1. How does your ideal sustainable food system look like in the context of your country/region of expertise?
The ideal food system starts with accomplishing environmental law. In Brazil we have a strict environmental law that requires protecting the riparian areas and also a legal reserve. That is about 20% of the land that must be covered with native vegetation, besides the riparian areas close to the rivers.
So, the producers need to accomplish environmental law. This is also good for them, because this way they will have some ecosystem services provided, such as pollination, plague control, and better water quantity and quality, and also soil erosion prevention, biodiversity conservation, and many other ecosystem services provisioning. So, accomplishing environmental law is the first step, and also you will have some benefits to your crop this way.
Furthermore, an ideal sustainable food system includes, besides the specific land holding, a diverse landscape. So, not only do you have some forest areas and crop areas and good integration in only one land holding, but also a good production of food and good biodiversity preservation and ecosystem services provision.
Finally, you have some micro-industries and some processing structures that can be used by the neighbors regionally, so that you can process those products from the crops in a way that can add value. This way you can have better and, if possible, certified products with organic, agroecological, and other certifications, like FSC.
So, this ideal food system also has good value added to the product in a way that it can reach the markets and have good income for the families, and also with good distribution. Thus, not only getting income, but distributing it among many land owners.
Not to forget innovation, of course. Innovation to have products from the biodiversity, because Brazil is a country with great biodiversity, more than we use.
Bioeconomy is another key factor. It is important because many times you use the same grains of a temporary regions. It is not this way in a biodiverse country. We should have more products coming from biodiversity, oils, native fruits, forest, and non-wood forest products, and this is just an overview.
2. Can you share with us your experience of supporting changes/ transitions towards sustainable food systems in a country/region?
We have implemented some projects in the state of Sao Paulo from the policy side to foster agroecological certifications. It also includes to help creating associations of farmers that can produce in a more sustainable way, and also restore the forests, because we had deforestation process in the last two centuries in the state. So, we have some initiatives to foster certification, agroecological and organic certification.
Also, payment for ecosystem services. We recently carried out a seven-year project in which two specific landscapes were contemplated. The landowners received payment for ecosystem services and to change the way they produce, such as moving from degraded ecosystems and agroecosystems to more sustainable ones with more functionalities.
The multifunctional agri-food systems that we fostered, incentivized through public policy, was a very successful project called Atlantic Forest Connection Project. So, the farmers were incentivized to restore forests, preserve forests, change from degraded pastures, land to agroforestry, to sustainable agri-pasture systems, and also another environmental-friendly practices that also add value to their production, to their lands, and adds income.
3. In your view, what are the key triggers and success factors for change to happen?
First of all, helping them to know. As we say, for this change to happen, we need people to know, to want, and to and have the power to do. Those three are the key issues. Sharing information about how these systems are better to accomplish with the law, better for helping the environment, and better for an increased income.
For that, capacity building was indeed a trigger for success. Investing in technical support for landowners, and building capacity and space for them to share information.
So, not only one way of transformation, but also enabling an environment in which the processes continue even when you don not have the policy anymore. I think the most structuring thing is to co-produce science and policy. Like the project I am currently coordinating, BIOTA Synthesis, which has the objective to co-produce science and policy. This project was from the start developed together with the researchers and the policy makers. That was a key to success, because this way you have the requirements from the beginning.
It might not be the way that the researcher goes and from his or her curiosity thinks, 'Oh, I think this should help the policy in this way'. But thinking together from the beginning, from writing the project and through the whole process. So, building more real transformations is also a key issue.
