3 November 2025 – Santiago, Chile – With the aim of reflecting on how to make cities more livable, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable—by strengthening the link between rural and urban areas—and to commemorate World Cities Day, the webinar “Cities that Feed the Future: Innovations for Sustainable Urban Agrifood Systems” was held. 

The event was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through its Sustainable Urban Food Systems Program, in collaboration with the Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ABC/MRE) and the Ministry of Social Development and Assistance, Family and the Fight Against Hunger (MDS), within the framework of the regional project Urban Agrifood Systems, part of the Brazil–FAO International Cooperation Programme. 

According to estimates from ECLAC, Latin America’s population reached 663 million people in 2024, consolidating a continuous trend of urbanization that is redefining territorial, productive, and consumption dynamics. “In this context, agrifood systems face the challenge of ensuring affordable, healthy, and sustainable diets, integrating criteria of production efficiency, technological innovation, and environmental sustainability,” explained João Intini, FAO Policy Officer for Food Systems. 

The meeting brought together representatives of national, subnational, and local governments, civil society organizations, and FAO specialists to exchange experiences, innovations, and strategic frameworks aimed at strengthening sustainability, food security, and resilience in urban and peri-urban territories across the region. 

Mariana Falcão, Project Analyst at ABC/MRE, emphasized the importance of the event as an expansion of the long-standing partnership between Brazil and FAO to connect urban and rural policies, strengthening public institutions responsible for food supply and marketing. “It brings together experiences and ideas that also drive the future in spaces for innovation, dialogue, and policymaking,” she stated. 

Luiz Beduschi, Senior Policy Officer for Rural Development and Coordinator of the programmatic area A Better Environment at FAO for Latin America and the Caribbean, stressed that “transforming agrifood systems along the urban–rural continuum is essential to achieving food security, environmental sustainability, and inclusive development, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and regional action priorities. Only then can we advance toward a better environment that ensures progress toward better production, better nutrition, and a better life, leaving no one behind.” 

For her part, Isis Núñez Ferrera, Coordinator of Urban Agrifood Systems at FAO’s Division of Agrifood Systems and Food Security, presented the Organization’s latest publication on transforming agrifood systems from a systemic perspective, considering structural changes from production to consumption and post-consumption. “Transforming urban agrifood systems is not abstract—it means governing land, food, and well-being in ways that allow us to create fairer, greener, and more resilient cities,” she affirmed.

Successful initiatives: towards the transformation of agrifood systems

The event highlighted experiences in urban food planning, urban and peri-urban agriculture, and sustainable management of distribution and marketing systems, showcasing the growing role of cities in transforming agrifood systems. 

The Municipality of Curridabat, Costa Rica, presented its “Sweet City” initiative, which integrates nature, well-being, and citizen participation by promoting urban biodiversity and strengthening the connection between people, communities, and ecosystems. The city also shared its experience with 12 community gardens established since 2017—some with therapeutic goals, others economic and productive—all designed to reconnect people in urban environments. 

From Brazil, the city of Osasco shared its experience in strengthening local policies for urban sustainability, integrating territorial planning with food security initiatives such as the Food Bank, which benefits more than 21,000 people every week. 

Patrícia Gentil, Director of the Department for the Promotion of Adequate and Healthy Diets at the National Secretariat for Food and Nutritional Security (SESAN) of the MDS, shared good practices in Brazilian public policies designed to ensure healthy diets for vulnerable populations—policies that, in 2025, helped the country leave the Hunger Map. One such policy is the Alimenta Cidades (Feed Cities) strategy. “Urban hunger differs from rural hunger: it is shaped by access, distribution, logistics, price, the debate around urban food supply, and the rural–urban connection,” she noted. 

From Chile, representatives of the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism (MINECON) discussed a draft bill to strengthen street markets. Currently, there are about 1,300 markets across the country, employing more than 300,000 people. 

Another Chilean example came from Cerro Navia, which presented its pioneering municipal food bank, the first of its kind in the country, established in late 2019. This initiative inspired other municipalities, and just last week, the second public food bank in Chile was inaugurated in Cerrillos. 

In Colombia, the Colatina initiative in Tumaco District recovers fish-processing residues and transforms them into new resources, promoting a circular economy through social innovation. What was once waste—scales and viscera thrown back into the sea—now becomes a new product that prevents waste and dignifies the work of fish processors. 

In Peru, the Network of Community Kitchens of Pachacámac was highlighted for organizing community-based systems to ensure access to food in vulnerable contexts, showcasing the leadership of women in management and sustainability. This initiative allows 1,300 people to eat every day. 

The Comida do Amanhã Institute from Brazil presented information on LUPPA, an urban food policy lab that has become a regional and global reference for urban food system governance.

CISA Network

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 66 cities from 10 countries participate in the Network of Intermediate Cities and Food Systems (CISA Network), with FAO’s technical support. This network fosters cooperation and knowledge exchange on the governance of agrifood systems among local authorities and municipal teams. 

The intermediate cities that make up the CISA Network currently represent about 20% of the region’s population and act as a bridge between rural production areas and large metropolitan centers, ensuring key nodes in the food distribution system.