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Abstract
The representation of Brazilian agriculture, associated with large monocultures
and agroexport farms is the result of a “social amnesia” that denies the contribution of
the peasantry to society. Defined as a social production form, the peasantry represents a
way of life and a culture. It is necessary to understand agrarian, productive and familiar
strategies that favored, in Brazil, the occupation of precarious and temporary spaces or
the effective creation of rural communities with greater durability. The modernization of
agriculture in the twentieth century led to the expulsion of residents and squatters. With
democratization, rural social movements re-inscribe the debate about the relevance of the land issue and the pertinence of land struggles. The recent theoretical and political debates about the categories
“peasantry” and “family farm” confirmed the formation of a sector of non-employers and non-landlords’ farmers,
who exercise their own ways of living and working, confirmed by data from the last Agricultural Census (2006). The
most economically disadvantaged establishments were initially considered as a “peripheral fringe”, while territorial
programs have incorporated them in the condition of “rural poor”. The inclusive production that corresponds to this
type of farmer should consider its historical resistance like peasants.