Territórios queijeiros: tradição e ressignificação no Sistema Agroalimentar Localizado do leite em Alagoas

Abstract

Food production has always consisted thematic in interest of humanity in function to the vital role it assumes in the reproduction of social groups. The centrality of this thesis is situated in agri-food activities, that conform the territoriality of rural actors, potentiates local markets and disposes of products with nuritive references, symbolic and identity for those who produce and consume. The objective consisting of to analyze the Localized Agri-Food System – Sial of milk in Alagoas and the its relationship with the social, economic and cultural dynamics of the appropriate and conformed spaces in territories. For the execution of the studies was defined as empirical cutout the Territory of the Milk Basin – TBL, which historically features a vocation at the development of livestock and practices bind to the production milk derivatives in the Alagoas backlands. The methodology was based on theoretical research, which were conducted by reading the approaches to Sial and the conceptions about key concepts such as territory, identity, traditional foods and consumption. In sequence documentary analyzes of data secondary and information were carried out, that deal with the the dimensions socioeconomic, and farming, the political performance of the State and the health legislation of products of animal origin. Between 2019 and 2020 the methodological procedures were oriented, above all, to the conducting field research with the owners of the cheese production units, traders, consumers and representatives of associations and cooperatives. In this stage were exploratory interventions and interviews based on snowball technique, in the use of the field diary and the realization of iconographic records. The results denote the constitution of a milk Sial formed by three modalities of agri-food establishments: homemade cheese makers, little factories and dairy. These units are maintained, predominantly, by family based farmers and small rural entrepreneurs, who interact with traders integrated in circuits short at the local and regional scales. There are also interrelationships with consumers, who are part the group of segments attentive to the consumption of food goods with quality referentials linked to their origin, the know-how, to the artisanal production mode with an identity contribution. Soon, it is considered that the protagonism of these actors contributes to the consolidation of agri-food practices traditional and innovateds that, although partially reframeds, translate, concomitantly, processes of economic potentiation and cultural rooting.