Gender and Social Justice in Urban Agriculture: The Network of Agroecological and Peripheral Female Urban Farmers from São Paulo

Laura Martins De Carvalho,Cláudia Maria Bógus

doi:10.3390/socsci9080127

Abstract

This article analyses women’s participation in the ‘Network of Agroecological and Peripheral Female Urban Farmers’, an agroecological urban agriculture grassroots network in São Paulo, Brazil. The methodology used was participant observation. The following procedures were used to produce the data: participation in three workshops, direct observation, field notes, and an in-depth interview with two of the organizers and three participants. The results show that the Network engendered the formation of a popular feminist collective identity, as it fostered the awareness of oppressive social structures, such as gender inequality and violence against women, of which many participants were survivors. From a technical standpoint, the Network seeks to expand its scope of action, increase the number of participants, establish new partnerships and access multiple sources of funding to obtain greater autonomy from São Paulo City Council.

Highlights

Numerous studies have investigated the dynamics of gender issues in urban agriculture in countries like Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Senegal, India, the Philippines, Peru, Argentina, Mexico and Portugal (Hovorka et al 2009; Delgado 2017)
In large cities of developing countries, population growth associated with increasing poverty, unemployment and gender inequality represents an even greater challenge for local food production, and it is associated with food and nutritional insecurity and governance inefficiency (Hovorka et al 2009; Cabannes 2012)
All of the urban farmers or community gardeners demonstrated an increasing need to assume operational aspects of community gardens or urban farms; that is, to build conditions to manage the sites with greater autonomy

Summary

Introduction

Numerous studies have investigated the dynamics of gender issues in urban agriculture in countries like Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Senegal, India, the Philippines, Peru, Argentina, Mexico and Portugal (Hovorka et al 2009; Delgado 2017). Research on gender issues in urban agriculture in the metropolitan regions of Brazil and in the city of São Paulo is still incipient. Due to socio-political, historical and cultural reasons, women’s efforts in urban agriculture are not properly recognized by São Paulo City Council and, they do not receive the necessary resources and equipment to fully develop their activities (Bellenzani et al 2019). In large cities of developing countries, population growth associated with increasing poverty, unemployment and gender inequality represents an even greater challenge for local food production, and it is associated with food and nutritional insecurity and governance inefficiency (Hovorka et al 2009; Cabannes 2012). The city of São Paulo has 12.5 million inhabitants It is the most populous city in Brazil, on the American continent, and it is the 4th largest metropolitan region in the world, with 21.5 million people

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