33 million people are currently hungry in Brazil, according to research

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The year 2022 marks the return of food security in Brazil to the same level of hunger as almost 30 years ago.

Currently, 33 million people are hungry in the country, according to the result of a new survey on the subject released this Wednesday (8). In 1993, there were 32 million people in this situation, according to similar data from IPEA (Institute of Applied Economic Research) — the Brazilian population was then 35% smaller than today.

That year, sociologist Herbert de Souza, known as Betinho, launched the Citizenship Action Against Hunger, Misery and for Life, the first major national civil society campaign on the subject.

“We literally went back 30 years in the fight against hunger, which scares us a lot”, says the current executive director of Ação da Cidadania, Kiko Afonso. “But the feeling of indignation of Brazilian society today in face of the hunger of 33 million Brazilians is far below the indignation of 1993, in face of the hunger of 32 million. We are inert as a society.”

The survey released this Wednesday, called the 2nd National Survey on Food Insecurity in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Brazil, was carried out by the Penssan Network (Brazilian Network for Research in Food and Nutrition Sovereignty and Security) and carried out by the Vox Populi Institute. The margin of error is plus or minus 0.9 percentage points.

The survey showed that 6 out of 10 Brazilians live with some degree of food insecurity. There are 125.2 million people in this situation, which represents an increase of 7.2% since 2020 and 60% compared to 2018.

“There is nothing more priority in Brazil than fighting hunger, regardless of ideology”, evaluates Afonso. “Without food, a person cannot look for a job, study or leave the house. And he has to humiliate himself to survive.”

According to the survey, in 2022, 1 in 3 Brazilians have already done something that caused them shame, sadness or embarrassment to get food.

These new indicators of food security indicate that 41% of the population has stable access to food in adequate quantity and quality, a rate that is higher among whites (53.2%) and lower among blacks and browns (35%).

At the other extreme, the average of hungry Brazilians is 15%. Those who live in the North (25.7%) and Northeast (21%), in the rural area (18.6%), and in households headed by women (19.3%) or by black and white people surpass this mark. mixed race (18.1%).

“We have historical inequalities in the country that have never been resolved: rural and urban, men and women, whites and blacks. And these inequalities are reproduced in the issue of hunger”, explains public health doctor Ana Maria Segall, retired professor at Unicamp and researcher at the Rede think

“It is as if 41% of the population were protected from the economic and political crises that had already been dragging on in recent years and also from the impact of the Covid pandemic from 2020 onwards”, analyzes Segall.

“On the other hand, almost 60% of Brazilians live in a situation of instability that is greatly affected by both the crisis and the pandemic, which has already caught this population in an unfavorable condition.”

Food security is the situation in which there is full and stable access to food of adequate quality and quantity.

Insecurity is divided into three categories: mild (when the fear of lack of food leads the family to restrict the quality of food), moderate (without quality, there is insufficient food for everyone) and severe (when no one accesses food in quantity enough and you go hungry).

The doctor points out that between 2004 and 2013 there was a “very significant” increase in families’ access to food.

“After 2013, you have a precipice, and the collapse of food security occurs very quickly. There was a rapid and very expressive worsening of access to food that continues to this day and is worse among groups that already lived in some level of insecurity food”, says she, who was part of the Food and Nutrition Security Council (Consea), which was extinguished by the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

In 2018, 5.8% of Brazilians were hungry. In 2020, this share rose to 9% and, in 2022, it reached 15.5%.

This means that, within a year, 14 million Brazilians began to live with hunger in their homes.

For Francisco Menezes, consultant for the international NGO ActionAid and former president of Consea (2004-2007), three of the main causes of the increase in hunger in the country are the impoverishment of the population, the dismantling of social and supply policies, and the climate crisis. .

“We had a very strong rise in unemployment and a process of precariousness of work with the growth of informality. Added to the loss of income, food inflation, which since 2020 has not cooled down, and affects basic items such as rice, beans and olive oil. soybeans, as well as gas and fuel”, he points out, for whom a policy of food stocks, abandoned by the government, is crucial at an unfavorable moment.

He criticizes the model of access to income transfer benefits, which requires access to the internet and a computer or cell phone. “Extreme poverty and application don’t go together.”

The 2nd National Survey on Food Security points out that the highest percentage of people in serious insecurity or hunger were among those who requested but did not receive emergency aid approved by Congress for the first year of the pandemic (63%), followed by the group of those who did not even get it. request the benefit (48.5%).

The survey shows that there is hunger in 13.5% of households in which only adults live, while among households with three or more children or young people up to 18 years of age the percentage rises to 25.7%.

The data is especially worrying because it points to future damage. Studies suggest that the impact of hunger among children and adolescents has immediate deleterious effects on health and well-being, potentially compromising the potential of these individuals.

This is what most affects Suelen Medeiros, 29, who lives with her four children on the southern outskirts of the city of São Paulo. Unemployed and without receiving alimony from the father of her children, she says that she goes days without eating to favor the meals of her children, who are between 2 and 12 years old.

“I can stand being hungry, they can’t”, he laments. “But I’m so anxious about the children that I’m even hungry”, says she, who receives a basic donation basket every month, but it’s not always enough. “It’s very difficult. Every time my children don’t have enough to eat, my world collapses. Not being able to give them even a loaf of bread in the morning kills me”, she says. “I can’t wait to get a job.”

The Penssan Network survey was based on interviews carried out in 12,745 households in urban and rural areas in 577 municipalities in 26 states and the Federal District. It is a partnership between the organizations Ação da Cidadania, ActionAid Brasil, Fundação Friedrich Ebert Brasil, Ibirapitanga, Oxfam Brasil and Sesc.

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