Family farming, agroecology and democracy are some of the topics that will be covered until Friday (14), at the IX Journey of Studies in Rural Settlements. The event, which includes the participation of scholars and farmers from Brazil and Latin America, began this Wednesday (12), at the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering at Unicamp (Feagri). “The Journey is progressing a lot, as the discussions don’t just stop at the gym. We bring society to participate and, mainly, its protagonists, the farmers”, highlighted Vanilde Ferreira de Souza Esquerdo, organizer of the event.
At the opening table, in addition to the University's institutional authorities, the main social organizations linked to the topic were represented, such as the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), Central de Cooperatives and Solidarity Enterprises of Brazil (Unisol), among others.
"The role of the university is what the journey proposes: getting closer to organized society, communities and generating knowledge through action, debate, study, research, dialogue and experimentation”, he stated Mariano Laplane, executive director of International Relations, at the opening of the event.
Vanilde Esquerdo also highlighted the relevance of the discussion for the country. “Family farmers are the ones who produce food. Not only in Brazil, but throughout the world. Discussing topics involving agri-food systems, the social construction of markets, the unsafe use of pesticides and all land regulations is extremely current and important”, she pointed out.
In addition to round tables and poster presentations with scientific works, this year's Journey includes sections for reporting experiences and spaces for exchanging seeds. The objective of these spaces, according to the organizer, was to increase farmers' participation in the event. “We have always sought to establish this dialogue between scientific knowledge and popular knowledge,” she stated.
The meeting also features a fair, where producers can sell their products.s. The fair takes place between the Feagri buildings, from 9 am to 17 pm. According to the organizers, on Friday (14), the Journey will be part of the demonstrations organized by various entities in society. “We support the movement and are here to strengthen it”, highlighted Vanilde Esquerdo.
Democracy and Agrarian Capitalism
At the opening conference, Miguel Carter, director of the Center for Democracy, Creativity and Social Inclusion (Demos), highlighted social inequality and agrarian elites as some of the main obstacles to the construction of democracies in Latin America. “Inequality subverts the principle of political equality, which is fundamental to democracy. It subverts the development of the rule of law and the protection of human rights. It creates insecurity in society and generates recurring periods of political turbulence and instability,” he said.
According to Miguel Carter, in addition to the socio-environmental advantages, family farming generates more wealth, more jobs and more returns for the State's investments than agribusiness. “We need to make a paradigmatic change in agriculture. We need to move from large-scale agro-industrial agriculture to agroecology on smaller properties,” he argued.
