Elite do agronegócio em Unaí: percepções sobre pobreza e desigualdades sociais

Abstract

The discussion about poverty and social inequalities is significantly relevant in a country with extreme disparities as Brazil. For this reason, the purpose of this work is understand the perception that the agribusiness elite of Unaí (MG) has about the social inequality and poverty processes in the city. At the first moment, social and economic indicators are used to justify the option for the research in this environment. After that, some questions related with the subjects poverty and inequality will be deepened from a qualitative research with actors of the agrobusiness. Among the considerations that the work presents, it is observed first that the agribusiness elite in Unaí is awared about the impacts of the growth of the sector in the economic development of this city, but believes that social aspects possess secondary importance in the process. In second, part of the social problems in the city nowadays is related with structural transformations that occurred in the local agribusiness, being the State pointed as the major responsible to solve them. At the third moment, is noticed that the public politics: of social assistance as "Bolsa Família" and Agrarian Reform, are seeing as inefficient, but they play a role to mitigate the perverse effects of agricultural mechanization. Finally, it is observed that the agroindustrialization in Unaí is pointed as a future way to the economic development of the city and as a solution for the social problems.