Organic agriculture brings quality of life to producers

By Maria Luiza De Grandi, journalist of Ciência Rural, Santa Maria, RS, Brazil and Larissa Maas, Professor, Instituto Federal Catarinense (IFC). Rio do Sul, Santa Catarina, Brazil

When producing food and other products without the use of chemicals, organic agriculture generates food free of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, pesticides, among others. Another characteristic of organic agriculture is the expansion of sustainability, with crop rotation and the use of residues from the property itself as fertilizer. It has been proven that farmers’ health is threatened by the indiscriminate use of toxic agrochemicals and pesticides that (BOMBARDI, 2019; NASRALA NETO et al., 2014; RATTNER, 2009), from that, researchers from the Instituto Federal Catarinense (IFC) and Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) produced a the study “Work in organic farming: an overview”, published in the Ciência Rural (vol. 50, no. 4), in order to find evidence to prove the improvement in the health and work conditions of farmers working with organic agriculture.

Image: Larissa Maas, 2020.

For the development of the research, the ProKnow-C instrument was used to select and evaluate the publications found in this theme. Studies related to topics such as consumption of these products, school meals, management and cultivation techniques or studies carried out with non-organic farmers were excluded, and then there were 11 documents to be analyzed by the researchers. The review showed that when compared to conventional agriculture the physical requirements related to food production are similar, but there is an increase in cognitive load, due to the variety of tasks.

Even far from the technologies developed for agriculture and technical assistance, producers are satisfied with their own work and present an improvement in the health of the family as a whole. According to researcher Larissa Maas, the research can assist in the reformulation of public policies in the sense and contemplate technological development and effective technical assistance for organic agriculture. “It is an interdisciplinary theme, which includes areas such as public health, worker safety, social inclusion, income generation, among others, so the intersectoral discussion is essential to further expand the production and consumption of these foods,” says the autor.

References

BOMBARDI, L.M. Geografia do uso de agrotóxicos no Brasil e conexões com a União Europeia (2a ed.). São Paulo: FFLCH – USP, 2019.

NASRALA NETO, E., LACAZ, F.A.C., and PIGNATI, W.A. Health surveillance and agribusiness: the impact of pesticides on health and the environment. Danger ahead!. Ciênc. saúde coletiva [online]. 2014, vol. 19, no. 12, pp. 4709-4718, ISSN: 1413-8123 [viewed 01 July 2020]. DOI: 10.1590/1413-812320141912.03172013. Available from: http://ref.scielo.org/qnyb86

RATTNER, H. Environment, health and sustainable development. Ciênc. saúde coletiva [online]. 2009, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 1965-1971, ISSN: 1678-4561 [viewed 01 July 2020]. DOI: 10.1590/S1413-81232009000600002. Available from: http://ref.scielo.org/qnk2qn

To read the article, access it

MAAS, L., MALVESTITI, R., and GONTIJO, L.A. Work in organic farming: an overview. Cienc. Rural [online]. 2020, vol. 50, no. 4, 20190458, ISSN: 1678-4596 [viewed 01 July 2020]. DOI: 10.1590/0103-8478cr20190458. Available from: http://ref.scielo.org/nx7sdv

External links

Ciência Rural – CR: <http://www.scielo.br/cr>

Ciência Rural <http://coral.ufsm.br/ccr/cienciarural/>