ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by discussing the struggle of smallholders for recognition and redistribution, which led to the emergence of the “family farming” category as a subject of rights in the Brazilian countryside. It analyzes the political construction of civic markets by the agroecological social movements and, based on this and illustrates with the case of Ecovida Agroecology Network in creating markets and participatory certification processes. The chapter proposes a discussion on the construction of new conventions of quality within food markets, emphasizing the notions of “healthy food” and “real food.” The ethical criticism against the model of capitalist accumulation in agriculture that prevailed in the second half of the twentieth century emphasized the social exclusion. While criticism from agrarian social movements has privileged the problem of inequality in access to resources, that from agroecological movements has always been more radical in questioning the institutional foundations of the industrial order. State actors play a relevant role in structuring this food order.
