ABSTRACT
Within sociology of agriculture, one of the main interpretations of the emergence of an industrial order in agriculture was presented by Goodman, Sorj and Wilkinson. The Sistema Nacional de Credito Rural constituted the main support for modernization of Brazilian agriculture, playing a decisive role in the technical transformation of farms, in enhancing the sector’s productivity, consolidating agroindustrial facilities and agrifood chains, and integrating agrarian capital into the sphere of financial capital. Changes in consumption patterns and practices have been both effect and cause of transformations not only of agricultural production and agro-industrial processing, but also of strategies implemented by the distribution, retail and catering sectors. Farmers’ capacity of technological absorption is also very uneven, varying mainly according to activity, availability of resources and size of the agricultural area. Associated with changes in production and processing, important modifications have also been triggered in food consumption practices.
