Brazil's Fight for Food Security at Jeopardy

Brazil's fight for food security has taken a hit with new data revealing that the country has failed to produce nutritious food and implement a strong agricultural sector.

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According to data from the Perseu Abramo Foundation, Brazil's efforts to tackle hunger have seen dramatic setbacks under the presidency of Michel Temer.

Over the past two decades, Brazil had made significant gains in improving food security for the country's most vulnerable. The report attributed this to increases in the minimum wage and improved education.

Other factors mentioned included:

— The approval of the Dietary and Nutritional Organic Law in 2006

— The 2009 Constitutional amendment which included a paragraph guaranteeing the right to food

— A series of intersectional policies unifying food production and consumption including the Food Acquisition for Family Agriculture Program and National School Alimentation Program

— Cistern programs for human consumption in semi-arid regions and regions that have suffered severe droughts in Brazil's northeast

— Public health campaigns to promote healthy eating

But the growing influence of the agribusiness lobby in Brazilian politics has eroded these gains, the report found. The effects of Temer's austerity measures and proposed pension reforms have also reduced marginalized community's access to food security.

According to the report, these setbacks ignore the rights of traditional communities in Indigenous territories and quilombos.