This seminar aims to highlight the importance of the cooperative sector and agricultural cooperatives, especially those linked to family farming, for the promotion of sustainable food systems in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP). A significant proportion of the population of Portuguese-speaking countries lives in rural areas and depends on food production and marketing for its social reproduction. For countless families, the association to a cooperative or other type of producers' organisation has been a source of resilience, expanding opportunities to generate work and income and interfering in dynamics that induce vulnerabilities. However, these organisations are still marginalised in the public and academic agenda and face countless limitations to operate.

In addition to presenting results of an ongoing research within the Ecosol group on the topic, the seminar will include the participation of representatives of cooperative organisations and representatives of the cooperative sector in the CPLP, sharing experiences and reflections from the empirical reality and contributing to broaden the consolidation efforts of this research agenda.

Programme
Opening: "The importance of cooperativism for the CPLP" by Antônio Graça - President of the Antônio Sérgio Cooperative for Social Economy

Panel "Characteristics and contribution of family farming cooperatives to the promotion of sustainable food systems" with the participation of Dayany Ferreira, Director of COOPFAM/Brazil; António Dias, President ofCECAB/São Tomé and Príncipe; Alair Freitas, Prof. of the Federal University of Viçosa/Brazil and visiting researcher of ECOSOL/CES.

Comments by Luciane Lucas dos Santos - Coordinator of Ecosol/CES.

Bio notes

Eduardo Graça - Has a degree in Business Organisation and Management from ISCEF/Lisbon. Between 1996 and 2003 he was Chairman of the Board of INATEL. Since 2009 he has been President of INSCOOP and since 2010 President of the Board of the António Sérgio Cooperative for the Social Economy (CASES).

Dayany Ferreira - Sustainable coffee producer in Brazil. Member of the board of directors and responsible for overseeing the technical and socio-environmental department of the Cooperative of Family Farmers of Poço Fundo and region - Coopfam
Antônio Dias - Former Minister of Agriculture of São Tomé and Príncipe, founding partner and current president of the Cooperativa de Exportação de Cacau Biológico de São Tomé e Príncipe - CECAB

Alair Freitas - PhD in Administration from the Federal University of Minas Gerais/Brazil. He is an associate professor of the Department of Rural Economics of the Federal University of Viçosa and a permanent member of the Postgraduate Programmes in Rural Outreach and Public Administration at this institution. He is currently a visiting researcher in post-doctoral internship at CES/UC

Luciane Lucas dos Santos - PhD in Communication and Culture (2004) from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ/Brazil) and Associate Researcher at CES, University of Coimbra. Her research interests are: Feminist Economy(s), Feminist Aesthetics, postcolonial studies of Economy, Community Economies/Other Economies, inequalities from an intersectional perspective, identity issues in Europe.

Activity within ECOSOL-CES

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This activity will be accessible through the Zoom platform and will be limited to number of available places:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83146174430 | ID: 831 4617 4430 | Password: 297785

We appreciate that all participants keep the microphone muted until the moment(s) of debate. The host of the session reserves the right to expel the participant who does not respect the rules of the room.

Online open access activities such as this one do not grant a declaration of participation since such document will only be provided in events that provide for prior registration and controlled access.