PERCEPTIONS ABOUT RISK AND TRUST IN FOOD

PRODUCTION AMONG FAMILY FARMERS OF THE

IRRIGATED FRUIT PRODUCTION OF THE SAN
FRANCISCO VALLEY/BRAZIL
Evander Eloi Krone (CAPES Scholarship grantee) – evanderkrone@gmail.com
Postgraduate Program in Anthropology – Federal University of Pernambuco – Supervisor: Professor Josefa Salete Barbosa Cavalcanti
Visitor PhD Student at School of Geography and Planning – Cardiff University

INTRODUCTION
This work is the result of ethnographic research carried out with farmers
and rural workers from the irrigated fruit production of the San Francisco
Valley. In the 1980s the San Francisco Valley – whose polo cities are
Petrolina and Juazeiro – became known at the national and international
scenario levels by the quality fruit production. The State promoted an
agrarian reordering in this region with the installation of large irrigated
perimeters and granting irrigated lots for companies, family farmers and
business farmers. Since then the San Francisco Valley has become a
center of attraction for thousands of immigrants from the Northeast,
South and Southeast of Brazil (CAVALCANTI, 1997). However, , in spite
of the growing of quality fruit production, according to international
standards of quality for global markets the use of pesticides in the
irrigated fruit system has generated fears and anxieties, especially
among the family farmers and rural workers directly involve in the fruit
production. The goal of this work is to understand the classifications and
native categories about risk and trust among the family farmers and rural
workers involved in the fruit production of the San Francisco Valley.

METHODOLOGY
The field work was carried out between September and November 2015
and followed the tradition of ethnographic method with the use of field
daily, participant observation and carrying out semi structured interviews
with family farmers and rural workers from the irrigated fruit production of
the San Francisco Valley.

DISCUSSION
There are among the social actors studied the perception that the
contact with the pesticides - through the direct exposure or from
consumption of contaminated food - is changing the taste of the food, as
well as provoking physical and moral weakness. In this way, the
chemicals, pesticides and preservatives used by the agro-food industry
appear in the local imaginary as a source of physical and moral disorder.
The data shows that ideas of cleanness and purity of the food arise
associated to the local food production where the knowledge of food
production are under the domain of family farmers. For the family
farmers, on the other hand food that are not from the own food
production appear as potentially dangerous not only for the biological
body, but also as a source of social disorder. In this context the
pesticides and preservatives used in the contemporary food production
appear as a source of concern and distrust for the rural families.

CONCLUSIONS
This research is carried out as a part of a PhD Thesis to be submitted in
2018. Therefore this presentation offers preliminary results of a work in
process. For the rural workers and family farmers studied in this work the
chemical agents used in the modern agro-food industry appear as a
source of danger and cause of many diseases. However, it is not only
the biological body that is affected, but also the moral and social body,
moral characteristics are also attributed to food. Therefore, in the local
social imaginary the chemical agents used in the contemporary
production of foods generate anxieties and fears, as well as are source
of biological and social disorder. On the other hand, ideas about
cleanliness and purity of the food appear associated to their own food
production when there is no use of agrochemicals or when this is
personally controlled by the farmers.
Acknowledgment:
REFERENCES
BEDOR, Cheila Nataly Galindo et al. Vulnerabilidades e situações de riscos relacionados ao uso de
agrotóxicos na fruticultura irrigada. Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia, São Paulo , v. 12, n. 1, p. 39-
49, Mar. 2009 .
BEDOR Cheila Nataly Galindo et al. Avaliação e reflexão da comercialização e utilização de agrotóxicos na
região do Submédio do Vale do São Francisco. Revista Baiana de Saúde Pública, Salvador, v. 31, p. 68-
76, jan./jun. 2007.
BONANNO, Alessandro; CAVALCANTI, Josefa Salete Barbosa. Globalization, food quality and labor: the
case of grape production in North-Eastern Brazil. International Journal Sociology of Agriculture and
Food, v. 19, n. 1, p.37-55, 2011.
CAVALCANTI, Josefa Salete Barbosa. Frutas para o Mercado Global. Estudos Avançados, São Paulo, v.
11, n.29, p. 79-93, 1997.
__________. Desigualdades sociais e identidades em construção na agricultura de exportação. In: Revista
Latinoamericana de Estudios del Trabajo, n. 9, p. 155-171, 1999.
CAVALCANTI, Josefa Salete Barbosa; BENDINI, Isabel. Globalization and change in labor relations in fruit
regions of Brazil and Argentina. Labour Relations in Globalized Food, v. 20, p. 3-32, 2014.
DOUGLAS, Mary. Pureza e perigo: ensaio sobre a noção de poluição e tabu. Lisboa: Edições 70, 1966.
FISCHLER, Claude. El (h)omnívoro: el gusto, la cocina y el cuerpo. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1995.
MACIEL, Maria Eunice de Souza; MENASCHE, Renata. Alimentação e cultura, identidade e cidadania: você
tem fome de quê? Democracia Viva, Rio de Janeiro, n. 16, p. 3-7, 2003.
MILLÁN, Amado. Malo para comer, bueno para pensar: crise en la cadena socioalimentar. In: GRACIA,
Mabel Arnaiz (Org.). Somos lo que comemos: estudios de alimentación y cultura en España. Barcelona:
Ariel, 2002.
POULAIN, Jean-Pierre. Sociologias da alimentação: os comedores e o espaço social alimentar.
Florianópolis: EdUFSC, 2004.