Popular Health Surveillance: Emancipatory struggle for life against agribusiness in Chapada do Apodi-CE

Abstract

This article discusses popular health surveillance (VPS) as an emancipatory strategy for fighting and defending life against agribusiness in Chapada do Apodi, Ceará. This is an action research with representatives from academia, social movements, entities, community organizations and workers of the Unified Health System. A territorial workshop was carried out whose material produced was evaluated by content analysis aided by the Iramuteq software. The workshop highlighted the need to strengthen the community struggle in the territory for life, involving the problem of pesticides and the role of women. Community organization allies itself with the work of popular movements, showing that associations are fundamental and strategic points in the articulations of communities for claiming rights, through productive backyards, for example. Indicators of VPS associated with the impacts of agribusiness were observed, such as the high mortality of bees. Faced with the expansion of agribusiness in the region, VPS can continue to be an important action in promoting healthier and more sustainable territories in Chapada do Apodi.