left-wing government were united under the banner of a socio-ecological system: agroecology. Both social movements and agribusiness, amidst an unceasing struggle for power, attempted to build a certain level of unity in order to strengthen their networks of influence and increase their penetration within society. The end of institutionalised duality begs the question of the ability of these two models to coexist or even possibly evolve to become a hybrid of the two.
Keywords: food security; agroecology; agrobusiness; agricultural models; social movements.

PINTON, Florence; YANNICK, Sencébé. Soberania versus segurança alimentar no Brasil: tensões e oposições em torno da agroecologia como projeto. Estudos Sociedade e Agricultura, v. 27, n. 1, p. 24-46, fev. 2019.

Submitted in september 2018.
Accepted in december 2018.