NARRATIVES AND SOCIAL COALITIONS IN THE TRANSITIONS TO SUSTAINABILITY IN BRAZILIAN AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS

• Grant number: 24/23494-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: October 01, 2025
• End date: September 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Rural Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Arilson da Silva Favareto
• Grantee: Cesar Buno Favarão
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Agri-food systems are one of the main drivers of climate change, with impacts that cut across several dimensions. One third of all greenhouse gas emissions are generated by these systems. In socio-economic terms, conventional models have deepened inequalities. As for human health, the situation is paradoxical: while a third of the world's population faced some level of food insecurity in 2021, non-communicable diseases caused by obesity represent the leading cause of global mortality. In this context, different narratives are emerging in the public debate about how to tackle these problems and the need to achieve a sustainable transition in these systems. In Brazil, this discussion takes on specific contours, as the country is one of the main biodiversity hotspots on the planet, a potentially positive aspect for progress towards a sustainable economy, in an international scenario in which agri-food trade increasingly demands compliance with socio-environmental criteria. The main problem posed by this research project is to understand why, despite this context, an effective strategy for accelerating the sustainable transition in the country's agri-food systems has not yet been established. To explain this, we suggest the initial hypothesis that the discourses and strategies of the actors are more fragmented, overlapping and divergent, resulting in a dispersion of actions in the fields where the rules of agri-food systems are defined. The effect has been a game of forces and counterforces, which does little to convert the challenging narratives into a coalition of social forces capable of accelerating a sustainable transition in these systems.