Rich soil: the (re)existences of cultural identities of agroecological farmers in Verê, Paraná

Abstract

Agriculture has undergone structural changes, modifying its production model, labor and social, environmental and cultural relations. In this sense, this article aims to understand how the cultural identities of agroecological farmers are constituted in their processes of (re)existence in the municipality of Verê, Paraná. As a methodology, we chose ethnography. Thus, to achieve the proposed objective, nine interviews were carried out on family rural properties that are part of the agroecological socio-environmental dynamics and present in the National Register of Organic Producers (CNPO). The municipality is located in the Southwest region of the state of Paraná, an area notable for agroecological issues. As a result, we can see that the farmers interviewed identify themselves in different ways, present diversifications in production and in ways of understanding their realities. However, it is possible to see that, through the insertion of Agroecology and its contributions, there is the beginning of the formation of a cultural identity, which presents characteristics that make the interviewed farmers a (re)existence in the face of the conventional mode of agricultural production. Therefore, it is possible to see a cultural identity formed around agroecological issues.

Keywords:
agroecology; cultural identity; peasant resistance; environmental sustainability; sustainable agriculture.