Food policies and sectorial referentials in the Brazilian trajectory

Abstract

The paper analyses the referentials that has guided the design and implementation of food policies in Brazil. Based on documentary research and literature review, we identified six phases in Brazilian food policies: i) 1600-1930, with the presence of a referential of inaction; ii) from 1930 to 1960, with a referential oriented towards rational nutritional; iii) 1970 to 1980, guided by productivist interpretations and supply actions; iv) the 1990s, with a referential of commercial efficiency and social assistance focus; v) 2000 to 2015, with a referential of conflicting coexistence between productivism and food and nutrition security (FNS); vi) from 2014, under a dismantling sectorial referential. Over time, the most meaningful and constant actions were those that sought to change the dynamics of agricultural production, which were biased towards commodities expansion. The actions that sought to promote food accessibility, healthy diet, dialogue between family farming and FNS, agroecology and the valorization of local territories and food were fragile and unstable, sensitive to political and economic changes.