Grapes of Wrath
Along a dirt road in Itaguajé, Parana, Nelson Cruz and seven men were preparing to spend the night in make-shift huts, those signature black plastic and tree branch lairs of the movement. All of the men said they had homes in Itaguajé. “We’re waiting for the government to tell us they’ve found some land,” said Cruz. Farmland rises up on either side of him. His encampment is probably an unwelcome sight for the landowner.
When asked who recruited him to camp out there, Cruz named a local city councilor, Valdir A. Antune, as their group’s leader.
The World Food Program and many leaders and supporters of MST may have a noble cause in mind, but working with the group will require careful monitoring. Families like Santo Jaro’s in Paranapoema may be a good place to start. Otherwise, the Program’s work here will be ripe for corruption and misappropriation of funds.
MST spokes people in Brasilia recommend that when the U.N. does come to town, that they work with farmers who are part of cooperatives, working together with their neighbors to produce larger amounts of a variety of fruit of vegetable products. Jaro was not part of a cooperative, though his skill and knowledge impressed even the most vociferous anti-MST group, the Democratic Farmers Union of Sao Paulo.
The government lends money to MST and other groups through The National Program for Family Agriculture (Programa Nacional de Agricultura Familiar, Pronaf, trans.). Public pressure from the various landless rural workers movements led the government to increase by 30% to R$7 billion ($2.3 billion) the amount of money destined for Pronaf.
MST estimates that roughly 527 thousand families are still looking for land. The number has grown ever since president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made a campaign promise to place 400 thousand families on expropriated land by 2006.
Over 8 million hectares have changed hands under land reform policies.
And herein lies the kicker: half of Brazil is malnourished, according to a landmark study by the Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) released here this month. What is happening to the land reform progress that was not only supposed to increase living wages, but also distribute food to local markets? What are these families producing for their neighbors?
Roughly 46% of the 48,470 families interviewed nationwide by IBGE do not eat three meals a day. In Rio Grande do Norte, 69.2% of the population are malnourished. Roughly 15,539 families have been placed on expropriated farmland in Rio Grande do Norte between 1987 and 2001, according to INCRA’s regional office SR/19. That number has not gone down. Yet, the average income they live on is just R$123.81, less than half the minimum wage.
What to Do ?
The World Food Program’s proposal is similar to the one proposed by the Lula administration, whereas increasing food production output among small family farmers can drastically reduce hunger in Brazil. One of the calling cards of the Brazilian government has been to convince the United Nations to create more efficient, results-driven, famine-relief policies. The subsidies given to land reform have reduced urban sprawl and, according to families placed on expropriated land, improved their quality of life. But it has not taken them out of poverty, which suggests farm output is just sustaining the families own food needs for the most part.
Jelson Oliveira of the Pastoral Land Commission in Parana said that income is not the best measure of MST farming success. Like MST and INCRA, Oliveira has hopes that the U.N. will deliver, giving these families more opportunities to improve their lives. “It’s doable,” Oliveira said. “Families living on expropriated farms are already part of Brazil’s own hunger relief program, Fome Zero. But for it to work, some of these farmers are going to need technical assistance.”
The U.N., relying on the Brazilian government, should carefully handpick family farmers who are not only adept on working the land, but interested in the core mission. Transparency should be the Program’s top priority. Both INCRA (currently on strike as of June 4, 2004) and the Ministry of Agrarian Development have good, honest records and have yet to face any corruption scandals. They are serious about their aims, but resources are dismal. The U.N. should take serious Brazil’s proposal to reduce world hunger, a project the U.N. has not delivered on by its own estimates. The political will exists in Brazil, and failure on this topic is not an option for this government. Nor should it be for the World Food Program.
1. “MST is a threat”, says business leader. Paper and pulp sector asks government to take a ‘firm position’ in defense of productive property, by Vania Cristina e Roldão Arruda, Estado de Sao Paulo, May 19, 2004
Kenneth Rapoza
Brazil Bureau Chief
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
Please also see:
In Brazil, Annan calls for new funding sources for development
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11057&Cr=trade&Cr1=development
Brazilian Government website http://www.brasil.gov.br/
World Food Programme http://www.wfp.org
Along a dirt road in Itaguajé, Parana, Nelson Cruz and seven men were preparing to spend the night in make-shift huts, those signature black plastic and tree branch lairs of the movement. All of the men said they had homes in Itaguajé. “We’re waiting for the government to tell us they’ve found some land,” said Cruz. Farmland rises up on either side of him. His encampment is probably an unwelcome sight for the landowner.
When asked who recruited him to camp out there, Cruz named a local city councilor, Valdir A. Antune, as their group’s leader.
The World Food Program and many leaders and supporters of MST may have a noble cause in mind, but working with the group will require careful monitoring. Families like Santo Jaro’s in Paranapoema may be a good place to start. Otherwise, the Program’s work here will be ripe for corruption and misappropriation of funds.
MST spokes people in Brasilia recommend that when the U.N. does come to town, that they work with farmers who are part of cooperatives, working together with their neighbors to produce larger amounts of a variety of fruit of vegetable products. Jaro was not part of a cooperative, though his skill and knowledge impressed even the most vociferous anti-MST group, the Democratic Farmers Union of Sao Paulo.
The government lends money to MST and other groups through The National Program for Family Agriculture (Programa Nacional de Agricultura Familiar, Pronaf, trans.). Public pressure from the various landless rural workers movements led the government to increase by 30% to R$7 billion ($2.3 billion) the amount of money destined for Pronaf.
MST estimates that roughly 527 thousand families are still looking for land. The number has grown ever since president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made a campaign promise to place 400 thousand families on expropriated land by 2006.
Over 8 million hectares have changed hands under land reform policies.
And herein lies the kicker: half of Brazil is malnourished, according to a landmark study by the Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) released here this month. What is happening to the land reform progress that was not only supposed to increase living wages, but also distribute food to local markets? What are these families producing for their neighbors?
Roughly 46% of the 48,470 families interviewed nationwide by IBGE do not eat three meals a day. In Rio Grande do Norte, 69.2% of the population are malnourished. Roughly 15,539 families have been placed on expropriated farmland in Rio Grande do Norte between 1987 and 2001, according to INCRA’s regional office SR/19. That number has not gone down. Yet, the average income they live on is just R$123.81, less than half the minimum wage.
What to Do ?
The World Food Program’s proposal is similar to the one proposed by the Lula administration, whereas increasing food production output among small family farmers can drastically reduce hunger in Brazil. One of the calling cards of the Brazilian government has been to convince the United Nations to create more efficient, results-driven, famine-relief policies. The subsidies given to land reform have reduced urban sprawl and, according to families placed on expropriated land, improved their quality of life. But it has not taken them out of poverty, which suggests farm output is just sustaining the families own food needs for the most part.
Jelson Oliveira of the Pastoral Land Commission in Parana said that income is not the best measure of MST farming success. Like MST and INCRA, Oliveira has hopes that the U.N. will deliver, giving these families more opportunities to improve their lives. “It’s doable,” Oliveira said. “Families living on expropriated farms are already part of Brazil’s own hunger relief program, Fome Zero. But for it to work, some of these farmers are going to need technical assistance.”
The U.N., relying on the Brazilian government, should carefully handpick family farmers who are not only adept on working the land, but interested in the core mission. Transparency should be the Program’s top priority. Both INCRA (currently on strike as of June 4, 2004) and the Ministry of Agrarian Development have good, honest records and have yet to face any corruption scandals. They are serious about their aims, but resources are dismal. The U.N. should take serious Brazil’s proposal to reduce world hunger, a project the U.N. has not delivered on by its own estimates. The political will exists in Brazil, and failure on this topic is not an option for this government. Nor should it be for the World Food Program.
1. “MST is a threat”, says business leader. Paper and pulp sector asks government to take a ‘firm position’ in defense of productive property, by Vania Cristina e Roldão Arruda, Estado de Sao Paulo, May 19, 2004
Kenneth Rapoza
Brazil Bureau Chief
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
Please also see:
In Brazil, Annan calls for new funding sources for development
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11057&Cr=trade&Cr1=development
Brazilian Government website http://www.brasil.gov.br/
World Food Programme http://www.wfp.org