President Lula this Wednesday during an official ceremony at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia.ADRIANO MACHADO (Portal)
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 77 years old, often says that someone who has not been hungry cannot understand those who do not put anything in their mouths, the pain of mothers who have to put a child to bed on an empty stomach. It’s a reality that Brazil’s current president knew growing up in a small house on the outskirts of an inland town in Pernambuco. This Thursday in Terezina (Piauí), Lula presented his plan to end the hunger that affects 33 million of his compatriots, 16% of the population. The leader of the Labor Party is angry that his country, which, as he usually remembers as quickly as possible, was off the UN hunger map in 2014 and is an agricultural power, has so many hungry and malnourished people again.
“The problem is not the lack of food… it is that people don’t have money to buy food,” the president announced to a packed hall, reminding them: “Brazil is rich, it has a lot of land, it disposes of it about scientific knowledge.” Knowledge.” , is the third largest livestock producer in the world, the first animal protein producer…”. Lula has stressed that hunger will only end when all Brazilians work and have a salary. During the event he was supported by many of his pastors and his wife Janja.
When he first took power in 2003, Lula solemnly promised his compatriots, who were seeing a worker at the top of power for the first time, that he would work to ensure that everyone could eat three meals a day. Although this goal seemed within reach ten years ago, hunger is once again at the top of the to-do list for the Brazilian president, who held the office between 2003 and 2010.
The choice of Piauí is due to several factors: Lula presented the Fome Zero program there two decades ago, it is a sparsely populated state, but no other is as loyal to the Workers’ Party (76% voted for Lula there in the 2022 elections) and It is the political fiefdom of Social Development Minister Wellington Dias, whose department manages a large budget since, in addition to fighting hunger, it also includes the Bolsa Familia poverty alleviation program. A very juicy portfolio coveted by center-right parties and which Lula is drawing on to expand his meager parliamentary support base.
The new plan against hunger, with measures affecting 24 of the 37 ministries, is an updated version of the measures adopted by the PT governments. In addition to consolidating the Bolsa Familia (the amount of which Jair Bolsonaro dramatically increased during the pandemic to a level that Lula has maintained), the left-wing president has promised to raise the minimum wage annually, has increased food purchases from family farms and the… budget for the School snack that all students receive. During Bolsonaro’s time in office, funding for many of these measures was significantly reduced.
Among the innovations that this plan includes compared to the plans drawn up at the beginning of the century, two stand out: the incentive for food producers to work in an environmentally sustainable way and the creation of a national network of food banks (some of which already exist) . States) to combat waste.
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Minister Dias also announced that the government will invest 25 million reais ($5 million) to purchase food from small producers that will be distributed to a thousand soup kitchens in 25 of the 27 states.
After the other speakers’ contributions, Lula took to the microphone to give some insights into his childhood in Garanhuns. “I didn’t know about bread until I arrived in São Paulo. At my house, breakfast consisted of a broken coconut with cassava fariña and coffee. And that’s it.” Years passed, he said, “before I realized how important it is to eat calories and protein.”
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