Procesamiento de lenguaje natural (PNL)

4.3.2 Liberal production paradigms

The ideological movement towards market opening and free trade during the later decades of the 20th century has been accompanied by a change in paradigm, related to the perception of the essential purpose of agriculture. The post-war period was marked by a productivist paradigm, which was centered upon the provision of food for domestic consumption in a protected and subsidized production environment. From the

5 Interview with public official from CAMEX, Brasilia, May 18, 2017.

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1980s, the productivist paradigm in both developing and developed countries began to fade under a range of both domestic and international pressures (ALMÅS &

CAMPBELL 2012 (1), p.3). It came to make way for a range of successor paradigms, which to some measure overlap, but also reflect the fragmented array of policy perceptions related to the role and development of contemporary agriculture. Yet, though different paradigmatic visions and their related productive models have surged in the wake of the post-war productivism, a fundamental market-orientation has constituted a basic conditioning circumstance, to which they have had to adapt.

Coleman et al. (1996) direct attention towards the conjunction of limited fiscal room of maneuver, combined with the obligations imposed by international institutions, as essential factors which have spurred an erosion of the state-assisted agricultural paradigm (COLEMAN et al. 1996, p.297). Substituting this, Coleman (1998) points to the surge of a "market liberal vision" which entails that producers respond strictly to the laws of supply and demand, and become self reliant on basis of their ability to compete within agricultural markets. This transition is described as a change away from the image of the farmer which produces food for the nation, towards an image which projects the farmer as an entrepreneur, and the farm as an enterprise within the global economy (Ibid 1998, p. 643). Coleman thus characterizes the central tenets of what is described as a "market liberal paradigm" as, 1) the rejection of the perception of the exceptionality of the agricultural sector and any entitlements to preferential treatment, 2) that competitive markets, guided only by supply and demand, form the sole basis for the agricultural sector´s economic reproduction, 3) that only producers competitive in free market should remain in business, and 4) that each producer should seek his own risk mitigation through private insurance mechanisms (Ibid, p.275-276).

The central aspects of market liberalism thereby constitute a range of discursive imperatives which have had repercussions within the different dominant paradigms of the contemporary political economy of agriculture. Yet, this does not mean that they have come to entirely determine these paradigms, but rather that these liberal prescriptions have been so central to the predominant ideational framework of global agriculture, that they have attained an at least partially irrefutable position.

The somewhat fragmented array of contemporary production paradigms which have surged within global agriculture due to the demise of the post-war productivism, has been conceptualized by Burton & Wilson (2012). These are expressed as 1) repositioned productivism, which constitutes an adoption of a productivist model to a

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multifunctional system (as is seen in the EU) 2) market productivism, which is based upon a corporate production model and underpinned by neoliberal ideas, 3) competitive productivism, that constitutes a system in which a market-oriented development is actively supported by the state, though without direct intervention in production activities or market mechanisms, 4) cooperate productivism, through which a neoliberal development path is pursued in close cooperation between the state and farmers organizations, on the initiative of both (BURTON & WILSON 2012, p. 67). These paradigms become very interesting to analyze with regards to their possible transmission from the global level, towards their reappearance and adaption within the Brazilian rural context.

The general neoliberal turn of Brazilian agriculture has been treated in previous parts, and Coleman´s above mentioned outlining of the four central aspects of the market liberal paradigm also appear to have been strongly characteristic of this transformation. Yet, Burton and Wilson´s conceptualizations of central paradigms within global agriculture of recent decades holds the potential to conduct an evaluation of the more particular manifestations of different contemporary productivist paradigms within Brazilian agriculture.

Strong representations of a 'market productivist' paradigm become evident through the surge of a corporate production model within Brazilian agriculture, which has been embedded in a neoliberal discourse of production efficiency and growth. The tendency to associate development with technological progress and the increasing embracement and emphasis upon the notions of agro-industrial complex and production chains throughout the 1990s (MENDONÇA 2015, p.392) are strong indications of the rootedness of ideas in line with the market productivist paradigm in agrarian Brazil, in this period. Yet, the active role of the Brazilian state in spurring this agricultural transformation should not be neglected. The favorable edge towards commercial agriculture of the reform during this period, as well as the increasing focus upon competitive international insertion, are strongly reminiscent of the "competitive productivist" paradigm. In line with this orientation, the state also avoided extensive direct participation and intervention in agricultural markets, but rather rearranged the general framework of agricultural policies, so as to favor large-scale export oriented producers. Finally, the initiative of farmers organizations and particularly their sectorial and cross-sector mobilization, has also been highly significant. This both with regards to domestic regulation, which impacted upon expansion of exports, such as the Lei

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Kandir, but also with respect to rural organizations´ early direct engagement in relation to international commercial negotiations, which is indicative of the "corporate productivist" paradigm. So, although the transformations within Brazilian agriculture may not be related to one specific paradigm as these have been conceptualized by Burton & Wilson (2012), they carry a range of traits from them. This is highly concurrent with the image of food system transformation in Brazil as it is drawn up by Niederle (2017), who stresses the heterogeneity and overlapping nature of the social ordering within Brazilian agriculture. Modes of production with roots in different historical contexts thereby overlap, and coexist within the same historical reality. Yet, in spite of their differences of nuance, the ideas which made roots within Brazilian commercial agriculture from the 1980-1990s largely share a common neoliberal foundation, which connects them to the dominant paradigms of the global food system at the time.