On Wednesday (the 29th), the Laboratório Urbano de Políticas Públicas Alimentares (LUPPA – Urban Laboratory of Public Food Policies) held the third seminar of the program’s 5th edition. Organized by Instituto Comida do Amanhã and co-implemented with ICLEI América do Sul, the online meeting brought together municipal officials from the network to discuss the challenges of food monotony and actions within cities’ reach to promote diversity in food systems. The event was supported by the Cátedra Josué de Castro (USP) and is part of LUPPA’s 2026 training program.

Addressing the concept and challenges of the triple food monotony, researcher Nadine Marques – nutritionist, with a master’s and PhD in Public Health from the USP School of Public Health and executive coordinator of the Cátedra Josué de Castro – presented an overview of food systems and their complex, network-based organization, and explained how the Green Revolution of the 1960s and the prevalence of techniques that expanded agricultural and livestock production in the post-war context continue to shape practices to this day.

In this context, the triple food monotony emerges – formed mainly by monocultures in agriculture; the prevalence of intensive breeds in livestock farming; and ultra-processed products in food. In addition, the expert also addressed the impact of the hegemony of corporate control over production in the countryside, which influences the availability of seeds, pesticides and production models that follow the logic of a few, but gigantic, private-sector companies.

The local counterpoint comes from agroecology and its practices. Highlights include seed diversification with the incorporation of heirloom (crioula) seeds, which are kept by traditional communities, bio-inputs instead of chemical fertilizers, integrated crop rotation and agroforestry systems. Prioritizing local species adapted to regional biomes to revive food cultures and de-intensifying poultry/pig farming, as well as moderately intensifying cattle farming with regulation of antibiotics, were also practices mentioned by the researcher throughout the webinar.

Among the experiences shared by participating cities in the effort against food monotony, the municipalities of Campinas (SP), Niterói (RJ) and Santarém (PA) brought local experiences to broaden the debate:

• Mariana Maia, from Campinas (SP), presented the “Campinas Solidária e Sustentável” (Supportive and Sustainable Campinas) Program (Law 16.183/2021, 2024 Decree), which encourages agroecological urban agriculture with 253 registered gardens, providing 300,000 seedlings, compost, tool kits and water at a social tariff.
• lbson Viana, from Niterói (RJ), detailed Law 3.766/2023, which prohibits the sale of ultra-processed foods and beverages in public and private schools; the law originated from research on childhood obesity and engages with solidarity kitchens and sustainable food workshops.
• Vanderlina Maia, from Santarém (PA), shared the 2026 partnership with Emater-PA (via ICMBio in the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve), which offers rural technical assistance to 5,000 extractivist/riverside families, diversifying from cassava to vegetables/fruits.

The seminar reinforced that food monotony is not an individual choice, but a model rooted in the current agri-food system, whose alternatives and improvements involve agroecology and local coordination. By connecting theory and practice, the LUPPA seminar showed how Brazilian cities can lead the transition to more diverse, sustainable and fair food systems, with practical examples from Brazilian cities and their social, cultural and environmental contexts.

About the Program

LUPPA is a collaborative platform and an ongoing learning program to support and enable cities to promote food policies with a systemic approach, in an intersectoral, coherent and participatory way. Conceived by Instituto Comida do Amanhã and co-implemented with ICLEI Brasil, it receives full support from Instituto Ibirapitanga, ICS – Instituto Clima e Sociedade, ITAÚSA, Instituto Infinis and Porticus, as well as institutional support from FAO Brasil – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.