Real increases in the minimum wage, school meals, Bolsa Família and family farming are all absent from the document. A national survey estimated that 33 million Brazilians went hungry in 2022, during Jair Bolsonaro’s administration
No policy of real increases in the minimum wage. No Food Procurement Program (PAA), school meals, water cisterns in Brazil’s Semiarid region, or family farming. The government platform of far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, ignores Brazil’s main policies for promoting food and nutrition security. Across its 76 pages, the document also makes no mention of Bolsa Família, a policy directly tied to the fight against hunger.
The platform uses the phrase “food security” three times, always in connection with agricultural production. It never mentions “food and nutrition security,” a formulation incorporated into Brazilian law in 2006. The difference is not merely terminological: the concept built in Brazil goes beyond the supply of calories and includes regular, permanent access to adequate and healthy food, without compromising access to other essential needs. The word “hunger” does not appear once.
In one of these mentions, the platform states: “Brazilian agribusiness is the guarantee of our food security: it feeds the country and much of the world.” The claim is misleading on two counts. First, family farming accounts for a significant share of Brazil’s domestic food supply. Second, Brazilian agribusiness does not “feed the world”: the sector’s claim that the country provides food for one billion people is based on a false calculation.
Family farming, for its part, is one of the plan’s major omissions. There is no mention of the National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (Pronaf), essential to thousands of families and the subject of ongoing debate among civil society organizations over how to improve it. Agroecology, central to discussions about transitioning to healthy and sustainable food systems, is also absent from the document.
Cisterns in the Semiarid region were also left out. The construction of one million water-storage structures to mitigate the effects of drought is cited by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as one of the central elements behind Brazil’s first exit from the Hunger Map, in 2014. During Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, the budget for this policy fell by more than 90%, and only 90,000 cisterns were delivered.
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Context matters
The weakening of Brazil’s food security policy did not begin with Jair Bolsonaro. The economic crisis, austerity measures, and the loss of institutional capacity had already been reversing progresssince the mid-2010s. His administration, however, accelerated the process.
One of Jair Bolsonaro’s first acts, on January 1, 2019, was to abolish the National Council for Food and Nutrition Security (Consea), a council that advised the president directly. Made up mostly of civil society representatives and required by law to be chaired by a civil society representative, the council was responsible for formulating some of Brazil’s main food and nutrition policies.
In the years that followed, the Bolsonaro administration dismantled important policies for guaranteeing food and nutrition security. It even zeroed out the budget of the Food Procurement Program (PAA), which buys directly from smallholder farmers and distributes the products to the most vulnerable populations. It also froze federal funding for the National School Feeding Program. At the beginning of Lula’s third term, the program had accumulated a 42% loss in purchasing power.
This does not mean cash transfers were interrupted. During the pandemic, Congress raised the value of Auxílio Emergencial (Emergency Aid) from the R$200 initially proposed by the economic team to R$600; the benefit reached tens of millions of people and averted an even deeper crisis. In 2021, Bolsa Família was replaced by Auxílio Brasil. in the 2022 election year, the benefit, which had already been raised to R$400, increased to R$600.
Even so, hunger increased. Cash transfers, while indispensable, could not substitute for a coordinated policy that included school meals, public procurement, support for family farming, and social participation. The pandemic, job losses, school closures, and the global surge in food and fertilizer prices made the situation worse.
In 2022, more than half of the Brazilian population was experiencing some degree of food insecurity, according to a survey by the Brazilian Research Network on Food Sovereignty and Food and Nutrition Security (Rede Penssan). The survey estimated that 33 million people — about one in six — were going hungry. This national indicator is not the same one used by the FAO in the Hunger Map, which measures the prevalence of undernourishment. Over the 2023–2025 period, already under the Lula administration, Brazil again fell below the 2.5% threshold used by FAO, keeping the country off the Hunger Map.
Fertilizers, meanwhile, are mentioned a few times in Flávio Bolsonaro’s platform. “Food security also means not depending on other countries to produce. Brazil imports most of the fertilizer it uses, and that dependency weakens producers and drives up food prices. We will support domestic fertilizer production, making use of the country’s mineral reserves, such as potash and phosphate.”
In Brazil, however, fertilizer consumption is heavily concentrated in large-scale crops such as soybeans and corn, much of which is destined for export, animal feed, and biofuel production. Most of the soybean crop is shipped to China, while only 1% to 2% of corn is used directly for human consumption.
In the brief chapter dedicated to food, the platform acknowledges that prices limit the population’s access to food. When it comes to proposing solutions, however, it does not engage with the policies championed by civil society organizations. Flávio Bolsonaro states that “a significant part of the explanation lies in the path between the field and the shelf” and proposes creating smart logistics corridors, without explaining how such structures would work.
There is no mention whatsoever of incentives for producing foods central to the Brazilian diet. Financing, land reform, technical assistance, and policies to keep young people in rural areas are also absent. The concrete problems faced by family farmers are not addressed by the platform.
Also left out is the policy of real minimum wage valorization, recognized as a central element in promoting food and nutrition security. During an August 28 interview with Jornal Nacional, Brazil’s leading prime-time newscast, Flávio Bolsonaro was asked whether he would maintain the policy. He responded only that he did not intend to “cut costs” at the expense of minimum-wage earners, without making any firm commitment. His father revoked the valorization policy during his presidency.
The platform also makes no mention of Bolsa Família. Jair Bolsonaro had once called the program a “lie” and a “handout” before replacing it with Auxílio Brasil. The law that recreated Bolsa Família, passed during Lula’s third term, sets out three central objectives: fighting hunger through direct cash transfers; helping break the intergenerational cycle of poverty; and promoting family development and social protection.
Out of step
Flávio Bolsonaro’s platform is out of step with the proposals put forward by civil society organizations. The Alliance for Adequate and Healthy Food, a coalition made up of dozens of organizations, published a letter last week titled “The Future of Food in Brazil.”
The document emphasizes the connection between climate change and food, and calls for a transition to healthy and sustainable food systems, with the restructuring of the different stages of production and consumption. It also addresses land reform, access to water, protection of biomes, and strengthening family farming.
None of these issues appear in Flávio Bolsonaro’s platform. During the interview with Jornal Nacional, the candidate rejected the phrase “climate change.” He said he believed in the existence of “extreme events,” but stated they were not caused “exclusively” by human action — without explaining what the other causes might be.
The Alliance also advocates for policies promoting adequate and healthy food, such as the adoption of specific labeling requirements for ultra-processed products. The topic does not appear in the platform. Flávio Bolsonaro makes no commitment to maintaining the restriction on using federal school-meal funds to purchase ultra-processed products. Nor does he acknowledge the priority given to family farmers and members of traditional peoples and communities in public procurement.
Flávio Bolsonaro also opposes the bill seeking to protect the school food environment. During a debate in a Senate committee, he stated that the decision about what children eat is up to parents, even though public schools are state-regulated spaces responsible for providing meals.
The candidate also voted against the tax reform and has advocated repealing some of the provisions recently approved by Congress. One of the central points of the reform is the creation of an excise tax, known in Brazil as the Selective Tax, on products harmful to health, such as alcoholic beverages and soft drinks.
