Rural Farmers’ Fight for Food Sovereignty in Southern Bahia, Brazil

Alex Price

2023

Introduction

As I feel the water run through my fingers along the rocky edge of a misty waterfall on a rural farm in Southern Bahia, I think of the beauty that I am surrounded by. It is astonishing how just 15 years before it had looked completely different and that it will change for the next generation. Juan; a rural farmer and I sit halfway up the waterfall as I watch him shake the water off his head and smile at the beauty of his surroundings. As we sit together, he tells me that 15 years ago when the farm was bought, it looked barren from the slash and burn monoculture that took place before. He contemplates his words, turns towards me, and exclaims “Years ago this looked nothing like this, it was completely ruined, but I hope that in another 15 years my grandchildren will have something to see” (Juan). I then analyse the situation that rural farmers had undergone through the transition from monoculture to agroecological systems and how fast this transition has showed for its work. Juan turns again, running his hands through the water, and states, “And this, this is life. If we don’t take care of it, we lose it, and then we lose ourselves” (Juan).

When first arriving in the region, I was initially interested in exploring the barriers to accessing food sovereignty in Southern Bahia. As time went on, I found a strong sense of pride and ambition exists among rural farmers to contribute to local food sovereignty through producing locally, but there are many systemic barriers to achieving these goals. This paper will conceptualize what rural farmers identify as systemic barriers in their pursuit of local food sovereignty. This paper will first analyse the meaning of food sovereignty to the people of Southern Bahia, how this term was framed in my research, and then identify the barriers that rural farmers face when trying to access local markets for their organic produce to aid in local food sovereignty.

Methodological Approach

My research took place over a three-week period in the town of Serra Grande located in Southern Bahia, Brazil. Over the course of the three weeks, my colleagues and I stayed within the local town which provided context of the day-to-day life of those living there. I participated in five days of interviews that were translated from Brazilian Portuguese to English with two of my colleagues to study how agroecological systems operate in this region. We explored the challenges that come with the newly engrained term, yet old practice. Our fieldwork involved guided tours, semi-structured interviews and informal conversations with social activists, rural farmers, agroecologists, politicians, teachers and community leaders. Our days were marked by visits to people’s homes for cupuaçu, farms for hands-on research and conversation, and a visit to municipal offices. These visits were planned by our tutor and local agroecological expert Paulo, who also translated for us during our interviews. Due to translation, we did not receive the full nuance of terms and expressions that are only understood by those who speak Portuguese. Due to the short duration of my fieldwork, I did not curate strong rapport with the individuals I interviewed, but with their knowledge and emotional responses of issues affecting food sovereignty, I was able to gather information that led to this claim. As a result, this paper emphasizes the experiences of rural farmers and agroecologists accessing local markets to sell their organic produce, and the barriers of this process.

The Meaning Behind Food Sovereignty

The term food sovereignty can be contextualized differently depending on the situation and the position that the individual holds when speaking of it. A definition of food sovereignty that is widely used comes from Forum of Food Sovereignty that states: “Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems” (Nyéléni, 2007). As I interviewed individuals, I would paraphrase to my own definition of food sovereignty in terms that most would understand without previously knowing the term. I described it as having access to locally grown foods and the capacity to grow one’s own cultural foods. During my observations, I heard food sovereignty, “soberania alimentar,” as a term being spoken and contextualized. The term is used with pride and urgency as food sovereignty is connected to climate change, agroecology and sustainable practices. The rural farmers (Juan, Luli, Gili, Latita) and agroecological farmer (Otavio) spoke about food sovereignty without directly stating the term. They framed the term around eating foods that they grow, from the forest to the table and having no “middlemen” between those two locations. Those that can grow their own food show pride and want to help others achieve it also. Otavio spoke of reciprocation of knowledge to pass down to future generations and to learn from others on how to treat the soil and plants. They expressed the urgency to teach sustainable practices and demonstrate the importance of how growing and supporting local produce will build empowerment in the community. Other terms that were used were diversifying palates, decolonizing our palate, and food safety when replying to the term food sovereignty.

As I interviewed more individuals it was explained that many people, including farmers producing the local foods, were once not able to access these foods due to the push to commodify their products to larger companies. Many would eat imported foods rather than locally grown due to colonial stigma in the past up to the present day. I observed rural farmers that had experienced this, had changed their path towards sustainable agriculture, and learned how to care for the plants for the sake of food sovereignty, land sovereignty, and pride in their work. Another observation occurred during my field visit to MST “Landless Workers’ Movement” that taught unconventionally through Paulo Freire against the bureaucratic system to be an independent community that uses agroecological practices as resistance against colonial systems. This was seen through the women’s essential oils production from plants found on the compound and their land being used to teach children and youth about sustainable agriculture to take back to their communities. This shows the desire for change, and for food sovereignty to be seen and experienced by future generations of the Southern Bahia region. The eagerness of food sovereignty was also witnessed during the visit to the community garden in Bairro Novo that has the ambitions of becoming a community place for children and adults to learn how to take care of soil and plants. Our tutor Paulo, who helps coordinate the garden with Dona Jo, teaches classes to local children and is looking to partner with the library or school to incentivize other children to join.

When speaking of food sovereignty, many farmers and agroecologists had transitional stories of how local foods in the past were not desired, and how after experiencing the disconnection from the land, they want to reconnect with the soil. Food sovereignty was spoke with dignity and pride to grow local foods and to share a solidarity economy with neighbours and friends. Food sovereignty was described through agency to have control over what is being grown, distributed and consumed on local tables. I observed that food sovereignty is desired, especially by rural farmers who knew of experiences of commodification and destruction. They are certain that it is not sustainable to be continuing in the ways of the colonial commodification.

Barriers to Local Food Sovereignty

As rural farmers see the need for a change of agricultural procedure, they incorporate agroecological practices such as diversifying production, and growing local foods to try to sell locally through shops, markets and fairs. In this pursuit, there are systemic barriers that I identified while interviewing the family farmers Juan, Luli, Gili and Latita that have made it difficult to produce for local markets. There exists a conflict between the desire of rural farmers to distribute to local markets, but also need to have access to these markets through affordability to locals and profit for their family. These conflicting interests create frustration among rural farmers such as Juan and his family, that desire their produce to benefit local people but lack negotiation power in the bureaucratic system of capitalism that imposes commercialization on them through systemic barriers to accessing local markets.

The first barrier they identified is that organic certification, although seen as a positive collective through the Forest Peoples Network, does not aid them in selling on local markets due to the unaffordability and lack of influence organic labels hold on local markets. The Forest Peoples Network, “Povos da Mata”, is an agroecological collective of organic farmers that certify within groups depending on the biome their farm is located in. This collective helps to gain organic certification and help farmers to be represented within the region. When speaking to Luli about the affordability of their chocolate on local markets, she instantly shook her head to indicate it is not affordable. The organic label is a good access tool to larger markets, but on the local market, it is not recognized when consumers could buy from corporations such as Nestlé that are cheaper. This frustrates them as they are stuck between wanting to sell to locally and needing to make a profit to support their livelihoods.

The second barrier to accessing local markets is that local shops charge 20-30% of profits from the produce that is sold. Luli stated that local shops in Serra Grande charge 30%. This makes it difficult to sell to local shops when the rural farmers could benefit from full profits by selling independently at a tourist destination. Many rural farmers resort to this strategy as they receive full profit, can sell it at a higher price, and sell more of it. During the interview with Luli and Gili, Gili stated, “We sell at a beach in the south where we are from because transportation of the produce is difficult, so we make one trip every week to two weeks and sell the amount of what would sell in a month at a local shop within the day.” (Gili) It is more convenient for farmers to transport once through the rough roads and sell at higher prices without the deduction of profit.

Another barrier to selling produce to local markets is that fruit organic certification is advantageous, and vegetable certification is tedious. Luli and Gili showed me that they produce many different fruits to sell to local markets, but do not bother certifying vegetables because it is not efficient for them. To organically certify vegetables, it requires 3 visits per year from internal and external visitors from the Forest Peoples Network, when fruit certification requires only one visit. This creates a discrepancy between the diversity of foods that are available on markets, which inhibits food sovereignty.

The last barrier is that many rural farmers are being pushed to commercialize and municipal policies help to organize facilitation into larger markets, rather than local. Selling their products to larger markets has been the way to profit because of lack of accessibility. Although this is the route that many rural farmers are taking to survive, there is a further certification process that creates barriers to independence over their livelihoods. This process involves transporting seeds such as cacao to laboratories and is expensive to have them frequently tested for quality which is required. The time, expense, and transportation make it difficult to negotiate where farmers can sell their produce.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is apparent that the discourse and action of food sovereignty is lively expressing empowerment, independence, and pride when used by rural farmers. These farmers such as Juan and his family demonstrate great dignity in producing and consuming non-conventional, local plants. There is also motivation to sell to local markets to aid food sovereignty through solidarity in the region. The systemic barriers of affordability to local consumers, local shops charging interest, inconvenient vegetable certification and seed testing create a conflict that farmers are stuck between food sovereignty of local communities and providing monetarily for their families. If these systemic barriers were to be reconstructed such as local policy change, protecting rural farmers’ rights and increased encouragement for food sovereignty through local consumption, growth and education of agroecological practices there would be an increase in food sovereignty in the region. Food sovereignty must become a priority within local governments to support farm-to-table initiatives to create accessibility to locally grown foods and sustainable agricultural education to return to our roots. As Ana Maria Primavesi states, “Solo sadio, planta sadia, ser humano sadio."

Questions for Future Researchers

Is the discourse of food sovereignty in the region changing?

How is the term being used? What actions could local villagers take to advocate for rural farmers’ access to local markets?

What community initiatives are promoting food sovereignty in the region?

References

Povos da Mata. “Certificação Participativa: Produtos Orgânicos.” Povos da Mata, June 23, 2021. https://povosdamata.org.br/.

Primavesi, Ana Maria. Manual do Solo Vivo. Editora Expressao Popular, 2016.

“The International Food Sovereignty Movement.” Nyéléni, June 30, 2022. https://nyeleni.org/en/international-food-sov-movement/.