This Friday (3/10), the city of Curitiba laid the cornerstone for the city’s second Urban Farm. The event was attended by LUPPA’s general coordinator, Juliana Tângari, and Mayor Rafael Greca, who signed the cooperation agreement for participation as a Mentor City in LUPPA’s 2nd edition, as well as representatives of several municipal departments. The event is part of the program celebrating Curitiba’s 330th anniversary and took place at Parque dos Tropeiros, where the new Farm, scheduled for 2024, will be built. In LUPPA’s 1st edition, Curitiba served as Mentor City for Porto Alegre-RS, Sobral-CE and Niterói-RJ. Given the success of the mentoring work carried out in the 1st edition, the partnership was renewed for the 2023 cycle. “With sustainable agriculture, the Urban Farm is already helping to educate the population about the importance of rural life, showing that the act of sowing is the first stage of the food chain,” said Greca at the event.

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As a symbolic act, students taking part in the Linhas do Conhecimento program planted grafted araucaria and yerba mate seedlings in the future Agroforestry area, the part of the park reserved for the Farm. According to the city government’s official portal, the facility will include a Food and Nutrition Security school equipped with a multifunctional kitchen and composting area, a space for sustainable food growing, headquarters with administrative areas, a Regional Office of SMSAN (Municipal Department of Food and Nutrition Security), an eco-coworking space, classrooms and space for conferences and meetings. Also attending the launch were the Secretary of Food and Nutrition Security, Luiz Damaso Gusi, the Municipal Secretary of Education, Maria Sílvia Bacila, City Councilor Pier Petruzziello, the general head of Embrapa Florestas, Erich Gomes Schaitza, and the administrator of the CIC Regional Office, Raphael Keiji Assahida. For more details about the farm, read the full article on the city’s official website here.