Food production and marketing against current legislation: the case of the popular food market of São Gabriel da Palha–ES

Abstract

This paper aims to present the experience of production and marketing of peasant families linked to the Popular Food Market of São Gabriel da Palha, Espírito Santo, and the challenges they face in the face of legal requirements under current health legislation. Considering that pesticide-free production is increasingly becoming an outcry and essential for human life, this work will enable the debate on the forms of production organization and, in turn, the processes of commercialization of food to be restored, that in the case of the Popular Market, there are legislative obstacles regarding the peasant way of producing, due to the capitalist logic of producing hegemonized by agribusiness, which imposed on the other forms a process of standardization and homogenization of food, producing an imposed food standard, by large companies, where human health, social welfare and the social function of production are not taken into account, to the detriment of profit. Through this process, peasant production is increasingly criminalized and excluded from local markets. The method used in this research is based on literature review, interviews with families linked to the market, and interviews with consumers of foods sold in the market. The result showed that the rule imposed by the legislation does not dialogue with the current scenario, which is food shortage, nor with the production conditions of families, not valuing identities, forms of culture and popular knowledge. accumulated in space time.