(Re) valorización de los alimentos de la agricultura familiar: límites y particularidades de las estrategias agroalimentarias en el estado de Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil

摘要

There is a consensus in food studies which points out many problems in terms of access and the quality of food. Global discussions warn of the food industrialization process and suggest that the rural become a locus of new relations of production and consumption with a focus to the process of reconnection and relocalization. These analyzes suggest that these processes are strategies of alternative and resistance to the hegemonic agri-food model. This article seeks to discuss the rural reality of Rio Grande do Sul by arguing that, although in our context the relations of production and consumption have not been totally disconnected, they have been accelerated by public policies and existing sanitary standards in Brazil. However, the strategies of valorization of the product origin which are adopted in many places in Rio Grande do Sul present limits to the formalization of food production, which brings about the disappearance of both traditional practices of food production and diversification of family production units or the persistence of informality. It could be observed that the formalization process has been promoting the specialization of producers and an increase in food prices as a consequence of bureaucratic and sanitary demands. Besides that, it has brought about a loss of the artisanal characteristics of food production in view of the industrial quality standards imposed by law. Thus, it points out the need for discussion on quality standards in vigor in Brazil regarding the traditional food production as a way to value and preserve connected knowledge and practices. In this sense, we state that the Brazilian case does not follow the same perspective of reconnection or relocalization as it is happening in Europe, but in the valorization of existing food products and the corresponding production and consumer relations, allowing food maintenance as well as rural livelihood reproduction.