A construção social do mercado institucional de alimentos: estudo de caso do Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos na Região Celeiro - RS

Abstract

The institutional food markets have become a new alternative for family farmers to access markets of food. This paper aims to analyze how the inclusion of family farmers in the institutional market of foods happens as well as to understand the contribution of the public politics of food acquisition for the strengthening of the family farming. With this in mind, this research was conducted in 2008 in the towns of Crissiumal and Tenente Portela, located in the Celeiro Region of RS, these municipalities were chosen as they are placed in an area where there is a family farm which promotes the marketing and industrialization of their products by Cooperatives of small farmers. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with twenty-five farmers benefited by the Program of Food Acquisition- PAA (Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos) in the surveyed towns, and another interview with thirteen local actors. We analyzed the social construction of the institutional food market by including the PAA, based on the actors, technicians, farmers, Cooperatives and towns that participated of the study. The field research has shown that this market is a result of social construction and it is made from a set of social relations triggered by different agents, according to the agreement proposed by the New Economic Sociology (NES). Through the analysis of the PAA in the Celeiro Region we can say that the Program works as a tool for increasing the local economy, with impact on the town revenues and the construction and implementation of public politics. The experience of marketing through the PAA strengthened the local and regional circuits of production, distribution and consumption, providing an opportunity for discussion of actions that generate potential claims, such as: creation of agro-industries, implementation of solidarity networks, discussion of building a permanent market for the family agriculture, organization of production, gaining new markets, the revival of socio-cultural knowledge, development of rural tourism, and promotion of autonomy / empowerment of the farmers by organizing them. These created spaces are not limited only to the marketing of the family farming, but they include the construction of a new relationship with consumers, based on the diversity and the strengthening of ties with the territory and the human and social relations. It is clear that the Cooperatives Cooperfamiliar and Cooper Fonte Nova succeeded mainly because of the PAA, and consolidated as referential social organizations in the commercialization of the family farm products, and social organization.