ABSTRACT

This article presents an analysis of the municipal urban agriculture (UA) policy implementation at the local level, based on a comparison of three regions of the Municipality of São Paulo, Brazil—namely extreme south, east, and north. Our findings show that although UA policymaking of the past has led to successful improvements at the municipal level, implementation is carried out timidly. They also show that policy implementation is still more remarkable in the southern region, less so in the eastern region, and almost nonexistent in the northern region. Our analysis suggests that three factors explain local differences in policy implementation: (1) access to land, (2) farmers’ organisations, and (3) the actions of nongovernmental organisations. We conclude that these aspects are producing a vicious cycle of differences between the three regions. Regions that have greater access to land also have greater potential for food production and more support to assist farmers’ production and organisation. As a result of these conditions, they are benefited with more policy implementation that reinforces the conditions for accessing food markets and public interest in reinvesting in them, reproducing inequalities related to policy implementation between the regions.