President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) signed, this Tuesday (28), the decree that reinstalls the National Council for Food and Nutritional Security (Consea), in a ceremony at the Planalto Palace, in Brasília. The event was attended by ministers, authorities and representatives of civil society, who celebrated the return of the body, an important institutional space for participation and social control in public policies on food and nutrition security.
Consea was created in 1993 by President Itamar Franco and revoked two years later, being replaced by the Comunidade Solidária program under Fernando Henrique Cardoso. In 2003, Lula reestablished the body and began a period of intense social participation in the construction of policies in the area of food security. In 2019, Jair Bolsonaro deactivated Consea in one of his first official acts, an act considered one of those responsible for returning Brazil to the Hunger Map.
“In fact, they never managed to put an end to Consea. They dismantled the legal structure that existed, but many people who participated in Consea, throughout Brazil, continued fighting, continued organizing and continued trying to fight hunger in these four corners of Brazil” , declared President Lula during his speech when talking about the extinction of the Council.
Read too: ‘Consea is back!’: movements distribute food in dozens of cities in ‘banquets’
“I still dream that hunger has to be ended in the world. (…) And fighting hunger is a very serious thing. (…) Our fight is tireless. And we have to recover the right of these people, not just to eat three times a day, but for people to walk with their heads held high, for people to be proud of being Brazilian, of having a decent job and a decent school”, concluded Lula.
rewind
The country’s return to the Hunger Map is one of the most drastic consequences of the dismantling of policies promoted in the last four years in this area. According to a survey by the Brazilian Research Network on Food and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security, in 2022, 33.1 million Brazilians did not have their basic food needs met, and six out of ten Brazilians (58.7% of the population) lived with some degree of of food insecurity.
With the reinstallation of Consea, a change in this scenario is expected, since the body is an important instrument of social participation and social control in the construction and implementation of public policies for food and nutritional security. The president of Consea, Elisabetta Recine, and the councilors who made up the council when it was deactivated, in January 2019, were reinstated at the event and have already started work to reverse the situation of hunger in Brazil.
Thrilled, the president of Consea recalled the time of the institution’s extinction. “When, on January 1, 2019, Consea was extinguished, we took to the streets, we went inside the National Congress, we achieved a first victory, but not the overthrow of the then president’s veto, but between this apparent defeat and what we have experienced since then, there is a lot of history to be told”, he declared.
“The reinstallation of Consea is a very strong symbol. The first act of the previous president, when he took office, was to dismiss Consea. And the first act of President Lula when he took office here, in this Palace, was to determine that we restore and reinstall Consea. Consea is back”, celebrated Márcio Macêdo, Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency.
celebration and fight
Members of popular movements took to the streets, last Monday (27), to distribute meals and food in nature to celebrate the return of Consea. Organized by the Banquetaço collective, the action was held in dozens of cities across the country. The Instagram profile @coletivobanquetaco followed the demonstrations throughout the day.
The city of Dourados in Mato Grosso had a ‘banquetaço’ for breakfast / Reproduction/Instagram
Editing: Thalita Pires
