A atuação das organizações de apoio e de controle no processamento de alimentos da agricultura familiar no Rio Grande do Sul/Brasil : repercussões nas atividades informais.

Abstract

This thesis analyzed the role of supporting and controlling organizations in family farming food processing activities, based on the neoinstitutionalism approach. For neoinstitutionalism, institutions are responsible for fostering, arranging, adjusting and, in many cases, limiting the potential possibilities of certain actors, assuming a dualistic character. In this research, family agribusiness was conceived as a form of organization whereby the family produces, processes, and commercializes part of its products, seeking self-consumption and growth of exchange value through trading activity. The territorial base for the dissertation was the State of Rio Grande do Sul, using existing experiences in the municipalities of Cachoeira do Sul, Vera Cruz, and Passo do Sobrado. This research was sustained by theoretical reflections and empirical data collection related to the supporting and controlling organizations and their actions on family farming food processing activities. Theoretical references are scarce due to the consequences of informality of food processing in these territories. The public policies developed for these activities are debatable since there are still high levels of informality, and the prospect of temporariness has not always been confirmed. In the context of family farming, activities are moderated by supporting organizations, but also subordinated by the coercive pressure of institutions. Therefore, organizations and institutions play a role as supporters or controllers of food processing activities and influence the actions and motivations of individuals. A heterogeneous process of social transformation due to the coexistence of different forms of articulation between agriculture-agroindustry and territory was identified in diverse agroindustrialization trajectories. These forms are combinations of the conventional agroindustrialization process which is still present and dominant with new rural family agribusinesses, configuring an intertwined network mosaic of social actors. In this way, this thesis points to the importance of establishing a more in-depth and qualified reflection on the role of organizations and institutions and of establishing a new approach that points to the need to evaluate institutional scopes and that can establish new references on how to deal with poverty and inequalities, contemplating a multidimensional approach.