Abstract

VIANNA FERREIRA, Marina; JANKOWSKY, Mayra  and  NORDI, Nivaldo. History and changes in a fishermen food system: A community in São Paulo coast, Brazil . INCI [online]. 2009, vol.34, n.10, pp.696-702. ISSN 0378-1844.

In order to better understand population diets, studies that deal with the communities’ history considering economic, social and environmental aspects, are suitable. Aiming to understand the present food system setting in the studied community and also to put forward proposals to improve its sustainability, the objective in this paper was to identify food changes in a fishing community, mainly throughout the twentieth century, and bring them face to face to its history, identifying the relevant political, economic and environmental factors of relevance. The study was carried out in a fishing community from Cananéia, a municipality in Southern Coast of São Paulo State, Brazil. Among the main changes observed was a constant decrease in the use of local food, simultaneous to an increase in industrialized food consumption. Among the local products only seafood remains frequently consumed. Game and native fruits and roots were important items whose consumption was given up. Four principal historical moments were identified to signal the most expressive changes. They are: the agriculture crisis, intensification of urbanization and fisheries, the adoption of motor boats in fisheries, and increase of tourism. At each of these moments many factors were found that led to feeding changes in the community, and the later, in turn, met some transition stages, adapting to each new situation after some time.

Keywords : Cananéia; Histórico Sócio-Ecológico; Mudanças; Pescadores; Sistema Alimentar.