Legislação, Política Pública e Suicídio: A Influência do Estado Sobre Vida e Morte de Agricultores Familiares

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze the influence of the State in the construction of suicide as a social problem in rural areas through Legislation and Public Policy. In this regard, the cases of family farming in China, France and Brazil have been considered. The present study, of qualitative nature, was conducted within a multiple case study design, sampled by geographic means. The data were collected through bibliographic and documentary research and analyzed by content analysis methodology. The nation-states are entrusted with responsibility for socio-economic security and for the preservation of life, however, the Agricultural Modernization Policy, from the mid-twentieth century onwards, have been contributing to the occurrence of rural suicides in Brazil, China and France, due to the labor transformations in the agricultural systems with the use of the external inputs. When this negative contribution become noticed, in the middle of 1990, in the cases of Brazil and China, the State elaborates a series of Legislation and Public Policies with the aim of reducing health issues, mainly related to pesticides. Nevertheless, in France, the context of another Public Policy, the Common Agricultural Policy, intensifies rural suicides due to the reduction of farmers’ autonomy. This shows that the existence, as well as the lack of state intervention, has contributed to the deconstruction of rural areas as “healthy” environments. Through the legal and political spheres, the State interferes, directly and indirectly, in both life and death of family farmers.

Keywords

• pesticides
• agroecology
• development
• common agricultural policy