Early Hurdles for New Brazilian Leader's Antihunger Campaign
www.nytimes.com By TONY SMITH
ÃO PAULO, Brazil, Jan. 31 — Declaring a war "not to kill, but to save lives," President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has outlined details of his first major policy initiative, an ambitious program to fight Brazil's enormous social inequalities by ensuring that even the neediest have enough to eat.
The showcase campaign, called Zero Hunger, was initially intended to cost nearly $1.5 billion over the four years of Mr. da Silva's term to give 46 million people help of various kinds, including $14 a month for an average family to spend on food.
But what the president — himself from a poor rural family — presented to the nation on Thursday was an incomplete package that critics say may prove ineffective and eventually run out of money. In addition, the campaign has failed to win consensus even within the governing Workers' Party.
Nevertheless, Mr. da Silva, who says his dream is to guarantee three meals a day for every Brazilian, has created a new ministry and a 62-member council to oversee the campaign and to coordinate the collection and distribution of food.
"Starting up a food collection campaign in a country the size of Brazil is like a veritable military operation," he said, adding, "Our war is not to kill, but to save lives."
Mr. da Silva acknowledged that simply handing out food would not be enough. "We need to give people fish and teach them to fish," he said.
Since Mr. da Silva's inauguration on Jan. 1, the Ministry of Agriculture has received 4,000 calls from Brazil's agricultural businesses wanting to take part. Gisele Bündchen, the Brazilian supermodel, donated part of her fee at São Paulo Fashion Week to the campaign.
The program is more than an ideological showcase. It is intended to help keep public opinion on Mr. da Silva's side when he tackles pension and tax reforms later this year.
So far, the plan has drawn fire mainly from government critics, but dissenters within Mr. da Silva's party have also voiced doubts.
"Brazil does not have 46 million people without enough to eat," said José Márcio Camargo, analyst for Tendências, a São Paulo consulting firm. "The country has 44 million people on or below the poverty line, which is totally different."
Several studies have shown that hunger affects from 5 percent to 9 percent of Brazil's 175 million people, or around 15 million at most, Mr. Camargo said. He also said families, churches and other charities already provided a network to help the needy.
That does not mean poor Brazilians need no assistance. But conflicting data have been released by various officials involved in the program, and there is confusion over which regions are to be helped.
The choice by José Graziano, the minister overseeing the campaign, to begin the program in Guaribas and Acauã in Piauí state was also problematic. The towns already receive substantially more money — which will continue — from six social programs set up by Mr. da Silva's predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, than they will from the new plan.
Only 10 of the program's 60 projects are ready and there are fears that the $510 million for the current year might be cut as the government tightens its belt to please international markets.
Mr. Graziano has even been criticized by a leading Workers' Party senator, Eduardo Suplicy, for insisting that beneficiaries produce receipts to prove that they have used the cash to buy food.
Mr. Camargo agreed. "The black market for fake receipts will soar," he said.