The advance of food insecurity and the dismantling of the Food Purchase Program (PAA) in Brazil

Abstract

Capitalism is based on neoliberal premises, and the actions of the State for the benefit of the population
are reduced. Although the State is subverted to the logic of the system, there is a responsibility for it to
guarantee the basics for the population in general, and with this, public policies exist. The advance of
neoliberalism and the reduction of the State's role is selective, since credits continue to be made available
to the private sector, with the justification of economic growth. In fact, the Brazilian economy is
notoriously focused on agricultural production activities, such as the production of commodities and food
for export. However, contradictorily, the country is experiencing a food insecurity crisis. The data on food
insecurity have been mitigated due to the existence of public policies aimed at guaranteeing basic food for
Brazilians, as is the case of the Food Purchase Program (PAA). Under the Bolsonaro government, social
policies have been marginalized (without resources and/or inflationary correction), which generated the
worsening of the food crisis. This crisis highlights the tendency to dismantle public policies and the
country's preference to privilege exports. In order to understand this scenario, especially with regard to
the Bolsonaro government, this paper will analyze the data on the resources made available in recent
years for the PAA, articulated with the debate on the data on the advance of food insecurity in Brazil. For
this analysis, data from IBGE, the PENSSAN Network and the PAA were used.