652
M. Dantas
1 Introduction
The industrial agriculture and factory-based food manufacturing have, in the last few
decades, transformed people’s relationship with their food systems, largely replacing
family farming, home food preparation, food waste and eating habits from domestic
and community-based heterogenic systems with a global industry of commodities.
Local farming produce is now part of an alternative niche, cooking and sharing a
meal with family and friends is reserved for holidays and special occasions. For
everyday life, the food industry offers low-cost, standardized foodstuff, ready to eat
in attractive plastic single-packages, designed to be microwaved and easily eaten on
a desk, conveniently fitting our modern daily life. However, the effects of adopting
an industrial approach to the production and distribution of food are devastating,
and the real cost regarding socio-ecological and human health are mostly concealed
from the public, while governments and institutions are doing little to protect both
the people and the environment. If our governments’ understanding of agriculture is
that it is a business, then its outcome is no longer food; they are commodities, and
as such, the policies and laws governing it emphasize increasing profits above all
else. Governmental and non-governmental institutions play essential roles in shaping
the food systems. The control of what and how we eat can be eroded or promoted
by institutions. Nestle (2013), states the food industry invests an enormous amount
of money in lobbying, and publicizing research results when it is favourable to the
industry, while undermining results that criticize their products. In his book Folks,
This Ain’t Normal, Joel Salatin (2011) criticizes how the American government,
much like the rest of the world, regulates the food market staging, ensuring the
public health while also preventing healthy eating by making it more difficult for
small farmers to have direct access to local consumers.
This paper will focus on the role of institutions in small-scale farming and the
development of Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) as marketing and distribution
systems in the in the state of RN, Northeast of Brazil. It includes an interdisciplinary
review on the role of institutions and how they shape social interactions, introduces
the industrial food system, and explores some of its adverse economic and environmental effects, highlighting their relevance against the United Nations Sustainable
Development goals SDGs. The literature reviewed peasants’ social movements, and
also includes a brief description of the supporting institutional structure created in
the Brazilian context to support family farming and SSE in the past decade.
For the methodological approach, the research is a case study that uses elements
of the participative action research (PAR) process, such as mapping and collective
reflection. The data comes from participatory observation, social media, online news
communication, and interviews carried out with family farmers, SSE producers and
other stakeholders, between July and September of 2017 at the Brazilian Northeast
state of Rio Grande do Norte (RN). In a first contact to map general conditions,
actors and contributors were approached at the CECAFES, which is the largest and
only market exclusively focused on family farming and solidarity economy, located
in the capital of RN. After the mapping phase, the researcher visited working groups
M. Dantas
1 Introduction
The industrial agriculture and factory-based food manufacturing have, in the last few
decades, transformed people’s relationship with their food systems, largely replacing
family farming, home food preparation, food waste and eating habits from domestic
and community-based heterogenic systems with a global industry of commodities.
Local farming produce is now part of an alternative niche, cooking and sharing a
meal with family and friends is reserved for holidays and special occasions. For
everyday life, the food industry offers low-cost, standardized foodstuff, ready to eat
in attractive plastic single-packages, designed to be microwaved and easily eaten on
a desk, conveniently fitting our modern daily life. However, the effects of adopting
an industrial approach to the production and distribution of food are devastating,
and the real cost regarding socio-ecological and human health are mostly concealed
from the public, while governments and institutions are doing little to protect both
the people and the environment. If our governments’ understanding of agriculture is
that it is a business, then its outcome is no longer food; they are commodities, and
as such, the policies and laws governing it emphasize increasing profits above all
else. Governmental and non-governmental institutions play essential roles in shaping
the food systems. The control of what and how we eat can be eroded or promoted
by institutions. Nestle (2013), states the food industry invests an enormous amount
of money in lobbying, and publicizing research results when it is favourable to the
industry, while undermining results that criticize their products. In his book Folks,
This Ain’t Normal, Joel Salatin (2011) criticizes how the American government,
much like the rest of the world, regulates the food market staging, ensuring the
public health while also preventing healthy eating by making it more difficult for
small farmers to have direct access to local consumers.
This paper will focus on the role of institutions in small-scale farming and the
development of Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) as marketing and distribution
systems in the in the state of RN, Northeast of Brazil. It includes an interdisciplinary
review on the role of institutions and how they shape social interactions, introduces
the industrial food system, and explores some of its adverse economic and environmental effects, highlighting their relevance against the United Nations Sustainable
Development goals SDGs. The literature reviewed peasants’ social movements, and
also includes a brief description of the supporting institutional structure created in
the Brazilian context to support family farming and SSE in the past decade.
For the methodological approach, the research is a case study that uses elements
of the participative action research (PAR) process, such as mapping and collective
reflection. The data comes from participatory observation, social media, online news
communication, and interviews carried out with family farmers, SSE producers and
other stakeholders, between July and September of 2017 at the Brazilian Northeast
state of Rio Grande do Norte (RN). In a first contact to map general conditions,
actors and contributors were approached at the CECAFES, which is the largest and
only market exclusively focused on family farming and solidarity economy, located
in the capital of RN. After the mapping phase, the researcher visited working groups