Hunger, social classes and the city

According to official figures, between 2004 and 2009 there was a reduction in the number of people facing food insecurity in Brazil: from 72 million (approximately 40% of the population) to 65.5 million (approximately 35% of the population). This reduction is directly related to income redistribution policies implemented during this period. However, it is necessary to question whether these advances have not been shy in the face of very real possibilities that puts our time and what are the guarantees of continuity of these advances for the population living dramatically different processes related to the deterioration of power in the country. To address these questions we must consider that the finding of the existence of hunger is not enough: it is necessary to understand what explains this phenomenon.

We understand that geography can contribute in the construction of an understanding the phenomenon of hunger. This work is based on the contributions from the Brazilian geographer Josué de Castro, whose work deals with the drama of hunger in Brazil and the world between the 1940s and 1970s. His conceptualization of the phenomenon of hunger, as well as the way he explains this phenomenon considering the relationship between man and the environment, open important perspectives for the understanding of hunger.

Then we try to understand the phenomenon of hunger nowadays: this approach seeks to make a critique of current income redistribution policies through the study of nutrition of the urban working class. Our hypothesis is that it is not possible to understand and overcome hunger without considering at the same time the division of labor and the spatial differences in access to urban.