A tradição alimentar no contexto das agroindústrias familiares de alimentos : caso da microrregião norte do COREDE do Vale do Rio Pardo - RS/Brasil.

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze whether food tradition present among the family farmers, agribusinesses owners, is expressed as a resignification of families´ expertise towards the homogenization of food habits promoted by the globalization. The objective was established due to findings that show there is a relevant number of family agribusinesses in the northern microregion of Rio Pardo Valley Regional Development Council (Corede), a context marked by tobacco and soybean cultivation. Therefore, the research sought to answer the following problem: is the food tradition, present among the family farmers, agribusinesses owners, expressed as a resignification of families´ expertise towards the homogenization of food habits promoted by the globalization? The specific objectives focused on: a) identifying the food tradition present among the family agribusinesses owners from the northern microregion of Rio Pardo Valley Regional Development Council, b) characterizing the family agribusinesses food producers´ creation process in the microregion of Rio Pardo Valley Regional Development Council, and c) analyzing the relation between families´ food tradition and the emergence of agribusinesses. The research is justified by being addressed to a region that depends economically on the tobacco and soybean cultivation, since family agribusinesses can signal emancipation towards global mechanisms of domination through the promotion of food tradition. The following research techniques were used: bibliographical research, documental research, on-site observation and a semi-structured interview. The researched establishments were family agribusinesses legalized between 2000 and 2015, because it was considered the year that the first agribusiness was set up until the year prior to data collection. The interview was carried out with 12 family agribusinesses and guided by three categories of analysis: a) food tradition of family unit; b) family agribusinesses creation and, c) relation between food tradition and the emergence of agribusinesses. The analysis and data interpretation were based on Minayo (1992), whose method presents the inner speech as starting point and the historic and total specificity that produces the speech as the arrival point. Therefore, the next variables were identified and analyzed: ethnic origin, prepared food, food that remember childhood, taste and preparation of food that were present in the childhood, emergence of agribusinesses, period of legalization, agro-industrial product, labor, raw material source, income and production volume, source of income of the property, support and technical training, industrialized food, agro-products self-consumption, tradition present in the production, choice of the product, performance of activities and significance in the global context. It was concluded that 75% of the surveyed family agribusinesses express tradition on their production, because the agro-industrial food is part of the family´s history. These foods do not contradict only the homogenization of food habits, but are against the globalization itself. The agro-industrial food produced by the family farmers express the tradition, the expertise and the families´ own history.