Food Procurement in Post-neoliberal Countries: Examples from South America

Abstract

This article analyzes public food procurement policy as one of the characteristics of post-neoliberalism in South America, whereby food produced by family farmers and peasants is purchased by the state and then donated to low-income people and public-school students. Focusing on Brazil, Ecuador, and Paraguay, the study demonstrates how such experiences partly break the control that large agri-food corporations exert in the food systems of these countries. This occurs because public food procurement has created a new market opportunity for family farmers and peasants and has also functioned as a mechanism to combat hunger and promote democratized access to good food. Moreover, such initiatives can be understood as providing a possibility to re-spatialize food by promoting closer contact between food producers and consumers.