Shocking images of people digging through animal carcasses shock Brazil

Heartbreaking photographs showing Homeless Brazilians searching for food among the carcasses of dead animals have caused a scandal in Brazil, expose the effects of rising food prices for the most vulnerable.

The images, taken in Rio last week by the award-winning photojournalist Domingos Peixoto, point to a group of people searching for remains in the back of a truck that transported discarded offal and bones to a pet food and soap factory.

The pictures appeared in the newspapers or balloon and Additional, who even published them on his cover under the title “Brazil 2021: the pain of hunger ”.

“Some days … I want to cry”the truck driver said Additional.

“Before, people came to ask for a piece of bone for their dogs. These days they’re begging for bones to eatAdded Santos, who distributes the leftovers to those in need in Rio after collecting them from supermarkets.

The images, which have gone viral on social media, were released at a time when rising headline inflation claimed thousands of people. they are forced to adapt their diet to meet expenses.

Consumer prices climbed 9.68% in the 12-month period ending in August. But food piled up even more, nearly 14% during that period, according to official data.

Red meat more than tripled headline inflation, with increases of 30.7%.

This explains why beef has been one of the main products relegated to the shopping list, even if the country has more livestock than any other and is the world’s largest exporter.

“Food inflation has put pressure on family budgets since 2020, especially those with lower incomes”, noted Joelson Sampaio, Professor at the São Paulo School of Economics of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV).

According to FGV estimates for April, 27.7 million Brazilians (12.98% of the population) are below the poverty line, located at 261 reais per month (49 USD). In 2019, the figure was 23.1 million poor (10.97%).

Red meat, a luxury

According to a recent survey by the Datafolha Institute, 85% of Brazilians have reduced their consumption of certain foods this year and 67% decreased that of red meat. In addition, the consumption of dairy products fell by 46%, and rice and beans, at the heart of the national cuisine, by around 35%.

“The first attitude of consumers is to substitute, the second is to reduce and the last is to throw away”Sampaio said.

An investigation into the PENSSAN red end of 2020 revealed that 116.8 million Brazilians suffered from some type of food insecurity and 19 million were hungry, in this country of 213 million inhabitants.

Inflation and unemployment, located at 14.1%, did not improve the situation. Shepherd of Glaucia, professor at the Faculty of Food Engineering of the University of Campinas, emphasizes that, thanks to these two elements, “Foods consumed by a large part of the population do not meet nutritional needs or in adequate quantity.”

Eating for a living, he says, has consequences: “People are more likely to suffer from viral or chronic noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and others.”

“Bolsocaro”

The opposition attributes inflation to Jair Bolsonaro’s policies, synthesizing it with a play on words repeated on street posters and demonstrations: “Bolsacaro”.

Dozens of Thousands of Brazilians demonstrated this Saturday in the main cities of the country to demand the impeachment of the presidente, in an appeal to left parties and movements which also rejected the rise in inflation and unemployment.

The government, in exchange, He attributes it to rising international prices.

Carlos cogo, director of the agrifood consultancy firm Cogo, explains that “Most of the staple foods that put pressure on inflation are the” products‘, traded in dollars on the international market and on the rise since the start of the pandemic ”.

At the local level, the depreciation of the real stands out: The dollar was trading around 4.2 reais in February 2020, against 5.3 today.

Thus, the two factors were “Higher than the international average”, to resume.

But there is more, like the increase in fuels -41.3% over one year to August-, which had an impact on freight rates, and the historic drought in Brazil.

It affected the cultures, such as corn, vital in animal husbandry, and has increased the price of electricity, the cost of which is spread over the entire production chain, says the analyst.

The pressures on food, he predicts, will last until at least 2022-2023, which could cause more Brazilians to go hungry.

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