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Institutional framework and public policies for food and

nutrition security and sovereignty in Brazil*

Renato S. Maluf**

Abstract

This paper examines the dynamics and conceptual basis of the current creation

of the National Policy for Food and Nutrition Security along with the evolution of

the National System that is supposed to provide an institutional framework for

implementing actions and programmes. In order to focus on the dynamics of

rural transformation in Brazil, this paper pays special attention to the

connections between the questions of food and of family farming.

Introduction

This study examines the conceptual basis and main requirements in terms of

institutions and public policies to promote food and nutrition security and

sovereignty. Its main reference is the process of building the National System

and Policy for Food and Nutrition Security in Brazil, envisaged under the

Organic Law for Food and Nutrition Security (Lei Orgânica da Segurança

Alimentar e Nutricional - LOSAN, Law No. 11346/ 2006).

This approach is based on three main assumptions. First, Brazil has shown a

significant improvement in almost all the social indicators related to poverty,

hunger and malnutrition (quantitative dimensions). However, it is necessary to

keep in mind the underlying economic and social processes behind this

improvement (qualitative dimensions) in order to understand its significance and

implications. Secondly, food and nutrition security is taken as a permanent and

strategic goal of public policies that are formulated in the light of the principles

* Paper presented at the International Conference Dynamics of Rural Transformation in

Emerging Economies. April 14-16, 2010, New Delhi, India. Translated from original text written in Portuguese. ** Professor of the Social Science Graduate Programme on Development, Agriculture and

Society (CPDA), Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Brazil. President of the National Council on Food and Nutrition Security (CONSEA), Brazil, 2007-2011.

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of food sovereignty and the human right to adequate nutrition. The promotion of

this goal contributes towards ensuring that the processes mentioned above are

more equitable and sustainable. Finally, it is crucial to have a systemic

institutional framework that makes it possible to formulate and implement inter-

sectorial policies with effective social participation in order to promote food and

nutrition security in its multiple dimensions (Maluf, 2007).

The recent international food crisis has once again brought food and agriculture

to the forefront of the international agenda. Brazil could play a prominent role in

this debate, being a leading player in the global food system. This same reason

expands the nation's possibilities in terms of contributing towards overcoming

critical aspects of this system. References to Brazil use to highlight its being a

major producer and exporter of agro-food products. Nonetheless, attention

should also be given to the policies that it implements in related areas such as

family farming, food and nutrition. In order to better understand this prominence,

however, it is essential to keep in mind its condition as a "large country", a

relevant differentiating factor that has significant socio-economic implications as

well as implications in terms of its international role and political and institutional

capacity.

As has been analysed in another study (Maluf and Burlandy, 2007), Brazil is a

large and rich nation, which still has significant inequalities. It is a prime

example of what can be classified as a "large mid-income country". The

condition of being a large country on account of its large population highlights

the economic advantages of the size of the domestic market and the

possibilities thus afforded for the diversification of the productive structure

(Perkings and Syrquin, 1989). This is further compounded by the breadth of

territory with implications in terms of the availability of natural resources,

regional diversity and decentralised strategies. Set within these indicators, the

classification of "mid-income" seeks to differentiate the nations grouped under

the euphemism of "developing nations", creating an intermediary status

between advanced nations and countries that are situated on the periphery of

the global economic system.

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By combining the criteria indicated, South Africa, Brazil, China and India

emerge as the main examples of large mid-income countries. The geopolitical

ingredients of this differentiation are nowadays quite evident, owing to the role

played by these countries and the impact of their performances at a regional

and international level.

Equally relevant for the theme of this paper, it can be presumed that large mid-

income countries have a differentiated institutional capacity in the various fields

of public action (or have greater possibilities of developing such a capacity),

albeit with quite different trajectories in this respect. This condition is even more

relevant when one considers the lack of capacity evidenced by a fair number of

nations to deal with the recent international food crisis, mainly due to the legacy

of the period of structural adjustments in the 80s and 90s. Institutional capacity

– which is manifested in governmental structures as well as in the non-

governmental sphere – is particularly important in determining a nation's

possibilities in the field of social policies, as will be seen in the analysis of these

policies in Brazil.

This paper is divided into three topics and a section with final observations. The

first part contains an overview of the main concepts that have been adopted in

Brazil while creating the national system and policy for food and nutrition

security, along with a description of the directives for what would be a national

policy for food and nutrition security and some of the programmes and actions

that would comprise this policy. The second section examines elements from

the international and national context that serve as a backdrop for the creation

of such a policy and system. The third section analyses some repercussions of

the questions that have been presented in terms of the dynamics of rural

transformation. The final observations seek to highlight, in this context, the

strategic nature of the issue, the importance of the institutional framework and

the role played by the notions of human rights and sovereignty in the debate

about the dynamics of rural transformation.

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The food security system and policy: concepts and institutions

As mentioned in the introduction, food and nutrition security has emerged as a

goal of public policies formulated in the light of the principles of food sovereignty

and the human right to adequate nutrition.

The definition of Food and Nutrition Security (Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional

- SAN) consecrated in the 2006 legislation was the product of a long and

widespread social debate in Brazil: "Food and nutrition security is the realisation

of the right - to which everyone is entitled - of having regular and permanent

access to quality food, in a sufficient quantity, without compromising access to

other essential needs, based on food practices that promote health, which

respect cultural diversity and which are socially, economically and

environmentally sustainable.”

The same law states that: "Adequate nutrition is a fundamental right of human

beings, inherent to the dignity of human people and indispensable for realising

the rights enshrined in the Federal Constitution. The public authorities must

adopt the policies and actions that prove necessary to promote and guarantee

the food and nutrition security of the population." In February 2009 the National

Congress promulgated Constitutional Amendment 64, which included nutrition

amongst the social rights stipulated in Article 6 of the Federal Constitution. The

dimension of food sovereignty appeared in a subsequent article of the aforesaid

Organic Law, which states that, "In order to achieve the human right to

adequate nutrition and food and nutrition security it is essential to respect

sovereignty, which affords nations the primacy of their decisions with regard to

the production and consumption of foodstuffs."

Brazil has made important progress in terms of the institutional framework that

supports programmes and actions related to food and nutrition security.

However, it does not yet have a National Policy for SAN (Política Nacional de

SAN - PNSAN), which is being formulated simultaneously along with the

construction of the National System for Food and Nutrition Security (Sistema

Nacional de SAN - SISAN), which is an indispensable institutional framework for

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implementing the policy. Both reflect the importance that has been attributed to

food and nutrition security in Brazil, which is characterised as being a systemic

and inter-sectorial issue integrating the three governmental levels, and including

social participation as a constituting element for formulating, implementing and

monitoring the policy and the system.

The signing by President Lula of the Presidential Decree 7272/2010

establishing the national policy for SAN represented an important step

determining the development, by July 2011, of the corresponding plan. This

policy is not starting from zero, having the existing programs and activities as its

starting point. Even so, it is assumed that the definition of goals, resources and

commitments is gradual, with its rhythm and amplitude determined by the

degree of involvement of multiple policy systems and sectors of the federal

government, state and local governments and also of society. It was already

mentioned that the dynamic operation of SISAN involves decision-making

processes more complexes than the sectoral systems. That means peculiar

criteria to ensuring the diversity of representation in coordination spaces (e.g.

CONSEA) and cross-sectors procedures to implementing and monitoring

integrated actions (e.g. CAISAN) at the various levels of governance.

The use of a systemic perspective to approach food and nutrition security is a

relatively recent phenomenon in Brazil, where the concepts have been

developed simultaneously with initiatives that seek to organise the state's

actions in this field by instituting the SISAN. Functioning on two simultaneous

planes, the systemic focus is, at the same time, an analytical tool and an

organisational principle. The assumption that reality has a systemic nature

affords the perspective of being able to boost synergetic gains in the

relationship between the elements that comprise the system by means of the

institutionalisation and further development of these relations. This perspective

is aware that a system is a set of elements that evolves with contradictions and

hence contains elements that have the potential to give rise to conflicts. It also

allows the possibility of open solutions, since human actions are made in an

environment of uncertainty, involve "unintended consequences" and reflect the

role played by experience, i.e. by individual and collective learning. In short, it is

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a question of contemplating conflicting and unbalanced systemic dynamics,

open solutions and the role of learning (Burlandy, et al., 2006)1.

Similarly, the inter-sectorial perspective is a result of the understanding that the

food and nutritional condition of individuals, families and social groups is

determined by a set of factors which implies that public policies should go

beyond sectorial initiatives. Actions and programmes must reflect an integrated

view since its very making, as well as in the institutional framework and

implementing. In fact the recent incorporation of the systemic paradigm was

derived, on the one hand, from the inter-sectorial perspective - there is an

important set of questions that cannot be understood and resolved in isolation

since they are interlinked and interdependent. On the other hand, this is in

keeping with the tendency to institute systems for public policies that can be

seen in various areas of the government in Brazil (idem).

The SISAN is aimed at organising and monitoring the public actions and

policies of the diverse governmental and non-governmental sectors, articulated

into a policy of food and nutrition security implemented at the national, state and

municipal levels. Thus, the inter-sectorial nature of the SAN consists of the

capacity of the various sectors of the government and society to engage in a

dialogue, so as to act upon the same socio-spatial context or territory.

This articulation among governmental sectors can take place in at least two

ways: a) multi-sectoral - in which each sector identifies programmes that are

priorities in terms of their scope of actions to achieve a broader governmental

objective (such as the SAN); and b) inter-sectoral - a method in which the

diverse sectors build an integrated project jointly and in agreement, with a view

to achieving broader objectives (such as the SAN) (Burlandy et al., 2006).

The characteristic attributed to the SISAN is quite different from the systems -

which, in contrast, are known as "closed systems" - that organise and

implement specific policies or programmes with their own budgetary funds and

1 This concept is radically different from the closed solutions that are characteristic of some

formalised uses of the systemic approach.

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objectives confined to the sector itself. The fairly common practice of seeking to

achieve sectoral and even supra-sectoral objectives by means of partnerships

with other sectors is a step forward with regard to closed systems, such as in

the aforesaid method of multi-sectoral integration. Nevertheless, it still falls short

of the inter-sectorality propounded for the SISAN.

This kind of inter-sectorality complicates the construction and dynamics of the

system's working, especially the mechanisms for coordination responsible for

sharing objectives, goals and resources. Coordinating the actions of different

sectors of the public administration and the actions of these sectors and civil

society involves a complex process of articulation and negotiation among

sectoral policy systems and between them and civil society organisations. A

system like this has a lesser degree of autonomy (self-sufficiency) with regard

to the context in which it is inserted.

This characteristic of the SISAN is related to the intention of the National Policy

for Food and Nutrition Security (PNSAN) to suggest directives and propose

integrated actions involving participants from diverse systems or decision

making processes (health, education, agriculture, the environment, etc.). This

concept makes it a "policy of policies", i.e. a policy that materialises by means

of a set of programmes and actions involving diverse sectors of government as

well as organisations from civil society.

As has been mentioned above, the respective mechanisms or means of

coordination, "agreement" or "harmonisation" of different sectorial views and

interests play a decisive role in a supra-sectorial system and policy. The

Organic Law pertaining to food and nutrition security has attributed this role, in

the national plan, to the National Council for Food and Nutrition Security

(Conselho Nacional de SAN - CONSEA) with regard to the relationship between

the state and civil society, and to the Inter-Ministerial Chamber for Food and

Nutrition Security (Câmara Interministerial de SAN - CAISAN), in terms of

coordination within the government. Both these entities are guided by the

directives that are established in National Conferences held every four years.

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The law has also stipulated the creation of analogous institutions in the state

and municipal spheres, as shown in Diagram 12. While also serving as the basis

for a significant degree of decentralisation with regard to public policies, the

federative pact in Brazil restricts the possibility of the national sphere

determining the involvement of the other federated entities. In such a situation,

this involvement will be promoted by the new constitutional mandate, which

includes food amongst social rights.

Diagram 1 - National System for Food and Nutrition Security (LOSAN -

Law No. 11.346 / 2006)

2 There are CONSEAs in all the states of the federation and in the Federal District. However,

many face difficulties in being recognised by local authorities and in terms of their capacity to have an impact on public policies. The same limitation has ensured that the creation of inter-sectorial councils by the state governments is still at a nascent stage. There are about 600 municipal CONSEAs.

National

Conference

CONSEA CAISAN

Public Policy Systems

(agriculture, health, education, social

development, environment, ...)

National Policy for FNS

CONSEA

Municipal-

level

Inter-sectoral

Chamber

State Policy for FNS

Municipal Policy for FNS

State

Conference

CONSEA

State-level

Inter-sectoral

chamber

Municipal

Conference

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The concepts and the institutional framework presented above comprise the

reference for the process of formulating the SAN policy and building the SAN

system - processes that are currently underway in Brazil. This is perforce a

gradual process since inter-sectoral coordination is an unprecedented initiative.

However, it is entirely justified, since such coordination contributes towards: a)

Improving the quality of the programmes that go beyond the limits of the

sectorial sphere with regard to the objects of their actions; b) Strengthening the

area of food and nutrition security in the diverse governmental sectors that are

involved; c) Identifying shortcomings or lacunae in the actions; and d)

Highlighting and equating different visions of programmes that are interfaced

with each other, a process in which social participation plays a decisive role.

Based on the directives of a national policy issued at the III National Conference

(2007) and the recent appraisal of government actions (CAISAN, 2009), Table 1

below provides an overview of the eight directives (with the respective

programmes and actions) for a future National Policy for Food and Nutrition

Security, as proposed in discussions within the scope of the CAISAN and the

CONSEA.

With regard to monitoring the programmes and actions, it is important to

highlight the methodology developed by the CONSEA to define a "food and

nutrition security budget". Even though it is not a formal component of the

official federal budget, this budget plays an important role in social monitoring

and in the presentation of demands for resources by the Council3. The focus on

the different budgetary sources of the various programmes comprised by the

national policy is due to criticism about constituting a "food and nutrition security

fund" which poses the risk of a "sectoralisation" of responsibilities, with a

consequent reduction in the commitment of government sectors with an inter-

sectoral objective.

3 The budget for food and nutrition security, the annual applications for resources and the

assessments of the budgetary implementation by the Council are available at: www.presidencia.gov.br/consea.

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Table 1 Directives, programmes and actions for a national policy for

food and nutrition security

Directive 1: Promote universal access to a healthy and adequate nutrition giving priority to family and individuals in food and nutrition insecurity

Directive 2: Promote food provisioning through the structuring of sustainable and decentralized systems of agroecology-based production, extraction, processing and distribution of food

Directive 3: Institute permanent processes for education and training on food and nutrition security and the human right to adequate food

Directive 4: Promote, universalize and coordinate actions for food and nutrition security aimed at maroons and other traditional people and communities as well as indigenous people and settlements of agrarian reform

Directive 5: Strengthen food and nutrition actions at all levels of health services, in articulation with other policies aimed at achieving food and nutrition security

Directive 6: Promoting universal access to good quality and sufficient water, with priority to water insecure families and to the production of foodstuffs by family farming, fishing and aquaculture

Directive 7: Supporting initiatives to promote food and nutrition sovereignty and security and the human right to adequate food in international negotiations

Directive 8: Monitoring the realization of the right to adequate food

The international context

Apart from the challenges that are inherent to these complex processes, the

building up of the system and policy for food and nutrition security obviously

reflect the international and national contexts. The global context is

characterised by a confluence of crises - food, economic, environmental

(climate) and energetic crises - with different timings and amplitudes. These are

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systemic crises and hence require equally systemic solutions that, moreover,

must consider the interfaces between them. In this context, the global food

crisis was more than a temporary imbalance between demand and supply of

foodstuffs that resulted in soaring prices between 2006 and 2008. The systemic

nature of the crisis is visible in diverse phenomena underlying these soaring

prices, which have brought to the forefront the questioning of many components

of the model around which the global food system is organised.

The debate about the depth and deployments of the food crisis has been

overshadowed by the global economic crisis that occurred at about the same

time, i.e. from the second half of 2008 onwards. However, the world continues

to face restrictions in terms of access to food by the poorest segments of the

population on account of insufficient income or productive resources, as well as

the restrictions faced by nations that do not have a sufficient capacity to import

the food that they do not produce themselves or have ceased to produce. Both

these factors limiting access to foodstuffs were aggravated by the economic

crisis and have also been affected by the prices of foodstuffs, which have not

returned to the level at which they were before 2006.

According to the FAO (2010), even though they have fallen as compared to the

peaks witnessed in 2008, the average international prices for food in May 2009

were 24% higher than those in effect in 2006 and the risk of volatility in food

prices was still very much present. In December 2009 the FAO Food Index

touched its highest level since September 2008, triggered by the prices of

sugar, edible oils and milk products. The prices of wheat and corn stabilised

during the second half of 2009, at a level corresponding to 55% and 40% of the

peak witnessed in 2008, in contrast to the rise in rice prices, which are today

only 37% below the peak witnessed during the crisis.

It cannot be definitively said that the world has entered an era of more-

expensive food, however, it is a fact that foodstuffs, and with them agriculture,

returned to the centre of global debates. Going beyond price fluctuations, recent

debates are pointing to the increasing volatility of the international food prices

that creates an instable environment causing food insecurity.

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For deepening the diagnosis of the present context, one should include

questions regarding the production, distribution and consumption of foodstuffs.

The following aspects are at the forefront of the debates:

i. The social and environmental repercussions of the productive

agricultural model, whose expansion uses to be presented as the solution

to the growing global demand for food; integrate this logic purchases of

large extensions of land by foreign investors (land grabbing) and the

impairment of rights of family farmers and peasants;

ii. The loss of confidence in international trade as a source of food security

and the apparent erosion of the bases of trade negotiations under the

Doha Round of WTO;

iii. The reduction in the capacity of public regulation of markets in the light

of increasing oligopolistic control by large corporations in all segments of

agro-food chains;

iv. The commodification of foodstuffs to a degree that has transformed the

main food products into commodities which are subject to international

financial speculation;

v. Unsustainable consumption patterns and food habits which are harmful

to human health and which predominate around the world.

Different solutions are possible for the challenges raised by this scenario. A sort

of “more-of-the-same” solution that incorporate and even further develop the

current bases of the global food system have predominated. Nonetheless, there

are a variety of alternative solutions tending towards supporting dynamics and

models that modify current production and food consumption patterns in a way

that contemplates related concerns in the social and environmental / climatic

fields, while likewise considering the interface with the energy matrix.

Social equity, sustainable production, agro-ecology, environmental justice and

an adequate and healthy food are some of the references that are to be

articulated in strategies and policies. As a leading player in the global food

system, Brazil can (and must) contribute towards this process, both in terms of

the domestic policies it adopts as well as going beyond the strict perspective of

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seeking the benefits that it is capable of reaping as a huge exporter in an

expanding global market.

The national context

Although the immediate impact of the food and economic crises on Brazil has

been significant it does not seem to have jeopardised the aforesaid tendency

that has been witnessed in recent years of a consistent improvement in the

social indicators - including nutrition indicators. The Brazilian population's

capacity to access food has been expanded considerably with an increase in

the purchasing power of the poorest segments, as demonstrated by the

reductions that have taken place in terms of the inequality of labour incomes

(including pension and social security benefits) and lower percentages of poor

and indigent citizens. There is still a way to go, because these afflictions ensure

that Brazil continues to be one of the most unequal nations in the world (IPEA,

2009).

Access to food was seriously affected in various parts of the world during the

period when international prices peaked. Despite being one of the largest global

producers and exporters of foodstuffs, Brazil also experienced a significant

repercussion of high international prices, which were reflected in domestic

prices. The annual consumer price index for the basic basket of foodstuffs in 16

state capitals, during the period when the crisis was at its height, rose from

27.24% to 51.85% between June 2007 and May 2008. The average cost of

acquiring that basic basket came to represent 57.18% of the official minimum

wage in December 2008 (DIEESE, 2010).

A substantial reduction was also recorded in the hunger and infant malnutrition

indicators, reflected in a drop in infant mortality and anthropometric deficits. The

National Demographic and Child and Women's Health Survey (Pesquisa

Nacional de Demografia e Saúde da Criança e da Mulher - PNDS/IBGE)

revealed a reduction of 44% in the infant mortality rate during the period 1996-

2006. Complementary data collected by The Familiy Budget Survey 2008-09

(Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares - POF/IBGE) confirmed the significant

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decreasing of infant under-nutrition, recording height/age and weight/age ratio

deficits in children (05 to 09 years) of 6,8% and 4,1%, respectively. For the

youth (10 to 19 years) the déficit in weight was 3.4%, while in adults it was 3,7%

for men and 4,0% for women (IBGE/POF 2009).

The first national use of the Brazilian Scale for Food Insecurity (Escala

Brasileira de Insegurança Alimentar - EBIA/IBGE), in 2004, revealed that 65.0%

of households (33.6 million; 109.2 million people) had food security while there

was food insecurity in 24.8% of households (18 million; 72.2 million people),

distributed as follows: 16% with slight insecurity (compromising on the quality of

food); 12.3% with moderate insecurity (compromising on the quantity of food)

and 6.5% with serious insecurity (experiencing periods of hunger). The most

recent use of EBIA, in 2009, showed some improvement in numbers as a result

of the impact of social policies, recording 69.8% of households (40.9 million;

126.1 million people) in food security while 30.2% (17.7 million; 65,6 million

people) were food insecure distributed as follows: 18.7% with slight insecurity,

6.5% with moderate insecurity and 5.0% with serious insecurity (IBGE/PNAD,

2010).

In an inverse sense, it is possible to observe a trend towards an increase in

overweight and obese individuals, as well as the prevalence of non-

transmissible chronic diseases. This manifests the food insecurity resulting from

the nutritional and epidemiological transition that is currently underway in Brazil

and in many other countries around the world, in which food consumption is a

primary cause for this phenomenon. In 2009, overweight affected 33,5% of the

children (5 to 9 years), 21,6% of youth (10 to 19 years), 50,1% of adult men and

48% of women. As for obesity, it was observed in 5,9% of boys, 4,0% of girls,

12,5% of adult men and 16,9% of women. These percentages represent

between two and four times the ones observed in 1974-75 (IBGE/POF, 2009).

There is a consensus amongst analysts that public policies have played a

decisive role in the improvements that have been observed in the indicators

related to food and nutrition security, including in the most recent critical context

when they acted as a safeguard against the impact of the food and economic

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crises. The reduction of unemployment levels contributed towards maintaining

and expanding the capacity to access foods, while the continued recovery of the

real value of the official minimum wage and the continued of cash-transfer

programmes likewise played a decisive role in this regard. It is essential to

highlight the implementation and rapid expansion of the Family Grant (Bolsa

Família) programme, which reaches more than 11 million families and is

undoubtedly the most far-reaching tool, which has had an immediate impact on

the nutrition levels (and not just nutrition levels) of the poorest families4.

Access to food by the children of these families has been reinforced further by

the School Meal National Programme, which was significantly modified by

means of legislation approved in 2009. This legislation gave a new direction to

the programme and, amongst other measures, expanded the facility to

secondary school students and to education for youths and adults (providing

daily an estimated 46 million free meals) and making it compulsory to acquire at

least 30% of the food directly from local or regional family farmers (Maluf,

2009a, b).

On the supply side, the role of family farming in the provisioning of food to the

domestic market was also an important factor. More than this, these are rural

families who face the dual condition of having a high incidence of poverty and

even starvation (despite the paradox) while simultaneously being potential

suppliers or producers of food. The data of the 2006 census records the

existence of 4.367 million of farms (84.4% of the total) that can be classified as

family farming. Even though they only occupy 24.3% of the total area, due to

the traditional concentration of land in Brazil, these farms employ 74.4% of

individuals engaged in agriculture (12.3 million individuals) and account for a

significant part or even a majority of the food consumed within the country such

as cassava (87%), beans (70%), corn (46%), rice (34%), milk (58%), pork

(59%) and fowl (50%) (França et al., 2009).

4 A recent assessment of the impact of the Bolsa Família programme showed that the families

spend the revenues they receive mainly on food; this revenue and the free food offered in schools were pointed out as being the main ways in which their children were able to access food (IBASE, 2008).

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It is worth mentioning two programmes aimed at this social grouping. The main

programme is the National Programme for Strengthening Family Farming

(Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar - PRONAF),

which has witnessed a rapid expansion since 2003 achieving nowadays almost

2 million credit contracts per agricultural year. It is undoubtedly a very significant

initiative, including in terms of the aspect of the supply of food. However, it

should be noted that despite this expansion PRONAF does not reach half of

those that have been classified as family farms. There is thus a large segment

of rural family units for which other policy instruments are needed, apart from

conventional agricultural credit, even under the favourable terms extended by

the PRONAF.

On a far smaller scale but nonetheless extremely relevant owing to its

innovative nature and socio-economic impact is the Programme of Food

Acquisition from Family Farming (Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos da

Agricultura Familiar - PAA). Having an inter-sectoral framing proposed by

CONSEA, since it was created within the scope of the Zero Hunger

Programme, in 2003, the PAA has established links between the lack of

markets for family farmers and the increasing demand for foodstuffs due to

social programmes (day-care centres, nurseries, food banks, etc.) and stock

formation . The programme has had a significant impact in the regions in which

it has been implemented, despite the modest numbers as compared to the

universe of family farmers in Brazil: since 2003 the programme has involved a

cumulative total of about 630,000 family farmers and it is estimated that more

than 8 million people have benefited every year thanks to the food acquired

through the PAA (Grisa et al., 2009). Since 2010, PAA has been also playing an

important role in supporting the goal of acquiring from family farmers at least

30% of the food needed for the school meal programme.

As mentioned above, a worrying aspect of the recent food crisis was the

missing of capacity to face its effects by many governments which were

involved in the neo-liberal wave that has spread throughout the world in the past

two decades. Even Brazil, a nation that had various instruments for public

regulation, released its grip on such tools. For the theme discussed in this

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paper, the most important dismantling of tools took place when the country

ceased to exercise a sovereign food provisioning policy, from the early 1990s

onwards. It instead opted for trade liberalisation and denied the need to form

stocks and actively use the agricultural price guarantee schemes, apart from the

scrapping of public wholesale warehouses which formed the national

procurement system, amongst others.

The strategic location of the activities and equipments that comprise the food

provisioning , mediating production and consumption, implies that provisioning

policies are a peerless means of, on the one hand, enabling regular and

permanent access by the population to quality and affordable food, in sufficient

quantities, based on food practices that promote health and respect cultural

diversity. On the other hand, it can simultaneously promote socially equitable

and environmentally sustainable forms of producing, processing, distributing

and consuming food, with an emphasis on family farming and small and

medium urban and rural enterprises (Maluf, 2009c).

It is not hard to imagine the difficulties faced by countries that were unable to

create a food provisioning policy, as was the case with numerous African and

some Latin American nations (Maluf et all, 2009). The recent crisis has resulted

in the re-emergence of a pattern of national regulation of the agro-food

question, in which nation states and their policy instruments for trade and the

support of domestic production are once again playing a prime role with

repercussions in the international context. In this regard, it is possible to note

the frustrated attempts to attribute this role to the trade negotiations taking place

under the aegis of the World Trade Organisation.

At this point one again finds unequal responses to the challenges raised by the

international context. Some nations can or are capable to keep on implementing

their own programmes, since they have institutions, a tradition of public policies

and the necessary resources. However, many other countries do not. This is

perhaps the main challenge nowadays and is a point that must be considered

and emphasised in the context of international cooperation.

18

The food question and rural dynamics

This section will focus more directly on the dynamics of rural transformation

from the viewpoint of the food question, i.e. considering foodstuffs (goods) and

feeding (the way in which these goods are used). This viewpoint is one of the

possible ways of looking at the rural universe, distinct but complementary views

that contribute to the necessary updating of the focus on the rural context.

Contrary to common sense, the proposed perspective from the food question

does not confirm but rather differs from the productivist perspective, since it

reframes the role of agriculture and the rural universe in the production of food.

This perspective requires highlighting the population living in rural areas and

their relationship with nature, while valuing biological and cultural diversity but

simultaneously incorporating elements such as a focus on a healthy life based

on "clean" food. One should note that these references are part of the

approaches to food and nutrition sovereignty and security and the human right

to food5. This section will also shed light on the multiple roles played by rural

families and family agriculture, which go beyond being providers of food

(Cazella et al., (orgs.), 2009). In fact, this emphasis questions the very way of

producing foodstuffs.

Underlying this proposition is the differentiation, present in the rural universe in

Brazil, between the large scale agriculture known as agro-business and a

numerous and quite heterogeneous set of farmers who comprise the category

of family farming. Even though this differentiation relates to models of

agriculture, actually, it goes beyond this aspect when assigning to the category

of family farmers a social and political significance linked to political projects or

even visions of society, especially with regard to ways of occupying the rural

space or developing territories and the relationships with nature.

5 The combination of these references should be easier than it really is, considering the

significant juxtaposition of social actors (social organisations and movements, public managers, etc.) that are active in both fields, i.e. which deal with food and nutrition while simultaneously working to build what has been called a more just, sustainable and solidarity rural Brazil.

19

It is impossible to overlook the economic significance of large scale

monoculture or livestock breeding, especially considering the fact that this

sector is seeking legitimacy precisely based on the service it claims to provide

in the context of increasing demand for food. This connotation is especially

noteworthy in the light of agro-food exports, owing to the historical role they

have played in the Brazilian economy and the growing share of the global

market that Brazil has captured in recent decades. The tendency towards

exporting primary products originating in large properties is one of the main and

constant characteristics of Brazilian history. This is not just due to the natural

resources available in the country but is constantly reaffirmed by the political

power that has been accumulated by an elite class of agrarian exporters.

However, this state of affairs is mired in controversies, which are often

unavoidable, as is the case currently.

One of the controversies concerns the fact that an important component of the

country's economic strategy is based on an agro-food productive model that is

increasingly being questioned both internally as well as externally. To propose

that "more of the same" be done to meet the growing global demand - in fact to

act like a merchant interested in selling more - means insisting on large scale

monoculture production, with an intensive use of agrochemicals and extensive

mechanisation. Brazil became the world greatest market for agrochemicals.

Criticism of this model on account of environmental reasons has further

compounded the longstanding diagnosis affirming that the concentration of land

is one of the main causes for the high rate of social inequality in Brazil. It can be

said in passing that the same criticism can be applied to the production of agro-

energy, since it entails the same agricultural model involving a product that has

a long history of cultivation in the country, i.e. sugarcane.

Another controversy refers to the premise that both the models of agriculture -

family and "patronal" (industrial scale) - can co-exist without relevant

contradictions, owing to the vast territorial extension of the country when

compared to the total number of rural families and individuals engaged in rural

activities. One should clarify that family and patronal farms are not separate

20

worlds as they have economic and social interfaces with ideological

implications. Notwithstanding, the referred assumption based on aggregate

numbers can be questioned in the light of the conflicts (for access to land and

other resources) that can be observed at the territorial level. Even in the

national plan there is friction within the public policies (orientation and division of

resources) and in the regulatory framework of patrimonial rights (permanently

under pressure from ruralists and large corporations).

It is clear that both these controversial points could result in conflict resolution

by means of public regulatory instruments, as has already begun to be done

with regard to the zoning of areas to cultivate sugarcane for the production of

ethanol, the deforestation in the Amazon region and the establishment of

protected areas. However, in a longer timeframe, this said "export vocation" and

the power of a small number of corporations that control the agro-food chains

undoubtedly create obstacles for promoting dynamics such as those highlighted

in this paper. The latter aim to configure more decentralised food systems with

closing links between production and consumption in regional circuits, based on

family-based diversified agriculture, while safeguarding the diversity of food

habits and natural resources6.

Apart from being opposed to the above referred dynamics at a domestic level,

the model of large scale monoculture production could be affected by an

eventual repositioning of the role of the international trade in commodities in the

manner in which it is carried out today. This could result, on the one hand, from

the possible generalisation of the alternative dynamics mentioned above and

the very prospect of adopting sovereign food policies. On the other hand, the

fallacy of free trade, already well known in the theoretical debate, has been

repeatedly confirmed in practice. Under the control of two fundamental and non-

opposing elements, which are the large oligopolies and the policies of the main

advanced nations, the current global food system has already shown, no matter

how large its potential for production, that it is not suitable for promoting regular

6 Owing to space constraints I will not examine other questions, such as the great dependence

on petroleum for producing and circulating foodstuffs and the intense degree of commercialisation and speculation that can be seen with regard to foodstuffs throughout the world

21

access to adequate nutrition by the set of diverse populations, especially in the

southern hemisphere. Apart from this, its agricultural basis has been subjected

to extremely serious accusations from the social and environmental (including

climatic) points of view.

Poverty, inequality and rights are part of the debate about the dynamics of rural

transformation. However, it is necessary to go beyond the limits of the

significance of these references in the rural context. That means using them to

establish links between the rural world and more general social objectives,

including food and nutrition sovereignty and security and the human right to

adequate nutrition. In this sense, a national food provisioning policy with the

approach presented in the previous section could give an important

contribution. Instead of a quantitative vision of provisioning that are limited to

millions of tons produced, i.e. which confuses food provisioning with the

physical availability of goods, it questions the types of goods, the models of

production, the circuits through which they circulate, the food habits they

promote, the determination of prices, etc. Denying the foolish rhetoric of

unregulated markets and in the absence of the regulatory function of the state,

private initiative regulates these and other components of the food system and

does so according to its own logic.

An important part of reviewing the food system consists, precisely, of moving in

the reverse direction of distancing of production and consumption, bringing

these two elements closer instead. This does not imply regional self-sufficiency

in the production of food, a remote possibility and one that would even be of

doubtful convenience. Inter-regional integration makes sense in many cases

and does not make sense in others. There are products that could benefit from

regional advantages, in a nation the size of Brazil. However, this would require

a more general strategic orientation that is the object of a provisioning policy,

with an impact on the territorialisation of programmes such as PRONAF and the

PAA, which are capable of creating territorial dynamics that enhance regional

circuits for production, distribution and consumption.

22

A broader analysis of the rural universe would need to incorporate the

programmes for agrarian reform and programmes aimed at population groups

such as the indigenous people, rural maroon communities (quilombos) and

other groups that are part of the recently institutionalised category of traditional

people and communities.

To enlarge the view of rural Brazil, without overlooking the importance of the

agricultural policy and that of production, it is necessary to dedicate more space

to non-agricultural policies, both in terms of social policies and infrastructure

aimed at improving the living conditions as well as promoting the not strictly

productive roles of rural families7. Agriculture is the activity that constitutes the

very identity of rural families, but the role of the rural universe and the people

who live in it is more than that of production and encompasses providing a

significant set of public assets for society. The notion of the multiple functions of

agriculture reflects this dimension which includes valuing the relationship with

nature, the preservation of biodiversity, promoting food sovereignty and

security, and the maintenance of the social and cultural fabric, amongst others

(Carneiro and Maluf (orgs.), 2003; Cazella et all (orgs.), 2009).

Finally, the perspective that has been presented here with regard to rural Brazil

returns - not merely by chance - to the theme of building an inter-sectoral

dialogue and hence alliances between different sectors. We have seen that the

social movement for food and nutrition sovereignty and security and for the

human right to food, in Brazil and in many parts of the world, coincides in large

measure with the social actors that are active in the rural universe. This fact can

contribute towards updating the view of the rural sector and towards building the

said links between different views and social sectors. However, one must not

underestimate the difficulties involved in implementing a dialogue between the

different sectors of society and the government, as revealed by the inter-

sectorial experience of the CONSEA, one of the spaces where many of the

questions mentioned in this text are examined.

7 Non-agricultural policies can also directly contribute towards productive activities, for example,

by using resources from pension transfers or social security to invest in or fund production

23

Final observations

More than presenting general conclusions, the observations contained in this

final topic aim to return to and underscore three important points of the

proposed approach. First, the food question was approached here in a manner

that related this issue to the development process of nations. When viewed on

this plane, food and nutrition security, habitually correlated with poverty,

becomes a strategic objective of public policies aimed at promoting equitable

and sustainable ways of producing, accessing and consuming adequate food.

In these terms, it is part of the challenge of combining economic dynamism with

increasing social equity, rarely achieved in Latin America, which requires the

integration of economic and social policies.

Second, this paper sought to emphasise that the institutional framework

matters. In the case of Brazil, the integrated approach of public policies - under

the label of inter-sectorality - resulted in the proposal for a supra-sectoral

National System for Food and Nutrition Security to articulate different

government sectors and civil society organisations with a view to generating

integrated programmes and actions. This perspective presupposes the

existence of government bodies and public spaces for social participation with

an equally inter-sectorial representation, involving government sectors and

organisations from civil society, based on the dynamics of coordination and

mechanisms for building agreements. It has been proposed that this format be

reproduced at the state and municipal levels.

Last but not least, the food question (encompassing foodstuffs and feeding)

plays a prominent role in the necessary updating of views about the rural

universe. More specifically, it provides visibility and a practical importance for

the human right to adequate food and food sovereignty - through a policy for

food and nutrition security with the focus suggested herein. This would provide

one of the extra-sectoral general references, indispensable for legitimising and

promoting the dynamics for a socially equitable and environmentally sustainable

rural transformation.

24

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