Ruptures in the agroecological transitions: institutional change and policy dismantling in Brazil

ABSTRACT

Brazil is one of the few countries that has implemented policies aimed at supporting agroecological transition processes on a national scale. While its experience has caught the attention of the international community interested in building sustainable and healthy food systems, recent literature points to the dismantling of these policies. This article identifies the variety of dismantling strategies to analyze how they are linked to the modification of the policy paradigm. Results suggest that the formation of a ‘clientelist–corporocratic’ paradigm legitimized active and visible dismantling strategies, such as the extinction of policy instruments and the delegitimization of agroecology through discursive mechanisms.

KEYWORDS:

• Agroecology
• public policy
• institutional change
• Brazil

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support the research received from the Public Policies and Rural Development in Latin America Network (PP-AL) and the projects Transitions to Agroecological Food Systems: a case for policy support (TAFS), Agroecological Transitions for Territorial Food Systems (ATTER), and Agroecological Transition at the Scale of Agrifood Systems in France and Brazil. They also thanks the individual contributions from Rogério Dias, Rogério Neuwald, Silvio Isopo Porto, Daniela Oliveira, Moacir Darolt, Ivo Melão, Bruno Prado, Frédéric Goulet, Gustavo Martins, Maycon Schubert, Valdir Denardin, LucianoAlmeida, Margit Hauer and José Cleber Dias de Souza.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding details

This work was supported by the Latin American Public Policies and Rural Development Network (PP-AL); the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education (CAPES); French Committee for the Evaluation of University Cooperation with Brazil (COFECUB). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101007755.

Notes

1 The Alliance for Adequate and Healthy Eating is a Brazilian coalition composed by more than 70 civil society organizations working together to the advancement of public policies to guarantee Food and Nutritional Security (SAN) and Food Sovereignty in Brazil. See: https://alimentacaosaudavel.org.br/

2 However, in the case of technical and social assistance for rural settlements (ATES Program), the option was for extinction (E), which is consistent with the prevailing position against agrarian reform.

3 (I) was also the main strategy in the case of the Centers for Study in Agroecology (NEA), which, since 2016, have not had new call for projects from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

4 In 2020, FPA presented two bills aiming at making the supply of pork meat mandatory and creating a market reserve for fluid milk in PNAE. These bills also withdraw from nutritionists the prerogative of preparing menus and exclude the priority given to agrarian reform settlers, traditional and indigenous communities in food supply.

5 Closing of rural elementary schools, precariousness of public health services in rural areas and systematic attempts to dismantle the rules for the retirement of rural workers are other emblematic examples of the deprivation of rights enshrined in the 1988 Constitution.

6 A remarkable example is the socialist congressman Heitor Schuch, president of the Parliamentary Front of Family Farming in the National Congress and former leader of one the CONTAG’s strongest regional affiliate union (in the state of Rio Grande do Sul), who voted in favor of Dilma Rousseff impeachment.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paulo Niederle

Paulo Niederle is a professor of agri-food studies and economic sociology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), where he coordinates the research group in Sociology of Food Practices (SOPAS). He is vice-president of the Latin American Rural Sociology Association (ALASRU) and Latin American representative at the ISA RC-40. Most of his recent publications are related to markets and public policies for agroecology.

Paulo Petersen

Paulo F. Petersen is Executive Coordinator of AS-PTA - Family Farming and Agroecology, member of the Executive Coordination of National Alliance of Agroecology (ANA), Brazil. Agronomist, PhD in Environmental Studies from Pablo de Olavide University (Spain), Master in Agroecology and Rural Development from the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (Spain). His research interests include Rural Development issues from a Political Agroecology perspective.

Emilie Coudel

Emilie Coudel is socioeconomist at the International Center of Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD), in the research unit Knowledge Environment and Societies (SENS) in Montpellier, France. She studies the processes that lead rural actors to engage in agroecological transitions, by limiting deforestation, restoring forests or developing practices based on ecosystem services. She has special interest in developing a more democratic science, particularly knowledge co-production processes that enable peasant farmers and their organisations to better negotiate public policies.

Catia Grisa

Catia Grisa is professor of agri-food studies and public policy in the Graduate Center of Rural Development (PGDR) and Graduate Center of Regional Dynamics and Development (PGDREDES), both at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre Brazil. She develops studies and research on family farming, rural development, public policies for family farming, food systems, sustainable food systems, and food policies.

Claudia Schmitt

Claudia Job Schmitt is Associate Professor at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), affiliated to the Graduate Program in Social Sciences in Development, Agriculture and Society. She works as a sociologist, with additional training in the field of environmental studies and is currently part of the research team of the Observatory of Public Policies for Agriculture (OPPA). Research interests include public policies, agroecology, sociotechnical transitions, territorial change, peasant agriculture, social movements and networks.

Eric Sabourin

Eric Sabourin is an anthropologist and sociologist, senior researcher at CIRAD (International Cooperation Centre of Agronomic Research for Development) in Montpellier (France) in the research unit ART-Dev and Associate Professor at the MADER programme of the University of Brasilia.

Evandro Schneider

Evandro Schneider is professor at the Graduate Program in Development and Public Policies at the Federal University of Fronteira Sul (UFFS), Cerro Largo, Brazil. Member of the Organic Production Committee in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (CPOrg/RS). PhD in Agronomy. He develops studies and research on agroecology, family farming, rural development and sustainable farming systems.

Alfio Brandenburg

Alfio Brandenburg is a professor of rural sociology and environment studies associated to the graduate programs in Sociology (PPGSOC) and Environment and Development (PPGMADE) at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Brazil. His current research themes are related to agroecology, family farming, ecological movements and new ruralities.

Claire Lamine

Claire Lamine holds a PhD in sociology and is research director at INRAE (French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment). Her main research themes are today: alternative food networks, transitions of agri-food systems at the territorial scale, processes of institutionalisation of the agroecological paradigm both in France and Brazil. She coordinates the RISE project ATTER (Agroecological Transitions for Territorial Food Systems, 2021-2025) which gathers European, American and Brazilian universities and territorial or civil society organisations.