Working Title: "Territorial governance for food sovereignty in São Paulo"

Research Countries: Brazil

Research Themes: urban agriculture, food soverignity, governance

Biography:

Eliana graduated in Public Administration (BSc and Msc at FGV EAESP) and has experience with research in the field of applied Social Sciences using quantitative and qualitative methods. Her undergratuate and master research projects have focused on racial inequalities and segregation measures in São Paulo. Eliana is currently Junior Researcher at ZEF and PhD student at the One Health Graduate School – University of Bonn, where she develops her PhD research project on food sovereignty in São Paulo (Brazil). Recently, she has been involved in the development of a human and environmental rights monitoring system in the context of BR-319 (road in the Amazon region) for the Human Rights and Business Study Center (FGV CeDHE). Also, she was research assistant at the Center for Politics and Economics of the Public Sector Studies (FGV Cepesp) in 2019 and at the Public Administration and Government Study Center (FGV Ceapg) in several projects (São Paulo, Brazil). Eliana was GIS intern for the Climate Institute (Washington DC) in 2016.

Abstract:

The growing urbanization and the increased access to industrialized and ultra-processed food have changed the ways through which food-related issues take place. The nutrition transition entails problems related to the consumption of this type of food in poor and developing countries – issues that coexist with hunger and food insecurity. In Brazil, the Covid-19 pandemic is pushing more people into hunger. Simultaneously, food production techniques adopted in this country are often harmful to people, fauna and to the biomes’ equilibrium as a whole. Long food supply chains impose logistical and environmental problems. The consequences of this scenario are felt by the people in uneven ways. The poor and minority groups are specially affected with less capacity to cope with these conditions. In this context, the concept of food sovereignty is a compreheensive way to approach all those issues since it encompasses social control over food production, distribution and consumption towards the right to culturally appropriate, sustainable and healthy food. Thus, this research aims to answer how is the current governance structure towards food sovereignty in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, the largest Brazilian city? And how can it be strengthened? In order to address these questions, this research will map food deserts and hunger spots in São Paulo and check the correlations with social indicators, spoting the most vulnerable areas to be further qualitatively investigated. The agenda and governance structure towards food sovereignty, relevant actors and tensions will be identified and described through document analysis and interviews at the municipal, state and federal levels. In addition, participant observation and interviews are to be conducted at the very local level in vulnerable neighborhood(s). Finally, this research aims to contribute to the building of a propositive agenda around food sovereignty in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, involving the stakeholders identified and mobilized throughout this research project.

Supervisor(s):

Prof. Dr. Wiltrud Terlau (HBRS)