Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Sustainable Agriculture as Policy: Belo Horizonte and Cuba
In the examples above, as well as the U.S. food justice movement,
national governments have tended to support market-driven forms of
agriculture associated with neoliberal globalization and increased envi-
ronmental injustice. In a few cases, however, national and local govern-
ments have countered that trend. The fi rst example below describes how
the city government in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, has created agricultural
programs to support small farmers and increase food access. Addition-
ally, barred from Green Revolution technologies by the collapse of the
Soviet Union and the U.S. embargo, Cuba has created a system of organic
and low-input agriculture that maintains human and ecological health.
Beautiful Horizon
Brazil has the second highest rate of economic inequality of any nation
in the world. This statistic explains why, despite its status as the world's
fi fth largest economy and being a major agricultural exporter, 46 million
Brazilians do not have enough to eat (Wade 2004). One percent of land-
owners control nearly half the arable land. High malnutrition rates
accompany high rates of infant mortality (Ondetti 2008). Against this
backdrop, Belo Horizonte, Brazil's third largest metropolitan area, has
declared food a right of citizenship. Moreover, its efforts to guarantee
this right have been largely participatory. Former mayor Patrus Ananias
began by assembling twenty representative citizens, labor leaders, and
church offi cials to comprise a city agency that would design a new food
system (Lappé 2009). The city government works in partnership with
the private and nonprofi t sectors to institute strategies aimed to help
farmers provide affordable produce.
For example, the government leases twenty-fi ve prime city locations
to farmers at low prices in exchange for the ability to set produce prices
below market rates. Busy locations ensure numerous customers, and thus
farmer profi ts, while patrons benefi t from low prices. Additionally,
farmers leasing the most sought-after spots during the week must agree
to sell food in the city's poor favelas each weekend. During her visit to
Belo Horizonte, noted food writer Frances Moore Lappé described
meeting one of these farmers: “A farmer in a cheerful green smock,
emblazoned with 'Direct from the Countryside,' grinned as she told us,
'I am able to support three children from my fi ve acres now.'” As at El
Ranchero Solidario, when the intermediary does not seek to earn a profi t,
the producers earn more while the consumers pay less.
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