Brazilians Struggle With Rising Food Prices
Kátia and Elizabete are not economists or government officials. Still, these two Brazilian women are developing their own responses to the recent hike in food prices that is affecting their families and communities, as well as people around the world. At the same time, ActionAid is working to shift international policies affecting them.
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“The solution is to use what was partly used by others,” explains Kátia, who gathers and recycles trash and cleans houses to make money. “Use the bread that [others] don’t want anymore. Re-use the cooking oil that was already used. I know it is bad for health, but it is worse not to eat.”
The global economic crisis is currently the subject of much discussion and debate among world leaders. Far removed from these international talks, Kátia and Elizabete are focusing on survival rather than policy.
Living just two blocks away from Kátia, Elizabete collects cans to support her five children.
“If I gather a lot of PET bottles I can make U.S. $3,” she said.
Both women, who live in a poor community on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, contend daily with rising food prices that strain their already meager incomes. Views from women like Kátia and Elizabete are essential to ActionAid’s work of addressing the root causes of poverty at the local level and bringing their stories to the international stage. In Brazil, ActionAid has formed partnerships with local movements and organizations to do just this.
For example, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) is fighting to balance the unjust distribution of land in Brazil. Less than 3 percent of the Brazilian population controls two-thirds of the land available for crop production, while 60 percent of farmland remains idle. So far, MST has helped more than 350,000 poor families gain access to land they can cultivate crops on to feed their families and earn a livelihood.
Katia cooks supper for her family in her kitchen in Sao Joao de Meriti, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Katia, 32, is a widow with four children. She is unemployed, so to earn money she cleans houses and collects rubbish to sell for recycling.
Copyright © Andre Telles/ActionAid
When a group of quebradeiras (babassu nut breakers), poor women from northern Brazil, asked lawmakers to protect their access to land and natural resources, ActionAid was with them. With ActionAid’s support, the women challenged charcoal companies responsible for deforestation and environmental damage. They also argued that large plantations should not be able to deny them access to the babassu, an indigenous palm they had relied on for years. Today, the Free Nut Law protects the right of quebradeiras and other forest residents selling and gathering the babassu.
Movements like MST and the quebradeira campaign have been crucial for drawing attention to the plight of Brazil’s poor. In 2003, with a growing public focus on these issues, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised to address food rights in Brazil. That year, his administration instituted Fome Zero (Zero Hunger), a plan to eradicate hunger in Brazil and provide an immediate means of poverty alleviation. To date, over 11 million of Brazil’s poorest people are benefiting from the Zero Hunger program. The program is the largest of its kind and has inspired offshoots in Venezuela and India.
With rising inflation rates, however, many of the gains made through the Zero Hunger program are at risk because Brazilians earning a minimum wage are spending 40 percent of their budget on food. For Kátia and Elizabete, who live below the poverty line, food is an even bigger expense.
The poorest nations and communities have been hit the hardest by the current economic crisis. But, with ActionAid’s community-driven approach to ending poverty, people like Kátia and Elizabete will not be forced to face the crisis alone.
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