MST fair is a varied panel of Brazilian food – 05/13/2023 – Politics

“Do you know why pineapple from Tocantins is sweeter?” asked the man at the fruit stand. Anticipating a joke, I responded with another question: “Why?” “Because it is fertilized with sugar and drizzled with honey,” he replied. Then he looked away and continued shouting: “O pineappleiii!”

Such a scene could have taken place at any free fair in Brazil, but at no other would the pineapple seller –as well as several dozen people in the room– be wearing a red T-shirt and cap from the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, the MST.

The 4th National Agrarian Reform Fair, which the MST promotes until this Sunday (14) in Água Branca Park (west zone of São Paulo), in addition to red clothes and accessories, offers an extensive and complete panel of Brazilian food.

At the fair itself, the old stables of prized bulls were taken over by around 1,200 exhibitors from almost all over Brazil. Only Amazonas, Acre and Amapá are not represented.

In the arena, made to host equestrian shows, a giant tent was set up that houses typical restaurants from the exhibiting states, in addition to the Federal District. Roraima food? He has. From Sergipe? Oops, it’s in your hand.

The movement estimates that 500 tons of food were offered for sale in stalls and restaurants.

I’m not an idiot and I wasn’t born yesterday. I know that the MST fair is a formidable propaganda tool.
Let’s be fair, though: enemy propaganda artillery is brutal, and the landless would be idiots not to strike back.

In the fantasy of certain Paulistanos, the MST is made up of ragged hordes armed with machetes for cutting cane and the “Communist Manifesto”, ready to invade, plunder and impale the bourgeoisie.

The fair in Água Branca promotes the meeting of this urbanite with farmers who came to show a friendly face. No impalement, lots of good food.

I wasn’t born yesterday: I’ve already visited many food exhibitions in Brazil, including some much fancier ones.
I can safely say that none of them can match, in terms of diversity and volume, the fair of the landless.

Visiting it is a mandatory program for anyone who enjoys food and is interested in the cultural differences expressed in the food of each Brazilian region.

Left-wing militancy clichés are everywhere, from the clothes of the regulars to the revolutionary posters and chants. You don’t have to convert to Marxism to enjoy the fair: any reasonable, non-hydrophobic person can get by and have fun at Peasant Disneyland.

How can you not smile when picking up a package of Ho Chi Minh brand beans, produced in the homonymous settlement in Minas Gerais? Kidney beans, obviously. Going for a little cachaça? Choose between Camponeses from Paraná and Sierra Maestra from Goiás.

In addition to witty names, the stallholders brought food that was rare or non-existent in São Paulo.
Arranged around an area with tables, like a mall food court, the regional restaurants offer succinct and very traditional menus.

Rio Grande do Norte, for example, sells a snack called ginga con tapioca. Ginga becomes manjuba. A skewer with several small fish is roasted and then filled with tapioca.

The Santa Catarina operation bet on entrevero, pine nuts cooked with beef, pork and chicken. Pará prepares maniçoba – feijoada belongings with cassava leaf, which needs to be cooked for days to stop being toxic.

At the tent in Roraima, visitors are introduced to damurida, an indigenous dish with fish, tucupi, peppers and manioc flour. Rio de Janeiro hired cooks from the Quilombo da Gamboa, in the port area of ​​Rio de Janeiro, to prepare feijoada.

In the stables, exhibitors sell food, plant seedlings, drinks, cosmetics, handicrafts and socialist prêt-à-porter fashion.

The stall in southern Bahia offers a tasting of fresh cupuaçu, open in front of customers. The potiguar corner sells pitomba, a spherical fruit with an acidic pulp. There’s tucupi in the Paraense tent and pequi in the Brasiliense one. Cashew nuts in Ceará, Brazil nuts in Mato Grosso and baru nuts in Goiás. Hundreds of options of flour, brown sugar and beans.

Rondonia coffee is found in Rondônia. The settlements in Rondônia are a reference in improving the cultivation of this variety, which is less valued than Arabica.

The effort of the MST to produce superior quality food and greater added value is evident. A cart full of nine hours sells ice pops from the Gelado do Campo brand, made with natural ingredients in partnership with Escola Sorvete, in São Paulo.

Another partnership, with the dairy from Santa Catarina, Queijo com Sotaque, gives the landless the possibility of selling French cheeses, such as reblochon and comté, at prices above R$ 100 per kilo.

The search for “premium”, “gourmet” items and the hell that comes with it is even reflected in the red cap, which has become a fashion icon.

The normal cap, with the hot-stamped MST symbol, cost R$30. A version with the embroidered design was 50% more expensive, R$45.

Then you look to the side and see, for R$60, a polo shirt with peasants where the Lacoste alligator should be.

What is the next stage of this revolution, Comrade Stédile? MST shoes?