From the end of lockdown to a commitment to life and food sovereignty
Francisco Hidalgo Flor [1]
In Ecuador, as in most countries in the region, the process of easing the state of emergency and quarantine measures implemented due to the Covid-19 pandemic is underway at the end of June. The government uses the illustrative image of a traffic light system: the de-escalation involves moving from high-risk areas (red) to areas with control over the pandemic (yellow), and finally to areas with lower risk (green). Currently, most of the country is in the yellow zone.
At the time of writing this article, June 14, the official government report records a total of 46.500 confirmed cases and a total of 3.900 officially registered deaths, with a total of 135.000 Covid tests administered. Covid-19 infections and deaths are concentrated in urban centers: Guayaquil, Quito, and Manta-Portoviejo, which account for 60% of the reported cases. Regarding age ranges: 57% of cases are in people between 20 and 49 years old, and 23% are in the 50-64 age range (El Universo newspaper [2] ).
Initially, Ecuador was one of the countries with the highest incidence, but the spread of cases in Brazil, Peru, and Chile has placed it at an intermediate level compared to the rest of the region. Needless to say, the United States is currently the main epicenter of the virus's spread.
The easing of lockdown measures carries several risks, already pointed out by some analysts: it stems primarily from pressure to resume the dynamics of the productive and economic sectors rather than from acceptable health conditions. Health experts have noted the risks of a second wave of infections; that in this context, the poor and marginalized sectors of large cities could be more vulnerable, and that the virus could spread to rural areas, which currently have a relatively low number of cases.
In the Ecuadorian case, there is the added opportunistic factor that, in the name of responding to the crisis, neoliberal economic and political measures are being imposed—measures that were shelved after the indigenous-popular uprising of October. The response to the health crisis has been an expansion of labor flexibility, a shrinking of the state, layoffs in public and private companies, and privatizations.
It turns out that in the name of the so-called "new normal" it is actually the return of the same normal, but with a greater burden on the shoulders of the working classes.
In this context, this article focuses on analyzing the situation of food problems in this new phase of de-confinement.
Between March and June, the health crisis and state of emergency, with the total closure of borders, put national food production, which is mostly sustained by peasant and family farms, at the center of attention.
As rarely before, he made it clear that the crucial relationship between reproduction of life and agriculture oriented towards feeding human beings cannot be reduced to the economistic reading of "production for the national market".
Its significance goes beyond simply acknowledging that it "serves the national market"; it is truly a pillar of the reproduction of life for the entire population, especially the majority sectors. And it's not just about "satisfying domestic demand," which is measured quantitatively, but rather its persistence and potential challenge the prevailing production model and highlight the benefits of pollution-free production.
The time has come for the elites who develop and implement public policies to recognize the fundamental role that peasant and family farming plays in the present day.
The Ecuadorian experience shows a positive capacity to supply food to most of the population, without requiring imports, during the state of emergency and border closures.
Furthermore, official spokespeople [3] have stated an improved situation for products such as rice, citrus fruits, vegetables, bananas, dairy products, and eggs, as well as increased self-sufficiency in rural areas. However, it should be noted that some urban-marginal sectors suffered from food shortages, primarily due to structural issues of poor distribution and inadequate state support for food marketing in low-income neighborhoods.
It would be very difficult for peasant and family farming to be relegated to the margins of national visibility and government attention in the design of strategies for a country with human well-being, under the so-called "new normal".
The health emergency and the global lockdown also called into question the economic and neoliberal paradigm of "comparative advantages" in agriculture to determine which farming methods are promoted as a national strategy.
The supposed “comparative advantages” of “tropical countries” has been the argument used to impose an irrational distribution of production worldwide, which leaves the concern for good human nutrition on the margins and places at the center the profit motives of large agro-export companies around bananas, oil palm, shrimp, and flowers.
It is now clear that this preeminence of agro-exports makes national development fragile, with an underutilized agricultural and aquaculture sector in the face of the priority of feeding the national population and, with it, the reproduction of life in the countryside and the city.
It is necessary for social organizations and the State to learn lessons from the situation experienced, which is more comprehensive than that dictated by the erroneous paradigms of comparative advantages and "insertion" in so-called globalization.
The threats generated by the health crisis, the environmental crisis, and the evidence of inequality demand a different kind of agriculture and a different kind of food.
Conditions have been created to shift understandings about food and agriculture; today, new horizons are opening up to position paradigms such as food sovereignty and a horizon of change oriented towards good living – sumak kawsay.
Food assistance during the national emergency
In our analysis, we argue that the primary reason a food crisis has not erupted during the pandemic, lockdowns, and state of emergency lies in the existing network of small-scale, family-run food production. We posit that, secondly, there are the food assistance programs implemented by the government and private conglomerates, but it is also important to highlight alternative initiatives and efforts generated outside of established power structures.
Regarding food assistance, both state monetary subsidies and specific food provision programs should be listed. In the area of assistance from private conglomerates, initiatives combining support for healthcare facilities and health centers with food provision should be listed.
We can group food assistance initiatives as follows, indicating their source:
- Assistance from national state entities
- Assistance from local and provincial governments
- Assistance from large private chains
- Donations from private banks and businesses
- Entities linked to churches
- Alternative initiatives from NGOs and peasant organizations
- Urban-rural agroecological ventures.
The national government initially implemented two policies to address the food situation; firstly, an economic bonus for families living in poverty and extreme poverty; and secondly, the food kit program “ Giving a hand without shaking hands ”, basically in agreements with the agro-industry, and at the present time it is implementing the “ Solidarity Basket ” and “ Agrotienda Ecuador ” programs [4]
Another source of food assistance around the state came from provincial and municipal governments. In several cases, there was a more direct relationship with family farmers and peasants; among other experiences, the following can be noted: the municipality of Quito had the “ Quito Solidario ” program, as did the provincial governments, for example, the Imbabura prefecture with the “ Ayuda a un abuelito ” program, and the Azuay prefecture with the “ Canasta Popular ” program.
Large private conglomerates, with their interconnected networks of banks, agribusiness, and supermarkets, seized the opportunity to gain visibility, but their regional networks were also on full display. On one hand, there were those based in Guayaquil, led by former mayor Jaime Nebot, forming and operating through the " Private Emergency Committee ," and on the other hand, those based in Quito, led by former mayor Roque Sevilla, forming and operating through the " Fund for All ." The banking groups were also prominent: both the front led by Banco Pichincha-Diners and the front led by Banco de Guayaquil.
We have indicated that not everything was the State and private corporations. Other initiatives that emerged from the grassroots and from social organizations stood out. Let us mention some of them, such as, for example, the Solidarity Peasant Brigades for Food Sovereignty, in which the Federation of Peasant Organizations and the Conference on Food Sovereignty participated [5] , the Pichincha Agroecological Fair Network, which brings together several agroecological collectives, as well as the initiatives of various non-governmental organizations of the “Urban-Rural Link in Times of Pandemic” and alternative communication efforts, via social networks, to place the peasant economy in the debate during times of health crisis [6].
Final note: Emergency in the Amazon
At the time of writing this article, information is coming in from both indigenous organizations and government sources that in recent weeks cases of Covid-19 infection have spread in the Amazon region [7] and are especially serious in indigenous communities [8] , with the aggravating factor that in that region the public health system is quite weak.
[1] Professor of Agrarian Sociology at the Central University of Ecuador. Member of the CLACSO Working Group: “Critical Studies of Rural Development”.
[2] Accessed at: https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/06/14/nota/7872402/casos-coronavirus-ecuador-domingo-14-junio-46-751-confirmados-3896
[3] Consulted in the newspaper El Comercio, see: https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/emergencia-incidio-precios-productos-ecuador.html
[4] "Agrotienda Ecuador"It links the state and peasant producers. See:" https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/entrega-canastas-agropecuarias-emergencia-covid19.html#cxrecs_s
[5] By uniting rural and urban areas, we will overcome this crisis. See: https://rebelion.org/con-la-union-del-campo-y-de-la-ciudad-saldremos-de-la-crisis/
[6] Regarding alternative initiatives from NGOs and the promotion of an alternative debate, see Earth Monitoring: https://www.monitoreodelatierra.com/single-post/2020/06/17/Acciones-emprendidas-por-los-miembros-de-la-Estrategia-Nacional-de-Involucramiento-Ecuador-%E2%80%93-ENI-a-prop%C3%B3sito-de-la-Pandemia-por-COVID-19-y-el-sector-rural
[7] Increase in infected population in the Amazon. See https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/aumento-contagios-amazonia-covid19-ecuador.html
[8] CONAIE statement on the situation of indigenous peoples in the Amazon. See https://conaie.org/2020/06/18/covid19/
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