A tool to help cities achieve healthy food systems for people and the planet

The world’s largest public food policy laboratory

LUPPA – the Urban Laboratory for Public Food Policy – is a collaborative platform and an ongoing learning program designed to support and enable cities to promote food policies through a systemic, intersectoral, coherent, and participatory approach.

Cities play a strategic role in transforming food systems. Ensuring the human right to adequate food and nutrition requires incorporating urban dynamics into solutions for contemporary food challenges.

We believe that municipal governments and local organizations are indispensable actors in this process, and LUPPA was born out of this conviction.

The program was conceived as a tool to support cities in achieving food systems that are healthy for people and the planet, resilient to climate and economic vulnerabilities, and promoters of social justice – through the democratic development of integrated and coherent policies that address urban food challenges in a systemic manner. The program is designed based on the latest evidence regarding the importance of urban food policy for transforming food systems. The laboratory’s design is grounded in robust international literature on urban food policy, from a systemic perspective.

As a public policy laboratory, LUPPA addresses the need to increase the number of Brazilian cities with structured, multi-year, data-driven food strategies, while also strengthening the production and systematization of information on local food systems.

LUPPA and the SDGs

Our actions contribute to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals

Understanding LUPPA

Why did we create LUPPA?

We created LUPPA to support local governments in building healthy, resilient, and equitable

food systems.

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Why is it important to address food policies with a systemic approach?

When these policies are integrated and developed in a participatory manner, they can deliver efficient, lasting, legitimate, and therefore effective results.

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Who participates?

LUPPA was designed so that municipal governments and other stakeholders in urban food systems can collaborate on the development of public food policies.

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Why strengthen local policy?

Local governments play a decisive role in promoting sustainable systems and eliminating all forms of malnutrition.

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What can cities do?

Urban agriculture, circular food systems, and public procurement are examples of structural measures in municipal plans.

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How does LUPPA work?

Selected cities participate in a training program, an in-person phase, and a structured mentoring phase among themselves.

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Testimonials

“These moments of exchange that take place during all LUPPA and LUPPA LAB activities are motivating and inspiring, as they encourage us to put into practice policies and actions that will contribute to food and nutritional security and to the promotion of urban agriculture and agroecology.”

Elinia Marsango

Representative from Itajaí (SC)

“LUPPA has changed our lives; it has transformed the structure of municipal public policy on food and nutritional security, and I’m certain that LUPPA will provide us with even more tools to implement effective public policies in Caruaru.”

Wesley Nascimento

Representative from Caruaru (PE)

“The city has made great strides in recent years, and LUPPA has played a key role in this from the very beginning. Because it fosters a sense of purpose, it reenergizes the entire team with new ideas and proposals, and that helps in our day-to-day work. So LUPPA brings new knowledge from scientific and academic sources, as well as resources that are shared to help municipalities move forward.”

João Perez

Representative from Osasco (SP)

“I always say that our municipality being part of LUPPA is a game-changer. We’re always buried in our daily routine, and when we join LUPPA, it gives us that breathing room to look at things differently, to make connections with other cities, to see that many of the problems we face exist elsewhere and have already been solved—and that we can share these solutions.”

Cristina Fabian Gregoletto

Representative from Caxias do Sul (RS)

“LUPPA has truly delivered on its mission: to bring cities closer together, fostering collaboration and exchange so that we can strengthen food and nutritional security.”

Edson Cardoso

Representative from Barcarena (PA)

“Being here is a unique opportunity to see other municipalities with initiatives very similar to ours, which are more developed and better organized, and this helps enrich our experience so that we can apply these lessons in our own municipality and add more value to the work we’re already doing. This is incredible work.”

Jennifer Ferraz

Representative from Cariri (CE)

Recognition

An innovative, impact-driven laboratory focused on urban and peri-urban food systems.

LUPPA in SOFI

In 2023, LUPPA was cited in the report “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” (SOFI) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO/UN). The report, whose theme was “Urbanization, the Transformation of Agri-Food Systems, and Healthy Diets in the Urban-Rural Continuum,” highlighted LUPPA as a model to follow for achieving SDG 2.

LUPPA in “From Plate to Planet”

In 2023, LUPPA was cited as the only initiative from the Global South in support networks for cities on the topic of local food systems in the report “From Plate to Planet: How Local Governments Are Driving Action on Climate Change Through Food,” by the International Panel of Experts on the Transition to Sustainable Food Systems (IPES FOOD – 2023). The document brings together pioneering local initiatives in the development of food policies and climate change mitigation strategies from around the world.

LUPPA at the HLPE – FSN

In 2024, LUPPA was highlighted as a national network of cities in a report by the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food and Nutrition Security (HLPE – FSN), a subsidiary body of the UN Committee on World Food Security. Each year, the report focuses on a specific theme and compiles technical analyses and public policy recommendations. On that occasion, the chosen theme was urban and peri-urban food systems in the context of growing global urbanization.

LUPPA at FAO

In 2025, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released the publication “Transforming Food and Agriculture through a Systems Approach,” a report that explains and illustrates the concept and importance of adopting a systems approach in food systems. The document cites and recognizes LUPPA as one of the leading examples of urban food policies with an integrated approach.

Supporters and partners

Concept and general coordination

Co-implementation

Full support

Institutional support

Mentor cities

Mentoring organizations

LIBRARY

EDITIONS

CONTACT

BIBLIOTECA

EDIÇÕES

CONTATO