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GLOBALISATION, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE NEW AGRARIAN REGIONS: FOOD, LABOUR AND ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES

2001; EMPRESA BRASILEIRA DE PESQUISA AGROPECUÁRIA; Volume: 18; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Português

10.35977/0104-1096.cct2001.v18.8850

1678-3964

Terry Marsden, Josefa Salete Barbosa Cavalcanti,

Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development

A globalizacao da agricultura e dos alimentos ocorre juntamente com processos de homogeneizacao e diferenciacao, oferecendo as bases para a implementacao de regulacoes e contestacoes que emergem dos modos como os atores sociais lidam com as interpretacoes e gradacoes dos alimentos, trabalho e meio ambiente. E, portanto, nessa arena politica que as mudancas sociais e a sustentabilidade dos novos espacos agrarios devem ser compreendidas. O artigo, com referencia empirica aos novos distritos agrarios do Nordeste brasileiro, examina as transformacoes em curso, no que se refere as mudancas nos mercados, estruturas de producao e praticas de trabalho; demonstra como ha uma dinâmica principal, criando e remodelando esses espacos, associada com valores assimetricos baseados nas definicoes de qualidades e parâmetros externos dos alimentos, em comparacao com aqueles associados com a qualidade do trabalho e dos ambientes naturais, nos quais os alimentos crescem. Os processos em curso estao fortemente questionando a sustentabilidade desses desenvolvimentos. Conclui que a producao superintensiva nao pode mais se apoiar em bases tecnologicas tais como aquelas associadas a irrigacao e gerencia da agua - para reduzir a acumulacao dos riscos sociais e ambientais no sistema de producao e oferta dos alimentos. GLOBALISATION, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE NEW AGRARIAN REGIONS: FOOD, LABOUR AND ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES ABSTRACT The globalisation of agriculture and food develops alongside contradictory processes of homogenisation and differentiation, providing grounds for enforcement of regulations and contestations that emerge from the ways in which social actors deal with interpretations and gradations of food, labour and the environment. It is therefore within this political arena that social changes and sustainability of the new agrarian sites have to be accounted for. The paper, with empirical reference to the new agrarian districts of Northeast Brazil, examines the social transformations occurring regarding changes in markets, production structures and labour practices; it shows how there is a major dynamics creating and reshaping such production spaces which is associated with the asymmetrical value placed upon the externalised quality definitions and parameters of the foods, compared with those associated with the quality of labour or the natural environments in which the foods are grown. The processes underway are severely questioning the sustainability of such developments. Super-intensive production, it is concluded, can no longer rely upon technological fixes-such as those associated with irrigation and water management- to halt the accumulation of both environmental or social risks in the production and supply system.