Regenerative Food Businesses (NAR) are associated with production processes of food generation in which the conservation, restoration and strengthening of ecosystems and their self-regulation capacity are central to the activities, purposes and value proposition of the business. For this reason, in general, they start from a holistic and ecocentric vision, where nature is valued as the basis of everything. Its activities are synchronized with the natural cycles of the system, but always rooted in principles of justice and socioeconomic equity (gender, racial and ethnic), envisioning the reduction of inequalities, food security and sovereignty, and valuing local indigenous and traditional knowledge.
With the intention of promoting businesses with this approach -which includes the gender perspective as a distinctive element- the NAR Consortium was created, coordinated by Fundación Avina, with the support of IDRC and made up of different organizations such as: CATIE, GRADE, SVX México, System B, NESsT, the SEKN network, the Rafael Landívar University and WTT. Of its three lines of work, the investment for business incubation and acceleration is in charge of the international NGO NESsT, which proposed the first six cooperative organizations to incubate, as a first cohort, in the case of entities from Brazil and Colombia. Soon, 4 more entities will be selected.
Which organizations were chosen, based on financial, social and environmental impact and governance criteria, to strengthen inclusive, resilient and sustainable food systems?
In Colombia, Agrosolidaria was selected. This organization markets agricultural products and cosmetics made from sustainably grown Amazonian plants. It is founded by 12 associations that represent more than 250 peasant families.
The other five are located in Brazil. For example, ASPROC supports riverside communities to make biodiverse products, such as pirarucu fish, cassava flour, natural rubber, and açaí. The association has improved the livelihoods of more than 786 riverside families and has conserved more than three thousand hectares of land in Amazonia.
The third organization selected is ASSOAB. It purchases raw Brazil nuts. More than 350 collecting families from the Itixi Mitari indigenous land and the Piagaçu-Purus sustainable development reserve (RDS) are involved and 65 people formally work, with 40% of female employment.
ASCAMPA is made up of 46 producer families, representing 78 formally associated people. 29 are women (37%), from 11 communities, many of them with indigenous ancestry. The association brings together almost 10% of the total guarana production in the region.
ATAIC supports freshwater shrimp producers in the region, which includes training workshops, environmental education, and new technologies for fishing. In this way, producers will increase their productivity by 50%. ATAIC already received an award in 2005 from the Fundação Banco do Brasil for the “best social technology” in the northern region of Brazil. More recently, it has become prominent in selling murumuru to the cosmetics industry.
Finally, COOAPRIME is dedicated, in Pará, to the extraction of native fruits, mainly the açaí, respecting the traditional knowledge of forest management and the production of the fruit in an organic, sustainable and biodiverse way. The açaí is sold unprocessed to intermediaries, processing industries and eventually to government agencies for public policies on healthy nutrition.
The consortium, which has mapped in 2022 more than 180 cases of regenerative companies of different types in the Amazon and the Central American Dry Corridor, is open to talking with impact philanthropy organizations and the world of investment, to increase the incubation of regenerative companies.
About NESsT: https://es.nesst.org/
For inquiries on this topic, contact:
Pablo Vagliente (Avina Foundation): pablo.vagliente@avina.net
Source: inncontext.net