Roots appreciated in the North: changes in production and consumption in five quilombola communities in the Eastern Amazon

Abstract

The article aims to analyze production practices and consumption of two traditional crops - yam (Dioscorea spp.) and cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) - in five quilombola communities in northeastern Pará in a context of food transition and insecurity and global change. Using an exploratory method, the study included a literature review, observations, five workshops with 60 participants and 19 interviews with farmers and leaders from the Narcisa quilombo in Capitão Poço, Camiranga in Cachoeira do Piriá and Tipitinga, Pimenteiras and Jacarequara in Santa Luzia do Pará. The results show that swiddens and flour houses make up the landscape in the quilombos, in a context of enclosure, dispossession and overlapping territorialities that have led to a reduction in manioc and cará areas, although the former, in the form of flour, persists as a staple food in a context of food transition with the intensification of ultra-processed food consumption. Integration into the market takes place in three areas: the marketing of flour, the consumption of processed and ultra-processed foods, and the commodification of land and the expansion of pasture monocultures for cattle, all of which influence the eating practices associated with the roots. Despite all the adversities, food practices persist, highlighting the relationship between communities and their territories and are recognized as alternatives to the hegemonic food model.