[R-G] Hunger Solutions A Brazilian Example

[Gary Crethers]

Hunger Solutions A Brazilian ExampleSeptember 20th, 2010  
There is a city in Brazil that has reduced infant mortality  and starvation 
among the poor through an innovative program of food  security. The Partido dos 
Trabalhadores or Workers Party had been  elected into power in 1993 and started 
a program called the SMAAB,  Secretaria Municipal de Abastecimento or the 
Municipal Secretariat of  Supplies. The Workers Party is the social democratic 
party of Lula  President of Brazil.
“The new mayor, Patrus Ananias—now leader of the federal  anti-hunger 
effort—began by creating a city agency, which included  assembling a 20-member 
council of citizen, labor, business, and church  representatives to advise in 
the design and implementation of a new food  system.” (1)
“As worldwide interest in food sovereignty and food security  continues to grow, 
the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil is enhancing  community food sovereignty 
programs that address health, social  equality, job creation, diversified 
agriculture and the encouragement of  local food production.
Belo Horizonte’s programs are forward thinking; the World Trade  Organization 
legitimizes government interventions in the economy that  provide food as long 
as they are classified as anti-poverty programs.  This is a core principle of 
what Dr. Flavio Valente, a volunteer  rapporteur from Brazil for the United 
Nations office on human rights,  calls “the Washington consensus,” precisely 
because it leaves human  rights and food security systems – the right to have 
basic information  about whether food  has been genetically-engineered, for 
example, or the  need to ensure adequate fresh fruit and vegetable production 
for local  populations – out of the equation.” (2)
“Belo Horizonte is also keen to encourage small family farms and  agricultural 
cooperatives to sell their products in city markets. Very  often the 
commercialization of food supplies means that producers sell  their goods to 
middle men, a process which reduces the income of growers  and increases the 
cost of food to consumers. Since 1996, together with  partners including the 
Bank of Brazil, the city has been managing the  ‘Country Storehouse Project’, 
which aims to offer alternative  distribution channels to small agricultural 
enterprises. It encourages  producers also to take on responsibility for the 
processing, marketing  and selling of their products. The project also provides 
help to  producers who want to join together in associations and cooperatives.  
Rodrigo Perpétuo said that the scheme should become an agricultural  model that 
provides producers with a good income and consumers with  affordable produce, 
which has been grown without chemical additives.”(3)
“A sub-program of the Food Bank is the Food Supply Program –  Organic Produce 
and Eco-Citizenship, which consists of a system for  collecting, processing and 
distributing perishable food that, although  adequate for consumption, will not 
be sold by greengrocers or  supermarkets. Distribution of food supplies 
currently benefits 89  organizations and approximately 15,000 people residing in 
areas of  extreme poverty. The Program is responsible for 78% of food 
distributed  by the Belo Horizonte Food Bank, reaching 5% of the population in 
deeply  impoverished conditions.” (4)
“The Secretaria Municipal de Abastecimento (SMAB) expanded and  structure the 
city’s supply capability by establishing popular projects,  many of them in 
partnership with the private sector, as a marketing  regulator in food 
production and in actions to fight hunger and  malnutrition.
This project commercializes 21 items of basic Food Basket with  prices up to 40% 
less than the ones available on the market. They are  intended for families with 
an income of up to minimum wages and who are  previously enrolled by the SMAB. 
The products are commercialized by  special buses and trucks who pay visits, 
every 15 days, to selected  areas. It also has 3 permanent locations. The goal 
of the program is to  take care of 56,000 needy families.” (5)
“Another product of food-as-a-right thinking is three large, airy  “People’s 
Restaurants” (Restaurante Popular), plus a few smaller venues,  that daily serve 
12,000 or more people using mostly locally grown food  for the equivalent of 
less than 50 cents a meal.
The cost, around $10 million annually, or less than 2 percent of the  city 
budget. That’s about a penny a day per Belo resident.”(1)
“The city of Belo Horizonte is the capital of the Brazilian state  of Minas 
Gerais. Located on the southeastern part of the country, Belo  Horizonte is the 
third largest metropolitan area and fourth largest city  in Brazil (after Sao 
Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador). With an  extension of 330.9 km2 and a 
population of 2.238.526 inhabitants, Belo  is also characterized for not 
containing a rural area.”(6)
“In just a decade Belo Horizonte cut its infant death rate—widely  used as 
evidence of hunger—by more than half, and today these  initiatives benefit 
almost 40 percent of the city’s 2.5 million  population. One six-month period in 
1999 saw infant malnutrition in a  sample group reduced by 50 percent. And 
between 1993 and 2002 Belo  Horizonte was the only locality in which consumption 
of fruits and  vegetables went up.”(1)
This is interesting, a city that has become a world test site for  community 
development of local food resources. The question is why don’t  other cities 
pick up on this and attempt to do the same? Certainly over  the last 25 years 
this model has proven to be an effective method of  food distribution. Community 
control of the allocation of resources is  viable and effective. This is in 
opposition to the megacorporate  approach with large corporate entities 
responsible for the food supply  and consequently leaving large areas of poor 
people without good access  to healthy food.
“In the 1960s and 1970s, when white, middle-class families left  urban centers 
for homes in the suburbs, supermarkets fled with them,  taking jobs, tax 
revenues and their offerings of healthy, affordable  foods. The lack of local 
access to healthy foods makes it difficult for  families who remain in 
low-income urban communities to maintain a  well-balanced, nutritious diet. With 
limited transportation options,  these families must resort to purchasing 
unhealthy foods from nearby  fast food restaurants or local corner stores. These 
small, corner  stores, though more convenient, generally offer fewer healthy 
foods, are  poorly maintained and charge higher prices, sometimes as much as 49  
percent higher than those of supermarkets. Their selection consists  mainly of 
canned and processed foods and very little, if any, fresh meat  and produce.”(7)
“Researchers analyzed data from 12,154 participants in the National  Health and 
Nutrition Examination Survey (2001-2006) and found that the  poorest people have 
the highest risk of cardiovascular disease, but  there are few differences in 
risk between racial and ethnic groups.
The study included whites, blacks, U.S.-born Mexican Americans and  foreign-born 
Mexican Americans. The lower a person’s socioeconomic  status, the greater their 
risk for cardiovascular disease — in all  racial and ethnic groups, the 
investigators found.”(8)
So we can see that poor health outcomes are found in poor  neighborhoods. The 
example is there in Brazil, but it is because of  political organizing around 
the basic needs of humanity with an eye to  the latest developments in science 
and food policy development that  leads to a more successful outcome. But it 
takes the political  willingness to make this work on the part of civic leaders 
that makes  the difference between a small scale result and a city of 2.5 
million  having a city wide policy. That is where socialism comes in. Social  
democracy, democracy that is for the people and not just a facade for  
capitalist exploitation. That is what we need in the USA. We need a  democracy 
that is for the people, the least of us as well as those who  are better off. It 
needs to be a system that is not set up to entrap  people by promoting 
consumption of items that are not needed and then  trick them into taking out 
usurious loans. The government should be for  the people and set an example in 
society that promotes civically  beneficial behavior and not destructive 
behavior that only benefits the  few rapacious moneyed interests. If that means 
ending capitalism so be  it. I think there is a place for small scale 
entrepreneurship, but it  must be in the context of a civil society that cares 
for all its members  and in which each one feels they have a place and a part. 
Food  security, housing security, health security and full meaningful  
employment are part of a successful society. 

(1)http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-everyone/the-city-that-ended-hunger

(2)http://www.alternatives.ca/eng/our-organisation/our-publications/alternatives-international-journal/2008-558/vol-01-no-03-july-2008/article/belo-horizonte?lang=fr

(3)http://www.citymayors.com/society/belohorizonte_food.html
(4)http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/awards.html?id=37591
(5)http://www.unesco.org/most/southa10.htm
(6)http://www.ruaf.org/node/990
(7)http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/147/healthyfoods.html
(8)http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=641775