Trees in flower with brilliant red, white and yellow canopies shade a group of farmers picking coffee beans. Four oxen peacefully pull a wagon filled with coffee, potatoes and beans over the hilly slopes. On the veranda of a house, two women scrape the peel from the cassava tubers that they just harvested and toss it aside for the goats to feast on. These sounds softly echo in the green valley, giving a sensation of remote, isolated tranquillity. It seems as if time has stood still and people’s lives have gone unchanged for generations. This is far from the truth. This place, in the Zona da Mata in Minas Gerais, Brazil, is marked by a continuous fight against soil degradation, dependencies on external inputs, and exploitation by landlords, multinational traders and chemical manufacturers. It is a struggle for autonomy. By establishing control over land and re-designing food and farming systems farmers are moving towards food sovereignty.

Land sovereignty

One of the villages in the Zona da Mata that moved towards food sovereign-ty is Araponga. In the past, many farmers in Araponga had no land and worked in sharecropping arrange-ments to produce coffee. They did all the work for only part of the harvest, at the whim of the landlord. They had no say over what to cultivate or how to cultivate the land. From the 1970s onwards, landlords began to implement many of the principles and technologies of the Green Revolution. As a result, sharecroppers were obliged to use agro-toxins, forbidden to grow food crops, and had to weed the land until it was bare.

Things changed in the 1980s when neighbouring families organised themselves in small dynamic groups, each composed of five to 20 families called the Comunidades Eclesiais de Base (CEBs, Basic Ecclesial Communities). These families would meet to pray and sing, and engage in politically-oriented readings of the Bible. The CEBs were linked to the broader Liberation Theology movement that was occurring within the Catholic Church throughout Latin America at that time.

So, we were on our land; we had all the freedom but no harvest

During these discussions, sharecrop farmers began to challenge the status quo. They founded the Arapongan Rural Workers Union to protect the rights of sharecroppers and rural workers. At the same time, farmers affirmed that autonomy could not be attained in a sharecropping arrangement, but only as landowners. This marked the beginning of the Arapongan Joint Land Conquest Movement. Mediated by the union, farmers formed groups and pooled their resources to collectively buy land. They set up lending schemes through which group members could borrow money from other members. Between 1989 and 2010 more than 700 hectares were purchased by more than 150 families. This also led to the return of Arapongans who had migrated to the slums of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Drawn by the movement’s successes, they came back to Araponga to purchase land and make a living as farmers.

The movement for Alternative Agriculture

Nevertheless, while having control over land, the settlers soon found that this did not bring the autonomy they had envisaged. Green Revolution practices had become the default mode of farming in the region. Such practices, including mono-cropping, specialisation in coffee and plough-ing, were leading to land degradation and resulting in yield declines. “So, we were on our own land. We had all the freedom but no harvest,” says João, one of the farmers in the region. The increasing prices of chemical fertilizers on one hand, and of the food in stores on the other squeezed farmers’ income even further. Farmers knew they had to free themselves from the chains of the Green Revolution. But how?

At the time, the Green Revolution started to meet resistance from other sides. Brazil was undergoing a process of re-democratisation. Now that self-organisation was no longer banned, a new generation of civil society organisations was flourishing, including the growing movement for Alternative Agriculture, later coined agroecology.

At the Federal University of Viçosa, located near Araponga, alternative agriculture was also gaining ground. A group of recent graduates approached farmers about working together, and in 1988, the Centre of Alternative Technologies of the Zona da Mata (CTA-ZM) was founded, together with 13 rural worker unions in the region. This moment also marked the birth of new partnership in the Zona da Mata: between the CTA-ZM, the Federal University of Viçosa and numerous peasant organisations, including the Arapongan farmers’ union. The alliance proved important in terms of acquiring support, obtaining legitimacy, fostering experimentation and learning, and stimulating innovation.

Farmers began to cultivate a higher diversity of food crops and fruits

Nested markets

At the Federal University of Viçosa, located near Araponga, alternative agriculture was also gaining ground. A group of recent graduates approached farmers about working together, and in 1988, the Centre of Alternative Technologies of the Zona da Mata (CTA-ZM) was founded, together with 13 rural worker unions in the region. This moment also marked the birth of new partnership in the Zona da Mata: between the CTA-ZM, the Federal University of Viçosa and numerous peasant organisations, including the Arapongan farmers’ union. The alliance proved important in terms of acquiring support, obtaining legitimacy, fostering experimentation and learning, and stimulating innovation.

And there were more experiments. Farmers began to cultivate more and a higher diversity of food crops (e.g. cassava, maize, beans and vegetables) and fruits (e.g. mango, avocado, banana and papaya). Some of these were cultivated as part of an agroforestry system. Soon, food processing started. For example, sugar cane was processed into raw sugar, avocado into soap, milk into cheese and maize and cassava into flour. Farmers’ diets gradually improved and they became much less dependent on purchased food. As one farmer said: “In the time of my father’s generation we experienced no hunger, but we did not have the variety of food that we have now.”

Many of these farmers nowadays produce a surplus of food. Together with CTA and UFV, they created so called ‘nested markets’. These are local markets that are governed by farmers’ and citizens’ own values, where farmers can sell their surplus. A farmer shop was established in the centre of the town of Araponga and an open farmers’ market is now organised every week. Market networks where farmers could sell directly to citizens in the larger city of Viçosa were also set up. Urban people value these markets because products are fresh, free from pesticides, and inexpensive. One farmer said, “we did not know that the people in Araponga ate so many bananas.” Urban citizens in Araponga used to buy bananas from external markets.

A way of life

Today, the agroecology alliance continues to struggle against corporate control over production and consumption by strengthening and creating nested markets, and by fostering innovation and exchange between farmers, researchers and activists. They work in Araponga and many other municipalities in the Zona da Mata. Together with other movements, united under the National Agro-ecology Articulation (ANA), they run awareness raising campaigns. They also advocate for public policies that reward farmers who produce environmental or social benefits for society and call for regulations that put limits on agro-industry and their destructive effects on public health, the environment and the farming community.

In Araponga, moving towards food sovereignty was a two-pronged process of gaining control over land and redesigning farming to be independent from dominant markets and technologies. It was through self-organisation, the pooling of resources, forging partnerships with other organisations and (re)connecting with nature that, a seemingly powerless group of sharecroppers took the food and farming system into their own hands.

They gained the capacity to re-establish control over, and re-design these systems. Crucial in this process was the establishment of an institutional environment that protected farmers from external interests, that enabled them to experiment and innovate with agroecology and that guarded the peace, nature, and ways of life that flourish in the Arapongan countryside.

Leonardo van den Berg (Leonardo.vandenberg@gmail.com), Magriet Goris, and Heitor Mancini Teixeira are PhD candidates at the Federal University of Viçosa conducting action research embedded in the agroecology movement. Irene Cardoso and Izabel Maria Botelho are professors at the same university. Irene is also chair of the Brazilian Agroecology Association and a board member of ILEIA.

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As part of the democratisation process in Brazil at the end of the 1980s, many protests and movements were organised around the problems that existed in the rural areas, promoting the rights of small-scale farmers and seeking alternatives to the mainstream production model.

In the Zona da Mata, many of these efforts were driven by the farmers themselves, founding various farmers’ unions (“Sindicatos de Trabalhadores Rurais”) and other rural organisations.

They worked together with a group of students and lecturers from the Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), and also with technicians and extension agents sensitive to the environmental and social degradation in the region, to create an NGO to promote an alternative ecological approach. This was named CTA-ZM, or the Centre for Alternative Technologies in Zona da Mata.

Twenty-five years later, a visitor to the region can see many positive results, ranging from the ecological management of soils to the emergence of a strong organisation of women farmers. Throughout this period, the region has seen a drastic change in agricultural production and the way that farmers reach consumers with their products, which now include not only coffee but also dairy products, honey, vegetables, fruits, grains, amongst others.

A study conducted by CTA in 2009 identified several marketing possibilities in Zona da Mata, including street markets, farmers’ associations and co-operative sales points, door-to-door selling and the interest of different government agencies for locally-sourced products.

However, the commercialisation of agro-ecological products remained, and still remains, a great challenge. A lot of products are seasonal, and increasing the total output is difficult, as most farmers grow many different products simultaneously and experience limitations in terms of land and labour.

The existence of sanitary regulations which do not match the reality that family farmers face is also a big obstacle. The study mentioned that many of the difficulties faced by farmers could be reduced through an educational process based on the exchange of experiences and knowledge, developing farmers’ capacities to enhance already existing initiatives and raising their awareness of the mechanisms for achieving certain required market standards. The recommended strategies also included enhancing the value of products through, for example, the use of specific labels and logos and better packaging.

Rede Raízes da Mata

After many small-scale attempts, the accumulated lessons learned led to the foundation of Rede Raízes da Mata (or the “Forest Roots Network”) in 2011 in a joint effort between producers, consumers, the university and CTA. The main goal of the network is to improve the commercialisation of local agro-ecological produce by establishing stronger links between producers and consumers.

During the past two years it has worked on a co-operative basis, with farmers playing an active role in deciding what products will be provided, and determining the quantities and prices for each product. Consumers help to run the network as volunteers and active supporters, gaining both access to healthy, local and diverse food, and the opportunity to share their comments and suggestions.

Work is organised on a weekly basis and facilitated by a team of students from the university. A spreadsheet is made after consulting the farmers about the availability of products: every Monday, a new spreadsheet with the week’s offers is sent to all registered customers. They have until Wednesday to return their order by e-mail. All the producers are contacted every Wednesday with the order for their produce, specifying the amount to be delivered.

Friday is the delivery day, when the producers bring their products before 3 p.m. to the network’s office, which is located inside the university campus (in a space where workshops, debates and several other activities also take place). Here all the produce is put together as individual packages for the customers by 6:30 p.m., when the office is open for people to collect their orders.

There are over three hundred consumers registered in the network today, most of whom pick up a personal package every week. The list from which they can choose currently contains more than two hundred products, including fruits and vegetables as well as fresh teas, coffee, beans, corn flour, artisanal breads and even natural cosmetics. This diverse range of products changes seasonally. The supply of products comes from seven individual farmers and nine different groups of family farmers in the region, including associations, co-operatives and production groups.

One of many efforts

While family farmers are working to improve access to markets, they are also benefitting from an increasing demand from an urban population interested in consuming healthier, good quality, food that is not contaminated by pesticides and is free from GMOs. The Forest Roots Network is a small initiative that is very modest in terms of coverage when compared to most agribusinesses, but it is not the only one. Members of the network see themselves as a “complementary tool”.

As Edilei Cirilo da Silva, a farmer and member, says, “the network is an alternative that is helping to overcome the difficulty that farmers have in accessing the market. Of course, it’s not the only solution, but this kind of initiative can reach large numbers and play an important role encouraging and supporting farmers to produce food for the market, and also to feed themselves! The role of the network is also to strengthen the dialogue within society about the problems caused by modern agriculture. We need to work together with others and reach a wide variety of audiences, including workers, employees and civil servants, in order to break the myth that our products, because they are organic, are much more expensive than conventional ones.”

Such efforts are benefitting from innovative governmental policies. A good example is the PAA programme, established in 2003 by the national government to promote food security and strengthen family farming through the acquisition and distribution of food products. Family farmers can sell their products directly to the government for a fair price without going through a difficult and bureaucratic process. Some of the products are donated to public organisations such as popular restaurants, or to food banks from where they are distributed to vulnerable social groups. The other part is acquired by family farmers’ organisations in other regions.

Another interesting measure was taken in 2009, with changes made to the implementation of the National Programme for School Nutrition. This has been running since 1955, supporting students enrolled in the public basic educational system. The law passed in 2009 stipulated that at least 30% of the programme’s resources (990 million reais, or 370 million euros, in 2012) must be used for purchasing products from family farmers.

A win-win model

The Forest Roots Network serves as a bridge between local production and consumption, and strengthens the links between farmers and consumers. Through the network, farmers are able to sell small quantities of many different products for a fair price. This turns their production on small plots of land into a viable and profitable enterprise, resulting in higher biodiversity levels.

Although small, the Forest Roots Network represents a significant movement towards reorganising the agri-food systems, helping to reshape social relations and creating new market structures. The initiative contributes to raising consumer awareness about agro-ecology and local food, and has already inspired the creation of new consumer networks in two other municipalities in the region.

Nina Abigail Caligiorne Cruz, Fabricio Vassalli Zanelli, Heitor Mancini Teixeira and Irene Maria Cardoso

Nina Abigail Caligiorne Cruz, Fabricio Vassalli Zanelli and Heitor Mancini Teixeira are students and graduates of the Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Irene Maria Cardoso works as lecturer at the same university.
E-mail: heitorteixeira_5@hotmail.com

References

Cardoso, I. M. and E. A. Ferrari, 2006. Construindo o conhecimento agroecológico: trajetória de interação entre ONG, universidade e organizações de agricultores. Revista Agriculturas, v. 3-4.

Grisa, C.; C.J. Schmitt, L. Mattei, R. Maluf and S. Leite, 2011. Contribuições do Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos à segurança alimentar e nutricional e à criação de mercados para a agricultura familiar. Revista Agriculturas, v. 8-3.

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