Consea is back! Or how to resist in challenging times

Abstract

Important events could be listed in the "short period" of Brazil's recent history, from January 1st, 2019, to February 28, 2023, in only one agenda, that of food and nutrition security.When the Provisional Measure n. 870/2019 1 -which reorganized the structure of the previous Federal Government -was published, it contained what in practice was configured as the extinction of the Brazilian Food and Nutrition Security National Council (Consea). More than that, it caused the interruption of a complex but necessary process of implementing an intersectoral system of public policies responsible for articulating seemingly distant areas such as health, education, social development, economy, justice, environment, and culture, among others.Since then, we have faced numerous challenges involving the weakening of public policies and institutions, the disruption of the social safety network, the impoverishment of the population, the precarization of work, and the global experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. As already discussed in the CSP's editorial in 2019 2 , this provisional measure generated an important reaction for the return of Consea at the national and international levels. However, the situation had not been reversed.In July, 2019, a set of organizations, movements, collectives and state councils of food and nutrition security involved with this agenda convened a National Popular Conference for Food and Nutrition Security and Sovereignty (CPSSAN). The convening document of this Conference reaffirmed the commitment to democracy, the fight against hunger and poverty, as well as to fight for all the policy instruments already conquered. They also declared that there would be no passivity in the face of what was foretold."We, defenders of the human right to adequate food, stand firm, strong, and resilient and we will not surrender. We are in the cities, in the rural areas, in the forests, and in the waters, occupying spaces (...) and we are mobilizing society in favor of the agenda of sovereignty and food and nutritional security, in defense of democracy and for the establishment of rights" 3 (free translation).At that moment, we could not have foreseen the dimension that these words would assume in the following years. Originally, the CPSSAN stood as a process of mobilization that would culminate in a national meeting. With the pandemic, this meeting was not possible. Still, the commitment to mobilize and maintain the food and nutrition security agenda was established, possibly in an even broader way, with the different actions with the Brazilian