The hunger geopolitics: the commodities trap (1970-2021)

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the social issue of hunger as an essentially political phenomenon,. As a political phenomenon, we focus our analysis on the geopolitical factor of hunger determinations in two moments. The first, in the 1970s, when successive oil shocks occurred, the increase in the international price of food and these as a geopolitical weapon of world imperialism. Secondly, we analyze imperialism's struggle for control of oil in the Middle East, the increase in its price on the international market, the outbreak of the food crisis in the 2007-2008 biennium, the expansion of commodity production in Brazil and the impact of this on the production of essential foods. We point out the contradictory nature of the policy adopted by the PT, in which, on the one hand, it strengthened agribusiness, specialized production and exports, while at the same time, through a set of social policies, it removed the country from the map of UN famine. Demonstrating the deliberate character of hunger in the country, after the 2016 coup d'état, however, these social policies are quickly reversed, putting tens of millions of Brazilians back in a situation of hunger. We seek to argue that only an agrarian reform can guarantee secure foundations for the conquest of the much-desired food security and sovereignty.

Keywords: geopolitics – hunger – agribusiness