The Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) announced the return of the National Agrarian Reform Fair, which will take place between May 10th and 14th this year, at Água Branca Park, in São Paulo.
“Get ready, get organized and we are going to do the most activity in defense of the popular Agrarian Reform”, informed the MST in a note.
“It is with great joy that we announce the return of the National Agrarian Reform Fair in the municipality of São Paulo, which is on the official calendar, in Parque da Água Branca. Unfortunately, in recent years, for political and pandemic reasons, we have not been able to hold it. But now, in May 2023, the fair returns to Parque da Água Branca”, said Gilmar Mauro, member of the movement’s national coordination Brazil in fact.
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“Certainly, it will be a great event to show agroecological production, at least a sampling of what the MST is doing throughout Brazil, from the perspective of an agriculture model with the least possible environmental impact and the production of healthy foods, in addition to combating hunger and to misery,” he said.
Suspended
It will be the first edition of the event since 2018, when the fair was last held in São Paulo.
In September 2019, the National Agrarian Reform Fair officially entered the tourism calendar of the city of São Paulo through law 17.162. The law, proposed by councilor Jair Tatto (PT), attributes to the event of organic and agroecological products farmers the same status as Carnival, Virada Cultural and Bienal do Livro, for example.
In the same year, however, the fourth edition of the event was not held because the then governor João Doria (PSDB) vetoed the use of the Água Branca Park, which hosted the three previous editions. At the time, the government’s Secretariat for Infrastructure and Environment claimed that the veto occurred because its management council assessed that the site’s structures no longer support the event.
In the following years, the event was not held due to the restrictions imposed by the covid-19 pandemic.
In previous editions, the Agrarian Reform Fair took more than 200,000 people to the park, in the western region of the capital, close to the Barra Funda subway terminal.
Editing: Nicolau Soares