The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food concluded that one of the main causes of hunger in Brazil is the enormous area of uncultivated land that, according to INCRA (Agrarian Reform Institute), is around 100 million hectares. Another problem is the enormous concentration of land, where 2 % of the large estate owners hold 56% of the properties and 80% of the small producers hold only 12% of agricultural lands. At the same time, there are 4.8 million rural families without land in the country.

United Nations Rapporteur on Right to
Food Concludes Study in Brazil

Maria Luisa Mendonça *

The report concludes that hunger is not a problem of availability but a problem of access to food and he guarantees that Brazil, as one of the biggest food exporting countries of the world, has all the conditions to feed its population.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, concluded his report on Brazil, which was presented officially at the Human Rights Commission, in April of 2003. The report is based on a visit of the Rapporteur to Brazil, from March 1st to the 18th, 2002, when his criticisms caused great controversy. The official report classifies as "insufficient" the measures adopted by the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso to fight hunger. It criticizes "sectors of society that do not understand the idea that human rights also apply to the poor".

The Rapporteur recognizes some advances in the "conception of the right to food" as a result of the "work carried out by the country's vibrant and efficient civil society". And he hopes that president Lula "finds useful advice in this report".

Dr. Ziegler concludes that hunger is not a problem of food availability, but of "access to food" and guarantees that Brazil possesses all the conditions to feed its population. Data of the Cardoso administration indicate that 22 million people go hungry in Brazil. The Workers Party speaks about 44 million and Dom Mauro Morelli of the National Conference of the Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), estimates that there are 53 million hungry people in the country.

The report criticizes policies directed at exporting food and warns that, even with a bigger opening of European and U.S. markets for Brazilian products, this probably would not mean the reduction of hunger in Brazil. According to Dr. Ziegler, it is possible to end hunger through agrarian reform and support for small producers, with priority for access to food in the domestic market. For this, he recommends the implementation of a law that limits the size of rural properties.

Another target of criticism is the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that, according to the Rapporteur "requires the maintenance of a primary budget surplus to prioritize the payment of the debt", which restricts social investments and causes a "discrepancy and lack of transparency" between the budget and the expenses in social projects. The report classifies Brazil as "a highly developed economic power and the world's tenth economy, but also a country with millions of poor and hungry people, effectively excluded from this powerful economy".

The report states that, despite the progress in some areas, such as in reducing infant mortality and the increase in the Index of Human Development, Brazil still occupies an inferior position in relation to the majority of Latin American countries such as Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia, occupying the 73rd position among 162 countries.

The causes of hunger in Brazil

The Special Rapporteur concluded that one of the main causes of hunger is the enormous uncultivated land area that, according to INCRA (Agrarian Reform Institute), is around 100 million hectares. Another problem is the enormous concentration of land, where 2 % of the large estate owners hold 56% of the properties and 80% of the small producers hold only 12% of agricultural lands. At the same time, there are 4.8 million rural families without land in the country.

The concentration of land has generated rural exodus and a great increase in the urban population, which is concentrated in the favelas and increases the contingent of the hungry. The Rapporteur states that "urban misery, poverty and hunger are closely tied to the problems of agricultural poverty and the landless workers."

Another cause of hunger, highlighted in the report, is unemployment. Dr. Ziegler also points to the problem of food insecurity for millions of Brazilians who receive the minimum wage which, according to him, is insufficient to guarantee adequate nutrition.

The report praises programs like the School Grant (Bolsa-Escola), Food Grant (Bolsa-Alimentação), and the School Nutrition (Merenda Escolar) as a way of transferring resources to the needy population, but he warns about the risk that "the regional elites and local governments often exert control of the resources, which is detrimental to the programs directed at the poor."

Dr. Ziegler's study emphasizes that Brazil is a country of "abundant resources" and that "it would be possible to guarantee the right to food for all Brazilians". He recalls a quotation of Jean-Paul Sartre: "Time is not an abstract entity, it is human life." And he concludes the report with a warning, "The quiet daily suffering of many millions of hungry and malnourished Brazilians has to end."

Main Recommendations of the Report:
-Implementation of national legislation that increases protection of the right to food.

-A fight against impunity through independence of the judiciary system. The cases of human rights violations involving local or state authorities must be judged at the federal level such as, for example, the slaughter of Eldorado dos Carajás.

- The current economic model must be revised so that it examines the impacts of macroeconomic politics and trade liberalization on poverty and social inequality.

- Agrarian reform must be implemented with greater speed, including land expropriations. The proposed law that limits the size of rural property must be implemented. The fight against illegal land ownership must be intensified. The provisional measure of May of 2000, that forbids the expropriation of occupied land, must be revoked.

- More resources must be invested to benefit the poor. The demands of the IMF that guarantee the budget surplus to pay Brazil´s foreign debt should not limit access to food.

* Maria Luisa Mendonça is a journalist and director of the Social Network for Justice and Human Rights.