Redes alimentares alternativas na metrópole de São Paulo: movimentos de proximidade entre agricultores e consumidores em tempos de pandemia

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a significant growth of initiatives in alternative agroecological food networks, generating new production-distribution-consumption relationships. With the Covid-19 pandemic, the urgency of transforming food systems in favor of more sustainable practices in agriculture became evident. This research aims to understand if the pandemic caused qualitative changes in the proximity relationship and in the shared values between farmers and consumers in organic food networks in the city of São Paulo. The investigation was conducted from a literature review and field research, which included semi-structured interviews with farmers from an organic cooperative and structured questionnaires with two consumer networks. The commercialization of organic food was impacted occasionally in the most critical months of Covid-19, however, this period brought innovations in the ways of selling production and being in contact with consumers. It can be seen that, if, on the one hand, the pandemic limited physical proximity in alternative food networks, on the other hand, it generated greater awareness of the importance of healthy food, and its interrelation with agroecology and human, animal and environmental health.