Opinion of family farmers on organic food supply to the Brazilian National School Feeding Program-a case study

Objective: To investigate the opinion of family farmers about the supply of organic food to the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Method: The convenience sample consisted of 44 family farmers from nine cooperatives and associations located in eight different mesoregions of the state of Paraná that supplied organic food to the PNAE. An online survey was conducted to evaluate the farmers' opinion on possible changes in the cooperatives' revenue and organization; diversification and production increase; difficulties in commercialization; increase in income, and improvement in food consumption after supplying to the PNAE. Results: According to the farmers’ opinion, there was better organization (100%) and an increase in the cooperatives' revenue and production (86.36%), after supplying to the PNAE. 75% of the farmers diversified their crops and 52.3% reported an increase of up to 25% in their family income. In addition, it was reported a better acceptance of the school feeding, diversification in the family's diet, improved self-esteem, closeness between producers and consumers, and the return of family members to the rural property. Conclusion: In the opinion of family farmers, PNAE has been fulfilling its role as a promoter of Food and Nutritional Security in the development of healthy habits, besides contributing to the increase in family income and promoting local sustainable development, following the World Health Organization's agenda.


Introduction
Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) is aligned with sustainable development to end world hunger, as per the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on the 2030 agenda of the United Nations (United Nations, 2021). Hence, implementing public policies for rural development aimed at family agriculture (FA) should be a priority, once they stimulate the diversity of crops that constitute the population's staple diet and domestic market supply (Martins, 2021). In addition, FA employs over 10.1 million people in Brazil and represents 23% of all its agricultural settlements (IBGE, 2017).
In this sense, FA can foster local economies and strategies to fight hunger and poverty in the world, as well as enhance local and regional sustainable development through organic and/or agroecological production (Weber & Silva, 2021).
To do so, it should be strengthened through short supply chain (Conner et al., 2012;López-García et al., 2021;Retiere, 2014;Verano, Figueiredo, & Medina, 2021; or farmer networks (Cardoso, Casarotto Filho, & Catarina, 2021;, to optimize the food flow between producer and consumer. Such initiative can increase jobs and local income, in addition to helping create ties that might retain farmers in rural areas (Retiere, 2014). However, it requires the articulation of public policies.
Since the 2000s, public policies targeting FA have been instituted and/or restructured in Brazil. The National School Feeding Program (PNAE) is the oldest FNS public policy in the country. Since its creation in 1955, it has been improved to promote FNS and, more recently, to foster agroecology (Sousa, Silva, Azevedo, & Ramos, 2015;Toyoyoshi, Oliveira, Santos, Galisa, & Galante, 2013). The purpose of PNAE is to promote a satisfactory nutritional condition for its beneficiariescontributing to learning, school performance, and the development of healthy eating habitsas well as stimulate sustainable development, local economy, and FA (Brasil, 2009a; da Cunha, de Sousa, & Machado, 2010).
The PNAE legislation establishes that at least 30% (Brasil, 2009a) of the financial resources transferred by the Federal Government to the municipalities must be invested in the direct purchase of food produced by family farmers (A. M. Peixinho, 2013), preferably organic food (Brasil, 2009a(Brasil, , 2009b(Brasil, , 2013A. M. Peixinho, 2013). Thus, small and medium-sized rural producers receive support for local food production (Lopes & Doula, 2019;Souza-Esquerdo & Bergamasco, 2014), which promotes sustainability and connects rural and urban areas (Triches & Schneider, 2010). Moreover, through the partnership with family farmers, PNAE is able to contribute to FNS (A. M. Peixinho, 2013), promoting a higher consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables by students and contributing to a better quality of life and the prevention of obesity and non-transmissible chronic diseases (Brasil, 2009a;da Cunha et al., 2010).
Furthermore, the purchase of food from FA by the municipalities fosters the sustainability of the agrifood systems and local food sovereignty (da Cunha et al., 2010;A. Peixinho, Balaban, Rimkus, Schwartzman, & Galante, 2011;Saraiva et al., 2013;Toyoyoshi et al., 2013;Triches & Schneider, 2010). However, even with the many benefits of the implementation of the PNAE guidelines in Brazilian states and municipalities, the process of purchasing from FA is still difficult to administrate and needs to be improved.
In 2010, the state of Paraná was the first to meet the legal goals for the purchase of food from FA (Brasil, 2009a) and has been sustaining the purchases of organic and/or agroecological food from this group of farmers over the years. However, the impact of this practice on the cooperatives and farmers' family's life has not been researched so far. Thus, this study aims to investigate the opinion of family farmers from the state of Paraná on changes associated with production, commercialization, income, and food consumption after the supply of organic food to the PNAE started. The research population consisted of all the cooperatives and associations that supplied organic food to the PNAE during the referred period (n=20). The cooperatives and associations that supplied only one type of food, only fresh herbs, or only food obtained from extractivism (e.g., pine nuts, Brazilian grape) were excluded from the study (n=10), as well as one cooperative that ceased its activities in 2014. Thus, nine cooperatives and associations participated in the research, totaling 1600 cooperative members. These cooperatives and associations were located in eight mesoregions of the state of Paraná, namely: Northwest, Central North, North Pioneer, West, Central Western, Southwest, Southeast, and the Metropolitan Area of Curitiba. The convenience sample consisted of 44 family farmers who agreed to participate in the study by signing the Informed Consent Form (ICF) and filling out the data collection instrument.

Methodology
The survey was adapted from the School Food and Nutrition Department (Stolarski, 2014) of the state of Paraná and consisted of 41 questions. There were investigated characteristics of the cooperatives and the respondents; changes in revenue, organization, and participation in the cooperatives; diversification and increase in production; difficulties in commercialization; increase in income; and improved food consumption by the families after being hired to supply school feeding. To analyze diversification and increase in production, the products cultivated by the family farmers were categorized into pre-specified groups (Secretaria de Estado da Educação do Paraná (SEED/PR), 2014).
Before the research was initiated, we contacted the presidents of the cooperatives and associations, explaining our objectives and requesting the participation of the cooperative family farmers who produced organic food. At the beginning of the data collection, we sent the cooperatives a standard email containing the ICF and a cover letter. The survey was sent via Google Drive. The documents were also available at the cooperatives' offices or sent by email for the farmers to check and fill out. The answers were collected between December 2014 and January 2015.
Later, the answers were transferred to an Excel (2010) spreadsheet and a descriptive statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software, version 20.0. In addition, a Pearson chi-square test was performed to verify the association between the farmers' opinions on the improvements in the cooperatives and on the changes observed in their family units (p<0.05).

Results
Of the 44 farmers participating in the study, 79.5% were male and a significant number had finished elementary school (47.7%), while 25% had graduated from college. As for the cooperatives and associations, the majority produced only organic food (72.7%) that was sold to the municipal PNAE (75.0%) and had an increase in production after supplying to the program (95.5%). Commercialization to the PNAE also had a positive impact on sales and crop diversification: 57.6% of the producers diversified from 1 to 10 types of crops, while 30.3% diversified from 11 to 20 (Table 1).  As for the main difficulties regarding the acceptance of vegetables in school feeding, family farmers believe that children do not have the habit of eating fruit (38.6%); that the amount of vegetables would be insufficient for everyone (29.5%); and that children and teenagers do not like vegetables (27.2%). In addition, 22.7% of the producers think that the school cooks do not prepare the food, which ends up spoiled. On the other hand, family farmers believe that organic food makes meals more varied and colorful (90.9%), that it allows students to discover new types of food (77.3%), and that school meals from family farming allow students to have access to food that they could not afford otherwise (63.6%).
Food consumption in the family units of 75% of the farmers has greatly improved due to diversification of planting, greater variety or barter (61.4%), and consumption of healthy foods (31.8%). Furthermore, all participants affirmed that their family income increased after they started supplying to the PNAE (11.4% reported an over 50% increase), which brought an improvement in self-esteem (100%), the return of family members to the farm (81.8%), greater digital inclusion (79.5%), closer contact with the consumers (75.0%), and hiring of temporary employees (43.2%) ( Table 3). Closeness between farmers and consumers was associated with the improved self-esteem of farmers (p=0.005). The fact that the cooperative's production is 100% organic, in turn, was associated with better food consumption by the producers' families (p<0.001) (data not shown).

Discussion
In the opinion of the farmers who participated in our research, PNAE has been fulfilling its role as a promoter of FNS by fostering food diversification, employment, income generation for farming families, cooperatives and associations, and by contributing to local sustainable development.
The fact that most of the organic farmers were men is aligned with gender issues in rural areas. Social reproduction in this environment excludes women, both in income-generating work and the succession of family property. In addition, it is difficult for them to conciliate an extensive rural work routine with their domestic and school activities, given that the schooling level of rural women is higher than that of men (Martins, 2021).
The role played by women in conventional FA is less empowering (López-García et al., 2021). A possible way to empower them in organic FA includes feminist support for institutionalizing programs that make the gender dynamic more equal (Waltz, 2016). In this sense, all the research participants mentioned that the greater participation of women was one of the positive changes in the cooperatives and associations.
The difficulty of including cooperatives' proposals in public calls through digital processes (Lopes & Doula, 2019) may be a limitation for family farmers who reported having only primary education, as it requires people with more experience and constant monitoring, which is usually not possible in small municipalities (Lopes & Doula, 2019). According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, 2017), approximately 90% of municipalities in the state of Paraná have less than 20,000 inhabitants, and 50% have less than 10,000.
Most farmers (54.5%) reported working both in organic food production and unpaid administrative positions of the cooperatives, such as president, vice-president, and treasurer. In cases where the farmer was required to stay at the office, an employment relationship was created, which shows that PNAE offers a mechanism for social control through the participation of members of the school community and civil society in management control (A. Peixinho et al., 2011).
Even if the State provides policies that support food acquisition from FA for school feeding, there are still difficulties in effectively making this purchase (Lopes & Doula, 2019). Only 40% of the organic production is sold to school feeding programs, as the rest is supplied to local open markets and supermarkets. In addition, despite 86% of Brazilian municipalities purchasing food from FA for the PNAE, the national average purchase is only 22% (Bocchi, Magalhaes, Rahal, Gentil, & Goncalves, 2019). Therefore, a local social articulation is necessary to foster other means of production outflow, as well as the creation of new market perspectives for FA (Cardoso et al., 2021;Triches & Schneider, 2010).
For PNAE to fulfill its role in promoting the Human Right to Adequate Food (HRAF), it is essential to support FA, due to its potential to generate employment and income, lower food transportation costs, and promote the recognition of local production, creating a connection between the countryside and the urban environment (Saraiva et al., 2013;Weber & Silva, 2021). These changes show that public policies such as PNAE can enhance the local development process since their purchases move billions of reais annually, heating up the local economy and contributing to the regional socio-economic development (Lopes & Doula, 2019).
Crop diversification suggests a positive impact on economic development and quality of life (Bassan, 2014;Campi, Dueñas, & Fagiolo, 2021;Lopes & Doula, 2019), highlighting the region's productive potential (Vitte, 2006) and the role of social actors in stimulating and enabling local economic changes (Campi et al., 2021;Lopes & Doula, 2019 (Brasil, 2014), which advocates for a varied diet based on fresh or minimally processed food. Thus, diversifying agricultural production increases the options for school meals while reducing the food deficit risk and contributing to food systems' sustainability (Campi et al., 2021).
Even though most of the cooperatives and associations surveyed in this study produced exclusively organic food, part of them (23.3%) still used pesticides in part of their production or were transitioning to organic farming. Reasons for this transition, such as economic growth and consumers' health, have also been mentioned in other studies (dos Santos et al., 2014).
It suggests that family farmers know the organic farming practice, its positive influence on family income, and the importance of consuming pesticide-free food, as the presence of chemical inputs in food endangers the consumer (dos Santos et al., 2014) and leads to acute effects and diseases such as cancer, congenital malformations, and endocrine, neurological and mental disorders (WHO, 2002). Thus, providing healthy food allows schools to promote health, nutritional and environmental education. Moreover, PNAE participation in the transition to organic farming shows that this policy has been fulfilling a role in promoting FNS, agroecology, and sustainable development (Sousa et al., 2015;Toyoyoshi et al., 2013).
To farmers, cooperatives, and associations, limitations in the food commercialization to schools may result from difficulties in transportation, seasonality of production, and lack of subsidies, incentives, agricultural research and technical assistance (Lima & Sousa, 2011;, reinforcing the need for cross-sector actions of knowledge exchange with farmers. For example, technical support to FA can help to diversify the production and include regional products in school meals (Monego et al., 2013) since skilled labor is essential for the production and acquisition of quality organic food (Lopes & Doula, 2019). Likewise, family farmers need the assistance of nutritionists (Pires et al., 2017), cooperatives, or government agencies to solve problems and understand the food acquisition process. Participating in open calls, despite being easier than participating in public procurements, can still be complex and bureaucratic for people who have no practice with such processes, as may be the case for some family farmers (Becker, Andersson, Altemburg, & Costa, 2011;Pires et al., 2017;Triches & Schneider, 2010).
In this sense, it is up to the technical assistance entities, cooperatives, and associations to help producers plan their production and meet the demands of school feeding programs. Moreover, the State has a major role both in relation to public procurement mechanisms and the promotion of food chains, resources, and regulations that foster sustainable practices and healthy eating habits (Brasil, 2009a).
Organic food acceptance requires the exchange of knowledge and experiences of those involved in the production process, managers, nutritionists, school cooks (Sousa et al., 2015), teachers, and students. Furthermore, supporting and recognizing the work of school cooks can increase their commitment since, by preparing the menu, these professionals promote the health of students (Lima & Sousa, 2011), which also involves an affective relationship with them. Nevertheless, recognizing their role as educational and health agents depends on structural changes, values, conceptions, and insertions in the school environment (Fernandes, Fonseca, & Silva, 2014).
In addition, for school feeding programs to succeed, school cooks must understand the commercialization process of the food produced in the region (Bontrager Yoder et al., 2014) since its appearance may differ from the conventional one and, consequently, the product can be rejected despite its benefits regarding health, taste, and durability.
The menu offered to students should consider local eating habits, food and nutritional composition, balance, flavor, and sustainability (Silverio & Sousa, 2014). To achieve these goals, it is necessary to articulate managers, nutritionists, farmers, and cooperatives (Pires et al., 2017;, as well as provide training, technical and government support, educational strategies, community awareness, supply organization that considers the demand for organic food, and improvement of the food production management (Silverio & Sousa, 2014). However, the reduced number of nutritionists (Lima & Sousa, 2011;Pires et al., 2017) assisting the municipalities, as well as the high turnover of school cooks, who are mostly temporary employees, and the many duties they perform, can make it difficult to meet these objectives in the short term.
According to the farmers' opinions, among the difficulties for the acceptance of organic food in school meals are the fact that children and adolescents do not have the habit of eating fruits and do not like vegetables, aside from the insufficient amount of food available. This may be related to deficiencies in schools' physical structure, issues with the logistics of food receiving/storage (Sousa et al., 2015), and absence of government actions that align with the actors involved both in the training of school cooks and food and nutrition educational actions. It is necessary to address socioeconomic and environmental aspects of agrifood systems, appreciation for local cuisine, and the role of schools as promoters of health and healthy eating (Porto, Schmitz, Recine, & Rodrigues, 2015).
Despite these obstacles, PNAE promoted successful changes in school meals that increased diversification and stimulated both vegetable consumption and students' access to these foods, which was also identified by . On the other hand, the labor demand was one of the difficulties reported in organic food production .
Organic crop inclusion and menu diversification, which ensures healthy and safe feeding, may be the cause of the improved food consumption shown by farmers' families after supplying to the PNAE and consequently increasing their income. Thus, in addition to aiming for a FNS to the population, public policies for food acquisition from FA also aim to increase farmers' income (Salgado & Dias, 2013). Furthermore, the use of regional foods promotes sustainability (López-García et al., 2021), healthy eating practices, and respect for the communities' cultural and food identity (Monego et al., 2013).
Closeness between producers and consumers was associated with farmers' increased self-esteem (data not shown).
This increase earned through recognition of farmers' social and ecological role makes agroecology a practice that promotes FNS and health (Navolar, Rigon, & Philippi, 2010). The personal relationships that permeate trading with both commercial and symbolic exchanges create a trust relationship between producers and consumers (Triches & Schneider, 2010). Furthermore, the proximity between farmers and society favors the exchange of ideas and local solutions, contributing to the maintenance and development of the region (López-García et al., 2021;Turpin, 2015). Besides the positive impact on self-esteem, these changes in family units have promoted the return of family members to rural property (urban exodus), greater digital inclusion, closer ties between producers and institutional consumers (school cooks, teachers, students), and the hiring of temporary employees by family members. Thus, PNAE strengthens organic FA and stimulates the migration of farmers to rural areas ).
PNAE's food purchase from family farmers is a short food supply chain strategy that promotes proximity between farmers and consumers through trust, loyalty, and information exchange (Dias, Révillion, & Talamini, 2017;López-García et al., 2021;. Moreover, this policy addresses economic aspects that avoid elitist market niches and large groups of the agrifood system and include fair trade, local economy insertion, capacity for continuous modernization of production tools, food safety, production for self-consumption, and social economy through cooperatives and civil society organizations (Weber & Silva, 2021).
The exclusive production of organic food was associated with improved food consumption of the farmers' families.
According to Deaconu et al. (Deaconu, Berti, Cole, Mercille, & Batal, 2021), organic food farmers have healthier eating habits since their greater dietary diversity promotes adequate nutrient intake through the increased consumption of fresh or minimally processed foods and reduction of ultra-processed foods.
Cooperatives' increased production and revenue after supplying to the PNAE was reported by 86.3% of the farmers, similar to the 86.5% production increase reported by Silva & Sousa . These findings suggest farmers' adherence to the program, which may result from strategies such as the organization of managers and farmers, support from representative entities, and cooperation among producers. Likewise, municipal councils also play an important role in this process since they contribute to the convergence of public and private sectors in the regulations' enforcement and meeting of school demands (Bezerra et al., 2013;Turpin, 2009).
The impact of organic food commercialization on cooperatives and associations reinforces that the food supply to the PNAE favors the organization of family farmers, strengthens cooperatives, contributes to direct employment, and, consequently, increases FA organic food production (Turpin, 2009).
Investments show a concern with improving the physical structure of production units, which can lead to cooperatives' autonomy in production and commercialization and the adequacy of sanitary regulations that meet identity and quality standards, as this is the main difficulty for purchasing FA products (Triches & Schneider, 2010). This confirms that the participation of the agricultural supply chain contributes to positive social and economic results (Rutherford, Burke, Cheung, & Field, 2016).
Moreover, the results suggest that supporting family farmers who produce organic food promotes employment and income generation, as well as the diversity of healthy and quality food (Triches & Schneider, 2010). This preserves regional habits and connects the countryside to the city, contributing to FNS as a right to adequate food.
Among the limitations of our study, we highlight the low rate of replies to our survey, which impacted the sample size and may be related to the family farmers' difficulty in completing electronic surveys. However, the choice for digital tools was made in order to increase the research scope. Thus, as strengths, we highlight the coverage of eight out of the ten mesoregions of the state of Paraná. Furthermore, we presented the point of view of the family farmers themselves towards their practices and the public policies that aim at improving them.

Conclusion
The organic food supply to the PNAE has promoted positive changes in food diversification, commercialization, family income, self-esteem, return of family members to the farm, and digital inclusion among farmers. Likewise, there has been an increase in cooperatives' diversity of production and revenues, direct employment, participation of young people and women, internal organization, and investments.
Thus, from the perspective of family farmers who produce organic food, PNAE has been fulfilling its role as a FNS promoter by contributing to the development of healthy habits, family income, and local sustainability, following the WHO agenda.
It is important that public policies continue to stimulating organic food employment in the Program implementation to promote FNS to family farmers and childcare. Future studies could investigate this issue from the perspective of the PNAE's beneficiaries. Complementary studies could bring to light the PNAE's execution during the Covid-19 pandemic.