President Lula reinstates national food council and makes combating hunger a priority

Originally published on Feb.28, 2023

In a ceremony at the Planalto Palace, in Brasilia, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed today an authorization that reinstates the country’s National Council for Food Security and Nutrition (Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional/Consea). The president of the National Education Development Fund (Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação/FNDE) Fernanda Pacobahyba also attended the event.

Consea is an immediate advisory body to the Brazilian Presidency regarding participation and social control of formulation, monitoring and evaluation of public policies concerning food and nutritional security. The council was established in 1993, but closed down in 2019 by the former government.

The reactivation of Consea is crucial to Brazil’s National School Feeding Program (Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar/PNAE), since one of the program’s main guidelines is the definition of healthy and quality school meals that are available for all.

During the event, President Lula stressed the importance of reactivating Consea to combat hunger – and highlighted the need to encourage family farming. "The people who work at Consea are determined to reduce and even end hunger in our country. We’re going to try to hold a big discussion with small and medium-sized food producers so that we can increase production of healthy food in Brazil", he said.

"We know how important integration between FNDE and Consea is. Through PNAE, the council’s contribution to school feeding will be paramount. FNDE already carries out strategies to promote food quality and encourage production involving family farming, so it will also be important in this integration", said Fernanda Pacobahyba.

Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Family and the Fight against Hunger Wellington Dias also spoke about the council’s comeback. "Consea is even stronger now. Together – since nothing can be done alone –, we’re going to work hard to take Brazil off the hunger map again. Consea is back"!

To PNAE General Coordinator Solange Castro, in turn, "resumption of Consea is a great joy and will also be very important to the program: guaranteed food security and greater attention and dedication to fighting hunger will benefit school feeding a great deal".

Encouraging increasing consumption of food produced by family farming is the central topic of discussions involving PNAE and all relevant stakeholders. FNDE is also contributing with strategies that support the development of family farming within the program. One of them is resolution 06/2020, which advises that at least 75% of the funds transferred by FNDE must be allocated to purchasing fresh or minimally processed foods, thus directly favoring family farming products.