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Food Systems

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By Instituto Escolhas

30 March 2023

3 minute read

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Urban Agricultural will be a strategy to combat famine

During an event promoted by the Josué de Castro Fellowship, in partnership with Instituto Escolhas, ministers declare their support to include Urban Agricultural with priority into the agenda of the Federal Government.

 

It is difficult – if not impossible – to think about any negative consequence for the promotion of food production in the cities. Positive consequences on the other hand, are plentiful, and therefore, the theme has been occupying ample space in the Government´s agenda. This is what participants realized during the seminar – How can Urban Agriculture contribute for promotion of healthy and sustainable nutritional environments? promoted by the Josué de Castro Fellowship in partnership with Instituto Escolhas, on March 30th.

The opening speech was given by Full Professor of the Josué de Castro Fellowship and Senior Professor Ricardo Abramovay from Procam/IEE/USP, and counted with the participation of Milton Fornazieri, Secretary of Supply, Cooperativism and Food Sovereignty of the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture (Ministry of Agriculture), and Patrícia Gentil, Director of Promotion of Adequate and Healthy Food at the Ministry of Social Development, Family and Fight Against Famine (MDS). Ana Paula Bortoletto, researcher at Nupens/USP and at the Josué de Castro Fellowship, acted as moderator.

To guide the debate, Jaqueline Ferreira, portfolio manager of Instituto Escolhas, presented data on the potential and challenges of Urban Agriculture in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo and in the city of Belém (Pará). “The type of work that Instituto Escolhas is performing is pioneering in Brazil, for disclosing the link between the occupation potential of urban areas with productive activities that generate income, that reorganize territories, that fight food deserts and offer nutritional elements to the Brazilian population – and, in a way, the global population – is lacking, which is fresh food”, pointed out Abramovay at the event.

In sequence, Mayra Barata, researcher at NUPENS/USP and also researcher at the Fellowship, provided complimentary data on the impact of food on the health of Brazilian people.

 

Interministerial Affair

Milton Fornazieri stated that the Ministry of Agriculture considers Urban Agriculture as a new frontier in the fight to hunger and poor food distribution in Brazil. “With these challenges, we need to unify the three administration levels: municipalities, states and federal government, with the federal government in charge to drive this construction and transform Urban Agriculture into a source of income and job opportunity generation”, he ponders.

The secretary also mentioned the problem of the “commodity dictatorship”, which led the country to lose more than a million hectares of land destined for bean planting and 3 million hectares for rice cultivation, that were converted into soybean plantations.

Patricia Gentil emphasized the relevance of the work performed by Instituto Escolhas for advocacy actions in the national policy aimed at advancing the Urban Agriculture agenda. In her view, Urban Agriculture today emerges in a much stronger agenda under the perspective of food safety and nutritional strategies.

 

“We need to take a more inclusive look. This is what we have been discussing at national level, in face of the new challenges posed, such as the epidemiological picture, the environmental crisis, the fact that 80% of the population going hungry lives in cities, and the consequences of the urbanization process. Facing this scenario, we need emerging agendas, connected, that address the challenge”, he stated.

The representatives of the ministries signaled, also, that the potential of Urban Agriculture should be a highlight at the National Conference on Food and Nutritional Security, to be resumed this year.

Access the platforms and learn about platform on food production in the city of Belém and in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo.

 

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