FOOD SECURITY AND INSECURITY IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: DOCUMENTAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The situation, in Brazil and in the world, of food security and insecurity, understood here as a dimension that allows access to adequate nutrition and another that corresponds to hunger, are present in public policy discussions after the world wars of the 20th century. Efforts to include countries in the goals of the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations (UN), in particular Objective number 2

– Zero Hunger – demand small and large-scale actions, from the producer to the arrival of food on the people’s tables. With the COVID-19 Pandemic, the production, consumption, circulation and distribution of food became disorganized. The objective of this text is to understand, through qualitative, descriptive and document analysis, the dynamics carried out by governments and international organizations to guarantee the supply of food during the pandemic event. Two reports

and 39 communications published in digital media during the year 2020 were selected. A set of three focus themes was defined, which conducted the analysis: relationships between hunger and food and nutrition security; social distancing; socioeconomic and political management. It was concluded that the COVID-19 Pandemic, in particular the social distancing protocol, disrupted family and community routines and revealed chronic problems in basic sanitation, public health, among others. The official documents analyzed pointed to a worsening of the guarantee of food safety. Inequalities and vulnerability accentuated, in particular, by the lack of public policies for health, education and proper food.