During the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers worldwide were greatly affected by disruptions in the food chain. In 2020, São Paulo city experienced most of the effects of the pandemic in Brazil, with 15,587 deaths through December 2020. Here, we describe the impacts of COVID-19 on urban agriculture (UA) in São Paulo from April to August 2020. We analyzed two governmental surveys of 2100 farmers from São Paulo state and 148 from São Paulo city and two qualitative surveys of volunteers from ten community gardens and seven urban farmers. Our data showed that 50% of the farmers were impacted by the pandemic with drops in sales, especially those that depended on intermediaries. Some farmers in the city adapted to novel sales channels, but 22% claimed that obtaining inputs became difficult. No municipal support was provided to UA in São Paulo, and pre-existing issues were exacerbated. Work on community gardens decreased, but no garden permanently closed. Post COVID-19, UA will have the challenge of maintaining local food chains established during the pandemic. Due to the increase in the price of inputs and the lack of technical assistance, governmental efforts should be implemented to support UA.

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RESUMO A Agricultura Urbana (AU) tem sido apontada, mais recentemente, como elemento importante nos discursos e nas práticas que visam à segurança alimentar urbana. O presente artigo procurou discutir a produção agrícola do Município de São Paulo (MSP) e seu escoamento, considerando a diversidade de perfis que a AU pode assumir. Para tal, foi avaliada a produção agrícola em bases de dados oficiais. No que se refere à comercialização, foram coletadas informações em sete entrevistas semiestruturadas com agricultores do MSP entre 2018 e 2020. Os principais resultados encontrados indicam que houve um crescimento das práticas agropecuárias no município, acessando uma ampla variedade de canais de comercialização. A abertura de novos mercados, o desenvolvimento de políticas públicas e o reconhecimento público foram essenciais para o crescimento da agricultura no MSP.

In the municipality of São Paulo, the institution of community gardens has led an innovative social process of self-management of public spaces by citizens, using social networks to organize interventions in an activist way. The research sought to investigate political engagement in community gardens in São Paulo, bringing a perspective based on the concepts of power to act, present in Espinosa’s philosophy, and of commons, based on the work of Dardot and Laval (2017). The methodology consists of an ethnography based on semi-structured interviews and participant observation in community garden joint-efforts, meetings and events. In these meetings, it is possible to consider that there are affections empowering the subjects to engage in significant changes for territorial management, enabling the formation of an expanded collective of action that establishes unique forms of management confronting institutional powers.

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