O Direito humano da Alimentação Adequada: breve reflexão contemporânea

Abstract

This dissertation addresses the analysis of the human right to adequate food. It developed a theoretical-methodological framework that established dialogues on food as a right. In this context, it provides a brief socio-historical account of the expressions of food security policies in Brazil. It is essential to reflect on the State to enable an argument that expresses my understanding of the object and various social determinants related to the proposed theme. Therefore, the general objective was to analyze adequate food as a human right, focusing on public policies in health, social assistance, and education. Thus, the specific objectives were: to demonstrate the connections between healthy eating and public policies; to examine the right to healthy food and its socio-historical consequences in capitalist society; and to understand the transformation between the use and exchange values of food and their repercussions on life in society. This research seeks to foster debate within the scope of public policies and their intersectionality with other areas of social security, regarding food security and education as a right in food security policies in Brazil. We theoretically explore the promise of integration into the capitalist mode of production, which has always been an incomplete project, given that it failed to reach the working class as a whole equally, neither in terms of insertion into the world of wage labor nor in terms of social protection and welfare policies. Given this, we sought to contextualize the historic social formation of the city of Miracema, Tocantins, the locus of this research. It is worth clarifying that the city has already undergone changes that affected its sociais, economic, and cultural fabric. The new reality that emerged brought to the fore the social problems left behind by the capital's heyday in Miracema. The impact of this transfer was felt by the city's population, which had to overcome significant structural challenges. In this sense, we will discuss projects such as the Lajeado Hydroelectric Plant, in operation since 2001, which, in addition to modifying the surrounding area, has affected the riverside population, small producers, and Indigenous peoples, where the Xerente Indigenous Territory is located. One of these impacts was related to food. Thus, the Miracema population suffers from new socioeconomic transformations, resulting in losses and changes in fishing habits, crops, food, and natural resources, as will be discussed in the chapters of this dissertation.