Brasília Alternative Urban Food System Initiatives
.svg)
This case innovation has been analysed using the Transformative Intervention Mixes (TIMs) framework. The framework maps the regulatory, economic, social‑behavioural, technological and material interventions at play, clarifying how these elements interact and what this configuration suggests about the innovation’s capacity to support transformative change.
The case analysis draws primarily on evidence synthesised from:
de Abreu Sá Diniz et al. (2024)
Overview
Urban Foraging
Brasília alternative urban food system initiatives (restaurants, schools, fruit-map app, and tree-planting plan)
Urban food systems; biodiversity-friendly consumption; digital mapping for urban commons; school food procurement.
Brasília as a heavily wooded ‘park-city’ with native Cerrado and exotic fruit trees; initiatives link foraging and consumption of biodiversity to alternative food systems and conservation, with emphasis on public policy support and access to green areas.
City-level initiatives in Brasília with linkages to national public policy (National School Feeding Program) and broader social movement-led tree-planting plan.
Practical: incorporation of collected and native species into restaurant offerings and school meals; digital mapping of fruit trees to support foraging.
Political: school feeding public policy and legal framework enabling procurement from small producers; calls to stimulate and support foraging through public policies.
Personal: reframing of urban biodiversity as food and cultural resource, encouraging engagement with green areas and alternative food practices.
Potential is associated with public policy support, procurement pathways, and digital mapping that lowers barriers to participation; constraints include uneven local cooperative participation and access limitations to some green areas.
TIMs Summary
The case is evidenced through a mix of procurement-linked governance and community-facing initiatives that integrate foraging into an alternative urban food system in Brasília. Regulatory and institutional mechanisms are clearest in the National School Feeding Program and associated legal framework enabling procurement pathways, while market-based tools operate through restaurants and CSA baskets that value native species and incorporate collected products. Technology is explicitly evidenced through the fruit-map application that identifies species and locations, lowering barriers to participation. Biophysical mechanisms are present through the use and expansion of native Cerrado species in urban and peri-urban landscapes, including tree-planting initiatives.
The configuration implies a transformative pathway combining institutional provisioning (school meals) with digitally enabled urban commons practices, with constraints linked to uneven cooperative participation and access conditions.
Implications for Intervention Mix Design
The source material indicates that enhancing transformative scope would require alignment between procurement rules, inclusive access to green infrastructure, and stewardship arrangements to manage harvesting pressure. Additional tool categories that would need alignment include stronger knowledge and monitoring systems for sustainability and more explicit governance of mapped resources.
TIMs Matrix
| Tool Category | Examples | How it ENABLES (mechanisms) | How it HINDERS (barriers) | Opportunities to strengthen | Risks / caveats | Additional suggestions and resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regulatory | Brazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE) and associated legal provisions enabling procurement for public-school food supply; law referenced as enabling purchase from small producers in nearby regions when none are available in the municipality. | The regulatory frame creates binding procurement and programme rules that institutionalise food provision pathways through which native species can enter school meals. | Limited availability of local cooperatives in Brasília is noted in the source material as affecting participation through these procurement channels. | If procurement rules are interpreted narrowly, they may limit incorporation of foraged or under-utilised species in school meals. | Municipal guidance clarifying how biodiversity-friendly products can be incorporated within existing school food regulations. | |
| Financial / Market-Based | Market demand through restaurants valuing local biodiversity in menus; Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) baskets incorporating collected products and expanding native species diversity. | The initiatives uses consumer demand and basket-based market channels to create incentives for sourcing and cultivating native species in agroforestry systems. | Pandemic-related disruptions affected some initiatives (e.g., restaurants and the fruit-map application) by limiting mobility and access. | Expansion of native species in agroforestry systems linked to Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is presented as a strengthening pathway during pandemic conditions. | Commercialisation of foraged resources can create pressure on supply if not matched with stewardship and access governance. | Producer–consumer agreements that embed sustainability norms and traceability for collected or cultivated native species. |
| Information / Education | The source material frames foraging as a practice to be stimulated and supported by public policies and society; documentation and dissemination of initiatives' materials and outreach through app and programme communications. | The initiatives support learning and legitimisation of foraging as part of alternative urban food systems, shaping perceptions of what constitutes acceptable urban food practice. | Information efforts may primarily reach already-engaged publics, limiting inclusivity of participation. | Targeted education through schools and community organisations to broaden awareness and safe practice knowledge. | ||
| Choice Architecture | Fruit-map app identifying fruit species and their geographical location; structuring access to information about where and what to forage. | The fruit-map app increases salience and reduces search costs, making foraging more feasible without restricting choices. | Pandemic conditions weakened some initiatives by reducing mobility and access to mapped sites. | Publicly mapping resources may increase concentrated harvesting pressure in accessible areas. | In-app prompts and governance features that encourage responsible harvesting practices and distribute effort. | |
| Social Norms | Positioning foraging and consumption of native, exotic, neglected and under-utilised species as part of more sustainable and inclusive practices; social movement plan promoting tree planting and healthy food production. | The initiatives shape shared expectations that urban biodiversity can be part of legitimate food provisioning, and that planting and foraging are socially valued practices. | Normative promotion without clear access and stewardship arrangements can generate conflict over public green space use. | Community stewardship groups that co-create local norms and coordinate harvesting etiquette. | ||
| Emotional Appeal | Framing Brasília as an open-air garden and park-city with abundant fruit trees; emphasis on valuing local biodiversity to encourage engagement with green areas. | The initiatives activate attachment and pride in local landscapes to motivate participation in alternative food practices. | Place-based narratives may exclude groups who experience unequal access to green areas or feel unsafe using them. | Equity-focused place-making initiatives that support inclusive access to foraging spaces. | ||
| Technology | Fruit-map mobile app used to map fruit trees and support identification and geolocation of species. | Digital tool enables participation by providing actionable information and supporting coordination among urban foragers. | [No explicit evidence in the source material on long-term maintenance, data governance, or accuracy control for the application.] | Data quality issues or misuse of location data could undermine trust and create unintended ecological or social impacts. | Data stewardship protocols and moderation features for user-generated mapping content. | |
| Infrastructure (Hard/Soft) | Urban green areas and tree infrastructure forming the material basis for foraging in the park-city; organisational infrastructures including CSA distribution and school meals systems. | The initiatives provide physical and organisational systems through which biodiversity can be accessed and incorporated into diets. | Access to some areas and integration through cooperatives are described as uneven, limiting local participation. | Infrastructure inequalities can reproduce unequal access to the benefits of alternative urban food systems. | Investment in accessible green-space infrastructure and local cooperative capacity to enable participation. | |
| Biophysical Resources | Use and promotion of native Cerrado species alongside exotic fruit trees; expansion of native species in agroforestry systems associated with CSA. | The initiatives alter availability and diversity of edible species in urban and peri-urban landscapes, linking biodiversity conservation to food practices. | [No explicit evidence in the source material on ecological limits or harvest sustainability thresholds for specific species.] | Tree-planting plan is presented as a pathway to increase availability of healthy food and support foraging-related systems. | Increased harvesting without ecological guidance may reduce regeneration or affect urban biodiversity. | Biodiversity management plans that specify sustainable harvesting and planting strategies for key species. |
| Knowledge | Identification and mapping of fruit species via the app; knowledge integration through procurement rules and programme practices in school meals and CSA. | The app and associated knowledge integration activities shape beliefs and decisions by making biodiversity and its food value visible, and by institutionalising knowledge pathways into provisioning systems. | Knowledge about edible species may remain unevenly distributed, reinforcing existing participation gaps. | Citizen science monitoring linked to the app to document harvest pressure and ecological outcomes. | ||
| Other | Integration of foraging into an alternative urban food system narrative spanning restaurants, school meals, digital mapping and social-movement-led planting. | Bundles multiple initiatives into a broader pathway for urban food system transformation oriented to sustainability and inclusion. | Some initiatives weakened during pandemic constraints, indicating vulnerability to mobility and access shocks. | Fragmentation across initiatives may limit coherence if coordination mechanisms are weak. | Cross-initiative coordination forums linking app developers, schools, CSA networks and municipal green-space managers. |
Note: Blank cells reflect that the documentary evidence available for this case did not contain sufficiently explicit information to address these dimensions. This absence should not be interpreted as implying that such mechanisms were irrelevant or ineffective, but simply that they were not documented within the scope of the source materials.
References
de Abreu Sá Diniz, J.D., Guéneau, S., Pereira Garcia, J., Borges, B.L. (2024). Foraging and Consumption of Cerrado Biome Species in the Brasilia Alternative Urban Food System. In: Dhyani, S., Sardeshpande, M. (eds) Urban Foraging in the Changing World. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0345-6_19