Abstract:Dietary guidelines urge Brazilians to increase their consumption of raw vegetables. Yet key issues must be tackled by the government and civil society, not only to foster consumers' appetite for healthier food, but more importantly to diminish the gaps between local demand and production, determined by food and land accessibility. We examine whether vegetable production in Brazil meets the demand to provide Brazilians the daily amount of fresh food recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). We developed demand scenarios in Brazil for 2008 and 2030, based on demand density maps built at the district level using production census surveys, household acquisition data, and population growth estimates. Results reveal an inherent inequality in vegetable consumption between the southern and central northern regions of Brazil that follows food insecurity regional indicators. Even in more urbanized regions and metropolitan areas, where the best balance between vegetable production and acquisition is found, simulated demand is far from WHO recommendations. A complementary discussion regarding land distribution and fresh food production supports our outlook on the weaknesses of existing rural policies for land reform and sustainable local fresh food production that directly affect demand and nutritional security. This work was the foundation to the Delivering Food Security on Limited Land (DEVIL) project in Brazil supported by Belmont Forum consortium.
Reducing the impacts of agriculture on the environment is one of the greatest challenges of this century. In Brazil, it is often argued that more land use change is needed to achieve food security. However, analyses seeking to understand the dynamics between agricultural production for exports and food intended for the Brazilian population have not approached the question if national agriculture is sufficient to provide Brazilians with the necessary nutrients, according to nutritional recommendations. In this sense, we sought to combine supply and dietary requirements for food (calories and nutrients) to assess trends in nutrient production and how future population projections and possible changes in diets would affect land necessity for nutritional security. We use sub-national data on agricultural production, population, Food Balance Sheets from FAO, and a compilation of nutritional information on the Brazilian agricultural production. Our results show that, in the last three decades, Brazil produced enough food calories to feed on average 115% of its population. We found that the agricultural land in 2017, without any expansion, is sufficient to feed, at least, 105% of projected population in 2060, considering the same productivity and dietary patterns. In a vegan diet scenario, less than 10% of the land dedicated to agricultural production in the past 30 years would be required. Despite limitations on supplying certain micro-nutrients, a vegan diet would require even less land in the future. We conclude that Brazilian agriculture could deliver enough food to meet Brazilians’ nutritional needs without further land expansion. Food production is compatible with environmental conservation in Brazil, especially if meat consumption is reduced.
A agricultura está profundamente relacionada com as mudanças ambientais globais, participando tanto das causas como das suas consequências, podendo acentuar a vulnerabilidade da sociedade em relação à segurança alimentar. Fazendo uma revisão crítica da literatura, este trabalho tem por objetivo contextualizar as relações entre a segurança alimentar e as mudanças ambientais globais. Aponta os riscos aos quais está sujeita a segurança alimentar da sociedade brasileira contemporânea, os aspectos de sua vulnerabilidade e as ações mitigatórias e adaptativas necessárias para sua garantia, e destaca os desafios para a política e pesquisa científica sobre o tema. Prioriza-se o debate sobre a fração da segurança alimentar relativa ao universo dos produtos agrícolas, deixando-se de lado os produtos provindos da pesca e produção animal.
Este projeto de Iniciação Científica tem como finalidade auxiliar no desenvolvimento da adaptação de metodologia para a construção de uma versão brasileira do modelo que calcula a Pegada Ecológica de Nitrogênio (N-Footprint), desenvolvido por Leach et al. (2012). O modelo realiza os cálculos a partir de um Fator de Nitrogênio Virtual que utiliza variáveis relacionadas ao consumo geral de alimentos e energia pela população. O trabalho desenvolvido neste plano colabora com o desenvolvimento do projeto internacional INMS (International Nitrogen Management System) gerido pela UNEP (programa ambiental das Organizações das Nações Unidas) que tem como finalidade melhorar o controle global do nitrogênio unindo a comunidade científica e a sociedade civil. Como muitos dos efeitos relativos ao uso do nitrogênio estão intrinsecamente relacionados à demanda de consumo de produtos agropecuários, é importante buscar informações além de dados restritos ao ciclo biológico e físico, incluindo também informações socioeconômicas, inclusive comportamentais.Neste sentido, esta proposta teve como objetivo criar indicadores para nitrogênio, a partir dos dados levantados sobre a alimentação da população da bacia do Rio da Prata, considerando a relação das atividades antrópicas, como as alterações do meio, com o nitrogênio reativo.
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