On the unequal coexistence of agrifood systems in Brazil
Résumé
This article examines the coexistence in Brazil of two projects: a project for food sovereignty based on family farming and a project for food security based on agribusiness. Drawing on a series of field investigations focused on family farming, questions of land tenure, and policies to promote food security in Brazil, our analysis seeks to place the competition between family farming and agribusiness in historical context, examining the “unequal coexistence” of these two projects within the state apparatus from 1985 to 2015. We show how the project for food sovereignty brought together multiple social movements, including a core movement advocating agroecology, and how family farming was recognized as a key pillar within Brazil’s national food security policy. Over the same period, however, agribusiness became more organized and was strengthened by considerable state support, securing Brazil’s position of leadership within international commodity markets even as it “greened” its image. Faced with the economic and political crisis that has shaken the country since 2015, the project for food sovereignty has declined, while agribusiness and its high-technology, global agrifood system have continued to expand, opening a path for an agricultural scenario in which the right to coexistence is nothing more than a utopian idea.
Origine : Publication financée par une institution