The operation of the Network is horizontal and decentralized and is based on the organization of producing families in informal groups, associations or cooperatives. These organizations articulate with consumer associations or cooperatives, NGOs and other institutions and form a Regional Center, limited to a specific geographical area. Each Center has a coordination with an animation and management task. The sum of the different nuclei (in the states of RS, SC and PR) form the Ecovida Agroecology Network. The Network also has a coordination composed of representatives of the states that besides the animating function, also has a deliberative function.

The Extended Meeting is the moment of greatest articulation of the 32 nuclei that make up the Ecovida Network in the three states of southern Brazil and southern São Paulo. One of the goals of the Network is to promote the cultivation and consumption of healthy foods. Currently, there are 4,500 families producing without the use of pesticides. In the north coast of Rio Grande do Sul, the Solidary Coastal Nucleus represents the Ecovida Network and is formed by more than 40 ecological agriculture groups.

With the theme "Gender, Generation and Knowledge", the XI Extended Meeting of the Ecovida Agroecology Network, held in Anchieta (SC) from November 15 to 17 around 800 Agroecological farmers, support and advisory entities, as well as Universities, Research Institutes and consumers sympathetic to the agroecological cause, from the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and São Paulo, will participate in this event.

In addition to strengthening the ‘’Without Feminism there is no Agroecology’’ motto, women were crucial in incorporating  the overcoming of all forms of violence (gender, race, ethnicity, LGBT phobia) as a goal of the Ecovida Network's political strategy. In addition, youths set up a Working Group to strengthen their articulation and agenda building, which goes well beyond "generational succession". 

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Photo credit: Cepagro