CSIPM Priorities to Strengthen Urban and Peri-Urban Food Systems

Good afternoon. Thank you very much. Greetings to everyone present. Today the Civil Society Mechanism is going to bring practical experiences of public, private and community collaboration to address different challenges of food insecurity. It is very important for us to reinforce that if the countryside does not produce food, the city does not eat.

So that brings us to the need for connections between farmers and consumers and also to address the governance of those farmers in public policies to produce agroecological food. It is also important to emphasise that there are alternatives to markets and that the gap between agroecological consumers and producers can be bridged in many ways. It is very important to connect producers and consumers directly because in this way we lower the price of products and producers and consumers gain.

I am going to present here an experience which is community supported agriculture or community supported agriculture, which promotes co-responsibility in food production. How does it work? A farmer, usually from the peri-urban area of the city, is financed by people who live in the city, who want to know where their food comes from and also support the regeneration of this land.

There we work with several principles which are mainly mutual support, maintaining an appropriate scale and diversity. And there comes also that stability and that financial stability for that farmer and people from the city visit the places and have also that connection with nature and understand where their food comes from. Here in Brazil, URGENCI is represented by CSA Brazil, Communities that Sustain Agriculture, we have more than 250 initiatives at the country level.

There we can see how areas that were deforested start to be regenerated with process agriculture and not input agriculture, and where we can deliver at a point of coexistence the food that is produced in a regenerative way. In short, the communities that sustain agriculture bring a paradigm shift. The culture of price to appreciation, they also promote the culture of peace, healthy food, regenerative agriculture and most importantly, that financial health for farmers in peri-urban areas to not give in to real estate pressure that always tends to increase the cities and decrease the place of food production and with that food and nutritional sovereignty and security.

And we also like to say that it is one. It is social culture because they are new ways of relating the countryside to the city. It is also related to focusing on producers but also on consumers. It is no good if we only talk about producing healthy food, if we don’t focus on the fact that we need consumers who understand the need for healthier food production both for people and for the environment, we can’t stop talking about the one health, like the one health for our planet Earth, for us to continue to inhabit planet Earth in a sustainable and healthy way, and that commitment usually comes from whoever gets to pay for their food.

But we can’t forget the people who can’t afford to pay for that food. And in Brazil, a programme has just been implemented which is the Solidarity Kitchens programme, which unlike other types of soup kitchens, this comes from the community because it is managed by the community itself and that makes all the difference for them to preserve the tradition of their cultural food and avoid the erosion of heritage, to feed in their territories.

And that also recognises the promotion of solidarity. And these kitchens are being financed by the government. And the purchase of the agro-ecological food acquisition programme is also being carried out. This is very important so that this agro-ecological food reaches the vulnerable population that cannot afford it. We have the example of the solidarity kitchen of the MTST in Sol Naciente, which is 20 kilometres from the National Congress of Brazil in Brasilia and which produces food for 300 people in its community.

And it is important to emphasise that it is not a private group. It is a community group that came together to make this other group. Some women from the Rising Sun collective, who bring both the empowerment of women and also labour inclusion, where they prepare themselves to learn about cooking and prepare 250 meals to be delivered to the neighbours.

It is also important to highlight the promotion and support for urban agriculture. So, we believe that there has to be a clear recommendation from governments to support urban agriculture, to integrate it with development plans. I found Filippo’s previous presentation very interesting, because we need governments to really look for the places that are going to be left for agriculture within the city or in the peri-urban areas, or else we are not going to have anywhere to produce food.

And then stop talking about the environmental services that these urban gardens provide. And apart from environmental services, people know that many social services are provided. One very important thing is access to water. Access to water should be recognised as a fundamental right, because in urban gardens that is the main problem, when they start paying for that water.

Here is another experience of the solidarity kitchen together with the Osvaldo Cruz Foundation and the Homeless Workers’ Movement, where they finance and support the production of food. Forty percent of what goes into these dishes is produced right next to the kitchen. It is from a foundation that works directly with the implementation of public health policies and in the collective a Sol Naciente next to the kitchen.

That was the land. We made an action, it was like that and yesterday it was like that. So there is food production in small spaces. Of course it’s not going to be 100% of the food needed to produce that food, but yes, it also has an educational effect for people. To get people to eat healthier and to reduce the consumption of ultra-processed food. Because we know that ultra-processed foods are very present in the peripheral areas of cities.

And I can’t stop talking about the mental health benefits of agriculture. Urban agriculture also promotes social cohesion, wellbeing and community empowerment, because food not only serves as sustenance, but also brings people together to combat illnesses such as depression and other mental health problems. And it can also address the class issues that people in that community are experiencing.

Here I am going to present the last example, which is the biodynamic agroforestry medicinal gardens network, and here it is very interesting because it is intersectoral and involves different actors. There is the Ministry of Health, the Osvaldo Cruz Foundation, which is also federal and state, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and the communities. The people who participate in the health days.

So here, 25 vegetable gardens were implemented within the health services. So both food and medicinal plants are produced. These medicinal plants are harvested and processed in laboratories and returned to the health service as phytotherapy, which are given free of charge to the community and also serve as an open-air room. Then people do nutritional education in the garden and also learn the techniques of urban agriculture to grow food in their homes or in other community areas.

So here 25 gardens were implemented within the health services. So both food and medicinal plants are produced. That medicinal plant is harvested and processed in laboratories and goes back to the health service as phytotherapy which is given free of charge to the community and also serves as an open air room. Then people do nutritional education in the garden and also learn the techniques of urban agriculture to grow food in their homes or in other community areas.

We have had other vegetable gardens here where women, apart from using them as medicine, also feed themselves and also carry out integrative practices that are other forms of care paradigms, apart from the biomedical, where there is also a space of trust and appreciation of the different age stages, where older people and children can share and they also feel useful.

We can see this in Itapuã, a periphery where the majority of the people, 45%, are food insecure, and where, after five months, they were in this situation.

And delivering food and medicinal plants. So, spaces that were idle, full of rubbish and causing a problem of possible zoonosis, of transmission of arvovirosis. It becomes a place that provides a service to the community. Then ‘the day will come when a simple carrot, observed with freshness, can unleash a revolution’. – Paul Cezanne. And as we like to say in the community that sustains agriculture Brazil, the world does not move alone and we need the help of everyone, at all levels, from international, federal, state, and community present to change and decrease the number of people who are going hungry on our planet today.

Thank you very much.