As feiras de comercialização de produtos da agricultura familiar e a construção de referenciais de alimentação: o caso da FEPRAF em Júlio de Castilhos/RS

Abstract

Short marketing channels are characterized as strategies for social and economic reproduction of family farmers. There is an increase in the consumption trend for products that travel a shorter route, produced by hand, considered more natural and coming from local farmers. This dissertation includes the extent to which FEPRAF / Júlio de Castilhos / RS has been contributing to the construction of food references, guided by the offer of products from family farming and agrarian reform. It identifies the importance of FEPRAF in the production and commercialization of family farming products within the context of employer agriculture in the municipality of Júlio de Castilhos / RS; The historical process of organization of FEPRAF is reconstituted, identifying the institutions present, their objectives and ways of acting; It is identified how the producers organize themselves in the production, for the offer of the products commercialized in FEPRAF, identifying their motivations; It presents the motivations of consumers for consumption of products sold at FEPRAF / Júlio de Castilhos-RS and the contribution of FEPRAF in the construction of food references based on family farming products. The research presents a qualitative and quantitative approach, using as instruments of data collection interviews with qualified informants, IBGE data analysis, participatory methodology and application of questionnaires. With the research it is observed that the municipality has in its inheritance the extensive livestock, followed by the production of grains where the culture of wheat and soy stands out. With the arrival of the settlements, the diversification of production begins, where farmers start to produce products for self-consumption and to sell the surplus. There are also areas of soy production in the summer and beef cattle in the winter developed mainly by employer agriculture and milk and soy production developed in the agrarian reform settlements. With the diversification, the process of creating fairs begins with the objective of selling this production. There are seven fairs over the 128 years in the municipality and through the specific study of FEPRAF the history is identified, from the achievements to the difficulties faced during its six years of existence. Among the motivations of marketers for marketing at the fair, the factors of income and sociability stand out. Regarding the motivations of consumers for consumption at the fair, it is noted that the relationship between marketers and consumers goes beyond the simple act of buying and goes through bonds of friendship and even the social validation of quality. For them, quality is measured by extrinsic factors (visual aspects), intrinsic factors (particularities) and subjective to the product (sensations). The fair contributes to consumers' eating habits, as they offer products considered healthier, handcrafted, homemade, healthy, fresh, with good looks and better quality, thus forming the benchmarks for food. It is concluded that there is the construction of a space that is building food references and FEPRAF materializes this movement based on the return of quality and the search for products that take a shorter path considered by consumers to be healthier.