Comer para produzir, produzir para comer: práticas alternativas de produção e de consumo de alimentos

Abstract

Food systems understood as a set of practices for obtaining and consuming food, cannot be summarized in large-scale production or export models. These systems are vast and historically changeable, in accordance with changes in society, being a productive and economic model. Urban agriculture presents in individual or collective gardens, in productive backyards, and in agroecological production, are examples of non-hegemonic production models that are responsible not only for the supply of food but also for the maintenance of traditions, habits, and ways of life that refer to social relationships built over centuries. Food systems can and should be understood within a historical and economic context, being part of society and a reflection of it. The discussion about food becomes even more necessary in times of economic and social crises, such as the one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the world in 2020 and raised the rates of food insufficiency in Brazil. In a country marked by the imposition of an exclusive and unequal production model, agricultural production records are manifested in a dual way and at the same time an increase in hunger. Thus, alternative food production systems can emerge as possibilities for overcoming capitalism's social and food dichotomies, helping to reduce the country's needs and build food sovereignty. To work on these questions, published scientific research on the subject was used, as well as secondary data obtained from official bodies and agencies, in addition to primary data acquired through fieldwork, questionnaires, and interviews. In this sense, this thesis aims to understand how practices and alternative food systems are organized in Brazil, having as an object of study the urban agriculture practiced in Uberlândia (MG). The research is divided into four chapters that seek to discuss fundamental aspects for the understanding of the theme, going through a discussion about formative concepts of Geography, such as space and territory, and their relationship with social construction, through the debate about food production in Brazil, and the food systems that materialize from the social relations in the country, contextualizing urban agriculture in the city of Uberlândia from these premises.