Ensuring that indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, and other traditional peoples and communities have access to public policies and can provide the food they themselves produce and consume daily to the schools where their children study, and that they can also receive payment for it, has effects that extend beyond the boundaries of their communities' territories.
"This is a very new idea, and many people can't see its importance, but where there are schools, there are public policies reaching the community, and this income makes a huge difference.""This was stated by agricultural engineer Márcio Menezes, who, on December 6th, went to São Luís, in Maranhão, to explain the objectives of a movement that began in Amazonas and, through the initiative of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF), has already reached 17 Brazilian states: the Catrapovos Brasil Permanent Dialogue Table."
Catrapovos was established by the 6th Coordination and Review Chamber – Indigenous Populations and Traditional Communities of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office. Among other objectives, this initiative aims to promote dialogue between government agencies and civil society organizations related to the themes of traditional peoples and communities, public procurement, and food and nutritional sovereignty and security. The dissemination of this initiative to the national level occurs through the establishment of state-level roundtables or commissions in which government entities and civil society organizations participate, recognizing the need to integrate traditional food systems into school feeding programs and other public policies.
The impact of Catrapovos, that is, the action and argumentation of the commissions with the Municipalities, States and the Union, to include peoples and communities in public policies, is guided by the concept of self-consumption: that food produced and consumed within the territories may have sanitary requirements waived for public purchases, for example, in school meals.
In fact, it became clear that sanitary requirements were unnecessarily preventing traditionally produced foods from reaching institutional markets, such as the National School Feeding Program (PNAE). This obstacle was only challenged starting in 2017, when the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office and the Health Surveillance agencies of the State of Amazonas drafted the... Technical Note No. 01/2017 ADAF/SFA-AM/MPF-AM, which observes the "The right of indigenous peoples to access differentiated food, respecting their own production processes, for the provision of school meals.".
“What’s the big story behind Catrapovos? It’s a technical note that became a legal recommendation from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, valid throughout Brazil. The technical note guides public managers, in cases of self-consumption in a community with a school, that under these conditions, fish, açaí, flour, cheese… do not require Sanitary Surveillance.”clarifies Márcio Menezes.
The launch of Catrapovos Maranhão took place in the Manoel da Conceição auditorium during the 2nd FEMAF.
Catrapovos in Maranhão
The state became the 17th to have this initiative, as part of from the efforts of the organizations that make up the Agroecology Network of Maranhão (RAMA)Among these is ISPN. The Institute is also among the organizations that initially formed Catrapovos Brasil and works with the maintenance of the Executive Secretariat of the Observatory of Socio-biodiversity Economies (ÓSocioBio), a network of 42 organizations created to influence public policies.
“We have a strong presence in Maranhão, so we are reaffirming our commitment to Catrapovos. Through RAMA, we want to bring together civil society, public administrators, the Public Prosecutor's Office, and the Public Defender's Office, because this discussion about traditional food and public policies is fundamental for social development.”"This is a statement," said ISPN's executive coordinator, Fábio Vaz, who participated in the launch.
The Catrapovos Maranhão operation will be coordinated by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF), the Federal Public Defender's Office (DPU), the Public Prosecutor's Office of Maranhão (MPMA), and the Public Defender's Office of the State of Maranhão (DPE). "
This initiative is a crucial step towards ensuring that school meals reflect the culture and biodiversity of our state, which is so vast. The Public Prosecutor's Office has a history of defending the right to education, and within that right is also the right to adequate school meals."This is what prosecutor Érica Beckman da Silva stated."
More than 70 people, including representatives from social organizations, communities, and state and federal government agencies, participated in the launch, which took place during the 2nd Maranhão Family Farming Fair (FEMAF), promoted by the Maranhão State Secretariat for Family Farming (SAF), between December 4th and 7th, in São Luís. SAF positions itself as a space for advancing this discussion within the State Government.
“We support Catrapovos because we understand that it is important that the food supplied to various public organizations, that is, government purchases, includes our traditional food, the food produced by quilombola communities, indigenous people, coconut breakers, and rural settlements. I believe this is a path that puts family farming on another level.”, stated Secretary Bira do Pindaré.
Opening panel: Carlos Pereira, from the Tijupá Agroecological Association (at the microphone); the Federal Public Defender, Giuliano Damasceno; Public Prosecutor, Érica Beckman; Cysne Aderaldo, Superintendent of CONAB; Ricarte Almeida, Deputy Secretary of SAF; and Fábio Vaz, Executive Coordinator of ISPN.
Experiences
“Some peoples started using industrialized products in the 70s: soft drinks, canned goods, chocolate drinks, sugar. And you see within some indigenous communities a high rate of diabetes, women with cancer. My grandmother, on the other hand, is 98 years old, lucid, a Tupinambá woman who still lives eating in a traditional way.”"This is a very important step," commented Maria Lídia Tupinambá, advisor for Indigenous School Education, who represented the Association of Indigenous Women of Maranhão (AMIMA) at the launch of Catrapovos.
With the maintenance of sanitary requirements that discourage self-consumption, indigenous and quilombola schools often receive canned goods, chocolate drinks, and cookies instead of natural, fresh, and healthy foods. This, in addition to harming the children's health, contributes to the erasure of the food culture of indigenous peoples and traditional communities.
"The agenda for indigenous school meals cannot be one of processed foods. You cannot provide food baskets for indigenous people containing canned sardines, sausages...", commented the superintendent Cysne Aderaldo, from the National Supply Company (CONAB) in Maranhão, participated in the opening panel of the Catrapovos launch.
CONAB is participating in the first self-consumption experiences in Maranhão with indigenous and quilombola communities through the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) and in accordance with... Resolution No. 2, of June 2023, of the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against HungerThe ministry followed the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office and authorized the purchase of food within indigenous lands, territories, or conservation units, and waived the registration, inspection, and oversight of these foods as long as they are consumed within the community's own territory.
PAA in Maranhão
In Maranhão, CONAB has around 200 PAA projects with cooperatives and community associations. Of these, 70% are projects aimed at traditional peoples and communities, quilombola communities, but only six projects are with indigenous communities.
One example is the Guajajara people, in the Rio Pindaré Indigenous Territory (TI), in the municipality of Bom Jardim, who produce food of animal and plant origin, with the support of technical assistance provided by ISPN, within the scope of the Basic Environmental Plan of the Carajás Railway – Awá and Guajajara Indigenous Component (PBA-CI). The biggest obstacle to transforming this production into income has always been marketing.
The Mainumy Community Association, which represents the Rio Pindaré Indigenous Territory, became a supplier to the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) in December 2023. The contract has a two-year term and a total value of R$ 603.517,33. As of the last report in December, the 41 Guajajara families participating in the contract had supplied R$ 263.267,27 worth of various foodstuffs, such as free-range chickens, fish, pumpkin, cassava, corn, sorrel, bananas, lemons, gherkins, and watermelon, which were delivered to four schools within the Rio Pindaré Indigenous Territory.
These families were able to access the PAA (Food Acquisition Program) and saw an increase of R$ 6,4 in their income (on average) during the project's one year, to deliver fresh and healthy food to the schools where their sons and daughters study. For now, the food is delivered... in naturaHowever, there is also an ambition to supply processed products, such as cassava flour and starch, and açaí pulp.
Regarding the quality of these foods, Márcio Menezes explained that the absence of sanitary requirements does not represent negligence. Technical Note 01/2017 recommends waiving sanitary registration for the acquisition of protein and processed vegetable products, originating from the communities or villages themselves, in public procurement. "But the quality of these foods upon delivery needs to be certified by the school's nutritionist, who can perfectly verify if the food is in suitable condition for consumption.""The Technical Note also restricts this commercialization to short distances: the food must be produced and consumed within the territory itself," he explains. A challenge, therefore, is to expand access for indigenous communities to programs such as the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) or the National School Feeding Program (PNAE).
And, unlike what happens in the Rio Pindaré Indigenous Territory, some indigenous communities are unable to produce food and live off handicrafts, as Maria Lídia Tupinambá pointed out. "How am I supposed to plant in a territory that doesn't have land to plant in? That doesn't even have anywhere to hunt? They just created a territory, put a community there, and it lives off handicrafts. That community there doesn't have adequate food."
The mission of Catrapovos Maranhão is now to disseminate the possibility of self-consumption in the school spaces of indigenous, quilombola, and traditional communities. The first meeting of the Maranhão commission will be in the second half of January 2025.
Environment
Beyond income generation and health, access to public policies, such as self-sufficiency in school meals, values and strengthens ancestral and traditional knowledge and ways of life. This has repercussions for the whole of society.
This remaining forest is divided into isolated blocks located within the Indigenous Territories of Alto Turiaçu, Awá, Caru, Araribóia, Governador, Krikati, and also in the Rio Pindaré Indigenous Territory in Bom Jardim, where the 43 Indigenous families contracted under the PAA (Food Acquisition Program) live. They help preserve the forest and the waters.
For indigenous people, rivers, forests, and all of nature are much more than just a source of survival. A lesson that non-indigenous people need to learn.
ISPN Communications Office / Cássio Bezerra