Syndicalism, family farming and environmentalism: the construction of the environmental agenda in rural syndicalism in southern Brazil

Abstract

Environmental concerns have influenced the construction of political projects and agendas of organizations of family farmers. The aim of this paper is to analyze how these concerns were assimilated by the Federation of Workers in Family Farming in the South (South-FETRAF) in Southern Brazil. Based on archival research and interviews with leaders of farmers became a reading on the process of building the environmental agenda in syndicalism. Since the mid-1980s the environmental issue has been causing concern in this syndicate, however, how it was understood changed over the years. If at first tended to be associated with the negative consequences of modernization of agriculture, the most recent period has been placed the environmental issue in the center of the farming project is to promote syndicalism and a possible model to produce positive turning point in family farming.