AGRO-FOOD SYSTEM SCENARIOS IN THE 21ST CENTURY: ORGANIC AND AGRO-ECOLOGIC APPROACH TO SOME TENSIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS

The world Agro-Food System (AFS) suffered some changes, going from the production of commodities aimed at supplying a large proportion of consumers (quantity) to the production of quality products aiming at segmentation. The market of organic products grew during this period. When studying the economic dynamics of quality in the world AFS, we observed that quality is an ancient and permanent concern due to health and nutritional issues. Market saturation, the increase of competition associated to wider industrial transformation and mass consumption, having internationalization (successive adaptations of a market to new domestic markets) and liberalization of exchange as background, stimulates and repositions quality. Ethical issues surrounding food quality are also focused. In this context, ecologic markets (organic, biologic, biodynamic, natural, regenerative, etc.) derive from the increasing concern, especially in industrialized countries, with environmental degradation and consumption habits. The common point of alternative proposals is the objective of developing an ecologicall