Bringing family farming and agroecology to the forefront at COP30 shows that another production model is both possible and necessary.
“Expensive, horrible, and disconnected from the local culture.” Many attendees of UN climate negotiations could attest to the first two of these statements. But how many have thought about the third?
COP30 is now taking place in Belem, capital of the state of Pará in the north of Brazil, and the gateway to the Brazilian Amazon.
This is the first UNFCCC 'conference of the parties' to serve food sourced from at least 30 per cent family farming, agroecology, and the production of traditional peoples and communities.
Cooperatives
The move has been estimated to be worth more than £470,000 into the region’s rural production, generating income for thousands of families.
The procurement rule, announced by the Brazilian government in June, was the result of a grass-roots campaign by Na Mesa da COP30, a coalition of Brazilian civil society organisations led by the non-profit Regenera Institute and Brazilian think tank Comida do Amanhã.
It advocates for healthier and more diverse food for participants, and also for the strengthening of agricultural practices that respect the forest and the ancestral knowledge of the Amazonian peoples.
According to the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), which sets the rules for selecting the food service providers for the conference, the commitment must prioritise sustainable-based practices and collective enterprises, and organisations led by women and rural youth.
“This injection of resources is not just a number. It means strengthening cooperatives, associations, small producers, and communities that embrace practices respecting the forest and traditional knowledge," Maurício Alcântara, director of the Regenera Institute told The Ecologist.
Procurement
"It presents a real opportunity for impact. Bringing family farming and agroecology to the forefront at COP30 shows that another production model is both possible and necessary.”
The campaign had to convince people that the supply chain was sufficient to supply a COP. While they knew that it was, the producers were not adequately visible, so it carried out a mapping exercise of local cooperatives and associations to prove it.
This found at least 80 producer groups, including associations, cooperatives, and productive networks, as well as around 8,000 family farming households, were identified as having potential to supply food for the conference.
The rule applies to the raw ingredients for all meals served at COP30 - whether they are regional Amazonian dishes or international, according to Alcantara.
It has been modelled on other Brazilian public procurement programmes, such as the National School Meals Program (PNAE) and the National Food Procurement Program (PAA).
Canhapira
These policies also require a minimum of 30 per cent procurement from family farming and traditional communities, eligibility for which is regulated through the government’s Family Farmer Registry (CAF).
Bringing family farming and agroecology to the forefront at COP30 shows that another production model is both possible and necessary.
Sourcing must be traceable, with information publicised in menus, so delegates should be able to see social and environmental impacts of meals served at COP.
The decision to source food from alternative sources has not been without controversy. The OEI initially banned ingredients and foods such as açaí (a berry), tucupi (a sauce made from fermented manioc root), and maniçoba (ground cassava leaves cooked for seven days) from the official COP30 menu due to contamination fears.
All are all traditional foods that are staples in the daily diet of Amazonian populations. A coalition of food businesses from the state led by non-profit the Paulo Martins Institute leapt to the defence of the foods and the ban was reversed.
Other types of food delegates can expect will include canhapira, a dish from an indigenous group native to Marajó Island near Belem; jambu, a herb that numbs the tongue; cupuaçu, the fruit of a tropical rainforest tree related to cacao; and the Amazon’s iconic fish, pirarucu.
Nutrition
Farmers and producers of ingredients that will make their way to the food stands at COP30 include Raimunda Rodrigues, who manages production of flour, oils and Brazil nuts from the Rio Novo community.
For Rodriguez, these foods are not just products, but represent the history of the community. Born and raised in a rubber tapper community, she remembers how her parents did not know anything about selling products, always selling cheaply to an intermediary.
Though they tried to find a better way, neither could read or write.
After Rodriguez became literate, doors started to open, and they found ways to earn money for the food products more directly, through a ‘cantina’, a trading post in the community where producers could come and sell their products and receive money and goods on the spot.
Rodriguez and Marcelo Salazar then co-founded Mazô Maná, a company that produces nutrition products.
Commercialised
This includes the Amazon Forest Supershake, a 100 per cent plant-based food supplement made from 14 ingredients from Amazon biodiversity including babassu, cocoa and Brazil nuts, all of which are bought directly from traditional communities or family farmers in the region, at a price above market prices.
Rodriguez’s community is very conscious of having lower harvests than previously, she said. Her community harvested no Brazil nuts this year, which she blames on climate change.
“People who work in agribusiness only care about money," she told The Ecologist. "I always talk about the importance of having a standing forest and protecting indigenous peoples because where they are, the forest is always standing. This is important for the entire world, not just us.”
Salazar said: “The best way to stop deforestation is empower the local communities. When you see a map of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest, it’s very easy to realise that where there are traditional communities, there are standing forests.”
The challenge will be to avoid one product becoming too commercialised, risking the creation of monocultures, he said. Spreading the value across many different products would avoid too much pressure being put on one alone, he said.
Preservation
Pedro da Gabriela farms cacao on his farm in Medicilandia, a municipality in the state of Pará. The varieties he grows are adapted to grow in shade so that they can be planted next to other non-crop trees in an agroforestry system.
He has grown cocoa in this way since he bought the farm in 2009, converting it from a sugar cane plantation. He joined forces with Francisco Monteiro, who developed a methodology to use in his Roça sem Queimar (Farming Without Burning) project.
Da Gabriela became enchanted by the Uirapuru, a species of forest bird, whose song is revered in Amazonian legends, being a symbol of luck, love, and hope.
“The uirapuru won’t stay in secondary forest – his business is well-preserved, native forest, so it is an indicator of environmental quality.”
Moved by a desire to protect the bird, he acquired new areas of forest, transforming them into preservation spaces. Today, he maintains an area of 200 hectares dedicated to the protection of the Uirapuru.
Sociobioeconomy
There are now six pairs on his land. Other wildlife species that thrive on his land include the macaw, howler monkeys and agouti.
“The Uirapuru is my companion. I'll be willing to defend this bird as long as god allows me to,” he said.
Along with 40 other small producers in the COOPATRANS cooperative, da Gabriela supplies his cocoa to Cacauway, the first chocolate factory in the Amazon region.
The sourcing of local, nutritious, and sustainable food at COP30 also aims to demonstrate that forests are worth more standing than cut down, and that local communities and Indigenous peoples are the best managers of that – an idea civil society organisations have been advocating for years.
Many support the concept of a ‘sociobioeconomy’. While bioeconomies are defined as those using biological resources to create eco-friendly products and services, the sociobioeconomy goes a step further, by also incorporating the nexus between indigenous people and other traditional communities with the way they sustainably manage ecosystems.
Mitigation
As well as generating an immense variety of products and services, the sociobioeconomy can conserve millions of hectares of forests: for each kilogramme of a cocoa bean or rubber from those communities, carbon is captured, biodiversity protected, soil regenerated and water flows maintained.
A study by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) concluded that Pará's sociobioeconomy has the potential to generate more than R$170 billion in revenue by 2040.
In June 2024, the Brazilian government launched a national bioeconomy strategy, outlining guidelines, definitions and main objectives. An implementation plan is due to be launched soon.
The Climate and Society Institute (iCS) has been closely following the government’s approach, and believes it to be aligned with its own.
Pedro Zanetti, land use and sustainable agriculture specialist at philanthropic organisation at the iCS, said: “We believe Brazil is well positioned to scale the bioeconomy approach and leverage its transformative potential for sustainable development, improving people’s wellbeing and reducing poverty while advancing climate change mitigation and adaptation.”
Legacy
Alcantara however pointed out that the government’s bioeconomy strategy is quite broad, and though it encompasses forest economy and agroecology, it also includes other agendas—such as biofuels and agricultural bio-inputs.
While keeping the concept broad could attract investment to a greener economy, it could also increase the risk of monopolies being created to exploit natural resources, he said.
This is why many civil society organisations emphasise the inclusion of ‘socio’ in the bioeconomy, since it stresses the need to include the human and social aspects behind the resources, and the knowledge of traditional communities in value chains, he added.
Na Mesa da COP30 expects the event’s procurement rule to stimulate public policies and food practices that continue supporting family farming even after COP, leaving a permanent legacy.
Traditions
It will monitor execution of the rules, and plans to produce an independent report that can be used by other conferences, so that future conferences adopt food practices that align with the changes sought at the negotiation tables.
The organisation hopes to get Amazonian food and the sociobioeconomy into the public’s imagination. At the moment, supermarkets in Belém are more likely to stock strawberries than Amazonian fruit like cupuaçu, according to Alcantara.
It has expanded its database of producers, and believes that once the foods and production are recognised, the infrastructure needed to continue to receiving production from family farms will be put in place permanently.
“The food that is offered at COP is usually expensive, horrible, and not connected to local traditions - it is disconnected from an understanding of what food is - it is climate action,” he said.
This Author
Catherine Early is chief reporter for The Ecologist and freelance environmental journalist. Find her on and Bluesky @catearly.bsky.social. She travelled to Para courtesy of The Nature Conservancy and the Climate and Society Institute.
