Reflections on the extinction of the National Council for Food and Nutrition Security and the confrontation of Covid-19 in Brazil

Abstract

The Provisional Measure 870/2019, which amended the Organic Law on Food and Nutrition Security and extinguished the Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional (National Council for Food and Nutrition Security), has brought serious consequences to the Brazilian population, especially for the most vulnerable. This scientific note brings reflections on the trajectory of the Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional, the repercussions of its extinction in the last year, and the project to dismantle social protection policies in Brazil, with serious consequences at a time when the country is going through a crisis in public health due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The absence of the Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional and the weakening of the set of policies for Food and Nutritional Security has mobilized the civil society to defend the human rights to food, food sovereignty, and to democracy itself. The resistance of the different social movements in order to maintain the spaces of civil participation related to Food and Nutrition Security public policies are still going to be long and arduous, demanding the continued vocalization and strengthening of partnership networks within the different movements of the organized civil society. Finally, we highlight the urgent need for restoration of the National System of Food and Nutritional Security (Sistema Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional) with all its instances, and of other social policies, so that the negative consequences of the pandemic are avoided or mitigated and the State complies with its obligations to guarantee the rights of the Brazilian population.