Direito humano à alimentação adequada: desafios e contradições durante a pandemia de Covid-19 no estado da Paraíba

Abstract

According to UN data, Brazil returned to the Hunger Map in 2022. Also based on data published by the Rede PENSSAN on food security in the country, 125.2 million people were food insecure and, of these, 33 million were severely food insecure or, more objectively, hungry. This shows that more than half of the Brazilian population is insecure about their next meal. In this perspective, this monographic study addresses the challenges of realizing the human right to adequate food as a constitutional social right in the state of Paraíba during the Covid-19 pandemic, based on an understanding of the historical process of a colonialist system experienced by the country, based on latifundia, monoculture and agriculture for export, as characteristics that endure over time, reverberate in the present day and reflect multiple social inequalities. We also sought to understand the paradox that exists between the record-breaking production of commodities by the agribusiness sector and the rise in food insecurity rates, at a time when the country is back on the Hunger Map. In addition, the main public policies in favor of food and nutritional security adopted in the country were considered, as well as the consequences of the pandemic for the family farming, environmental and agribusiness sectors. Finally, the work was delimited at the state level, indicating the agrarian structure, the main policies adopted by the state to implement the Human Right to Adequate Food and the social consequences of food security and insecurity indicators. In methodological terms, with regard to the method of approach, the research was guided by a dialectical approach, analyzing the phenomenon based on the contradictions and movement between the particular and the general, the past and the present and the abstract and the concrete. This is a qualitative, quantitative, historical and bibliographical study, based mainly on materials produced by the Rede PENSSAN and the IBGE, as well as normative and legal-constitutional analysis and bibliographical references from specialized literature on the subject, in an interdisciplinary approach.