Agricultural Sustainability and Agrarian Geography: The Context of Organic Agriculture in Rio de Janeiro State

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to contribute to current debates in Agrarian
Geography concerning the dynamics of Brazilian rural space as exemplified by the case of Rio de Janeiro State. Rio de Janeiro presently is experiencing rural transformation provoked by the increasing urbanization of the countryside so redefining the geographical concepts of “rural” and “urban” within historical and contemporary processes of capitalist development. Within this general process, organic agriculture has emerged within vegetable farming in the Região Serrana Fluminense. As most vegetable production in this region is undertaken using conventional modern methods, organic farming for the metropolitan market is marketed through new separate channels so as to guarantee product authenticity. In the beginning, farmers were of urban origin, but as organic production expanded in response to increasing urban demand, some local farmers shifted from conventional to organic methods.