COLONIAL PRODUCTS, INCOME ALTERNATIVE, SELF-CONSUMPTION AND PLURIATIVITY

Abstract

Family farming is part of the history of Brazil and Western Santa Catarina, colonial products bring the culture  of  immigrants  of European descent that is present in the daily lives of the people who live here. The purpose of this  article  was  to  analyze  how the colonial products fair in the municipality of São Lourenço do Oeste is an alternative  to  the  conventional  agri-food  system. For data collection, the semi-structured interview technique was applied, applied to market producers and consumers,    chosen at random (during the visit to the fair). Subsequently, data analysis was performed in dialogue with the literature.   Family  farm open markets refer to a tradition due to the  products  offered  and  also  constitute  an  important  alternative  for  income  and appreciation of the culture inherited from the ancestors for families that are part of family farming, the  products  are  used  for self-consumption and also for the commercialization in the open market, thus guaranteeing the quality of the products that will be offered to consumers and complementing income for the market vendors, pluriactivity is a remarkable factor in this process. We conclude that the fair is an alternative to the conventional agrifood system, featuring a type of short  food  chain  where  the producer establishes a direct link with the consumer, offering differentiated products of the colonial type, which  adds  value  by not passing through the hands of intermediaries.