Josué de Castro and political operations against hunger in Brazil

Abstract This article analyzes the operations involved in projects to combat hunger in Brazil through one of the main names in the fight against this problem: Josué de Castro. The doctor and geographer from Pernambuco was president of the FAO council, professor at different universities and federal deputy for Pernambuco. Its presence in various instances makes it a privileged actor for us to explore the social life of a public policy. In this analysis, we focus on the articulations surrounding the Social Security Food Service (Saps), the National Food Commission (CNA), the World Association to Fight Hunger (Ascofam) and the partnership with the International Child Relief Fund (Fisi). Through the analysis of his personal collection, which has more than 30 thousand documents, and the press of the period, it was possible to observe that, despite the formulations and public image of the policies presenting a character as technical and impersonal, the operations involved in their implementations took place through personal ties and political networks formed by Josué de Castro. Furthermore, they faced challenges of different kinds, such as lack of funds, misuse of purpose or operational difficulties. The proposal is not to propose a duty or judge the effectiveness of such projects, but to understand how, in fact, they happened.