Brazil’s food sovereignty: political decisions “from above” and civil actions “from below”

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of agri-food policy in the Federative Republic of Brazil. With the help of historical analysis, the author found that the main problems in the country’s agricultural sector are its critical dependence on imports of special agricultural products (mineral fertilizers and pesticides), asymmetry in the structure of land ownership, deforestation, intoxication of the rural population and a high level of urbanization. Using a retrospective analysis and a comparative approach, the author verified that the “agri-food factor” plays a key role not only in the economic stability of Brazil, but also in the exchange rate stability of political regimes, whose legitimacy is based on an expanding portfolio of socially oriented programs funded through requisitioned “extractivist rent”. With the help of the method of historical and logical unity, the author determined the role of social movements in the process of institutionalization of the idea of food sovereignty. The author used the method of secondary data analysis and an institutional approach to classify official documents, identify executive authorities and describe programs that contribute to the implementation of the food sovereignty policy in the country. According to the results of the study, the author concludes that the trajectory of the food sovereignty policy “from below” is consistent, while the trajectory of the food sovereignty policy “from above” is inconsistent.

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