Food trade between Brazil and Switzerland : pathways to drive family farming and sustainability

The agri-economic growth in emerging economies has created opportunities for some, but has failed in terms of guaranteeing equality among food system actors (Guinn & Hamrick, 2014). More specifically, this is subject to opportunity of labour and income in rural areas, but also rural exodus, loss of ethnic-social-diversity, biodiversity, among others. Family farms or small-scale farmers in general, being left out of the commercialization and economic development, often belong to the losers of globalization and export-oriented agricultural developments. In Switzerland, the dominant small family farms are heavily supported by governmental subsidies (Aerni 2009). Swiss consumers often refer to the logic that products from their country are the best (Lazzarini et al. 2017) and want to support local family farms. In this perception, there is some contradiction with the current practices of importing highly industrialized and large-scale products from the Brazilian agribusiness. The model of supporting sustainable practices inland and depending on large-scale-based commodity imports from abroad must be questioned. In contrary, importing countries should give some thought on how to encourage the inclusion of products from family farms into markets. In 2017 the Swiss people voted in favor for a new paragraph in the federal constitution on “Food Security” (art. 104a). This obliges the Swiss Government to create conditions for cross-border trade relations that contribute to the sustainable development of agriculture and food production. In fact, great emphasis was given to reposition family farming at the center of agricultural, environmental and social policies in the national agendas during the International Year of Family Farming (FAO, 2014). During this meeting, demands were addressed to the identification of gaps and opportunities to promote a shift towards a more equal and balanced development. Family farmers are very diverse in the activities they develop (Graeub et al. 2018; Knickel et al. 2018) and play a significant role on fighting for eradication of hunger and poverty, providing food security and nutrition, improving livelihoods, managing natural resources, protecting biodiversity, and achieving sustainable development (FAO, 2014). Thus, strengthening the role of family in domestic and international markets may be a key to reach more sustainable perspectives (JISKA et al. 2015)