Public Brazilian schools in the city of Campo Grande include organic meat in the menu

By Geralda Magela
WWF-Brazil

Campo Grande (MS), Brazil – It is 9:00 AM and at the entrance of Professor Vanderlei Rosa de Oliveira School, in Novo Maranhão neighborhood, it smells good, of seasoned home cooking, like the food one’s mother would prepare.  This tells us we came at the right time: snack time (Note: public schools in Brazil offer students a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack).   In the Pre-B kindergarten classroom where Walkiria Santini teaches, children enjoy the school meal being served: meat and bread sandwich.  What looks like a common snack is actually an innovation in school lunches in Brazil: it is made of certified organic meat.

Professor Vanderlei Rosa de Oliveira School is one of the 130 public schools in Campo Grande (the capital city of Mato Grosso do Sul state) to include organic meat in their menu starting last April.  The product comes from certified organic cattle ranches in the Pantanal.  They are affiliated to the Brazilian Organic Cattle Ranching Association (ABPO in the Portuguese acronym).  The project is supported by WWF-Brazil.

This innovation was made possible through a bidding process, launched by the municipal government in the beginning of this year, in order to procure food supplies for school lunches.  A demand for organic products was included among the selection criteria to choose suppliers.  The municipal school network monthly acquires 11,000 kg (around 2,420 pounds) of organic meat to feed 70,000 students attending public schools.

The city’s Food Supply Director, Danilo Medeiros Figliorino, explains that the object of including organic meat in school luncheons was to offer students healthy & environmentally correct food.  “In Mato Grosso do Sul state, beef eating is a tradition. By choosing organic meat, we try to value our regional production”, says Figliorino.

Pantanal production and conservation

According to WWF-Brazil’s Pantanal Program Coordinator, Michael Becker, to include organic meat in Campo Grande school meals is a very positive initiative.  “It constitutes one further incentive to Pantanal sustainable production,” he says. 

Since 2003, WWF-Brazil supports the work with certified organic Cattle Ranching in the Pantanal. The object is to seek alternatives to unite livestock production activities and the wetland’s natural resources conservation in the Pantanal biome. Working with the cattle ranching segment is crucial for conservation actions in the Pantanal, for cattle ranching is one of the main economic activities in that region. "To encourage initiatives such as the certified organic production is a way to minimize impacts and promote the conservation of the biome, as well as of the High Paraguay River Basin, where this biome is located”, says Becker.

ABPO’s president, Leonardo Leite de Barros, praises the initiative by Campo Grande’s municipal government.  “Initiatives such as this one help give greater visibility to the organic segment and value producers who are committed to sustainability”, was his comment.  He believes that, besides the public power, the consumer also has an important role to play in this process.  By choosing a product with certified origin, the consumer contributes to the country’s environmental sustainability”, says Barros.

Fully approved novelty

The use of organic vegetables in school lunches was already a common practice for Vanderlei Rosa School, totaling 1,872 students in three shifts.  Organic meat, however, was something new.  “I was not even aware that such a thing exists, I knew nothing about it”, said the school principal, Angela Maria Faustino de Oliveira.  Nevertheless, she thoroughly enjoyed the product and was curious to learn more about it.  “When I went home, I asked my son, who is a veterinarian doctor, and he explained to me that organic meat is meat from animals raised in certified farms, without the use of medicines or pesticides and other chemical products,” said the school director.

Raimunda Silva Pereira has been in charge of preparing school snacks for nine years now and the organic meat has her approval.  Together with her colleague Maria Hervaz, she says that they were able to tell the difference from the start.  “Even considering that it was minced meat, we could see that it looked real well, with not much fat at all, and it also smelled different”, said Hervaz.  But they did not understand what organic meat meant and the novelty made them curious.  Just a few days later, they watched a news story about it on TV. “We learned that the cattle are raised with special care, that it is free on the pastures, and that the land is not treated with chemicals”, she explains.

Raimunda Pereira works in school meal preparation for 24 years now and she enjoys creating new dishes.  The good quality of the meat allowed her to improve the menu.  Besides the sandwich which was served during our visit, she has already used the meat to prepare dishes with spaghetti and rice, as well as meat balls and even the typical Brazilian farofa, made with cassava flour.  Although the writer is not a meat eater and therefore did not taste any of it, she was able to see that children were enthusiastic about it.  In teacher Walkiria’s classroom, some of the children went for a third serving. 

Environmental education in practice

The meat novelty pleased the children and provided Walkiria with new elements for class work.  She explains that she uses the school snack to work with transversal themes, such as healthy food, hygiene and environmental conservation.  “One can see the result on the children’s positioning”, says the teacher.  Walkiria is devoted to children education for 10 years now.

Walkíria says she always tries to bring regional reality into the classroom and she uses practical examples to help children learn.  A few days ago, she took her class to an animal rehabilitation center near the school.  Her intention was to give them a chance to watch typical animals in that region and do practical work pertaining respecting the animals and nature conservation relevance.

Five year-old Amanda says she just loved watching the animals.  She counts: “I saw one jaguar, a large snake, a monkey, a toucan and an ant-eater.”  And then she adds:  one should not harm the animals, “they are very important to nature and they live in the forest”.  Her classmate Antônio Joelson, who is also 5 years old, joins the conversation to tell what he knows about nature’s importance.  “We must not let the forest come to an end because it is the animals’ home”, he summarizes. 

What is organic meat?

Certified organic meat is the meat which is produced through an environmentally correct, socially just and economically viable production system.  This production system is audited and certified to ensure that the meat is produced in the most natural way, free of chemical residues and with social and environmental concern.

Organic meat is produced in certified cattle ranches following strict organic certification rules to determine that the production system is environmentally correct.  Those rules require, first of all, that the producers comply with the environmental legislation.  This ensures obligatory protection to certain natural areas within the rural property – such as the forests along the river banks.

Apart from complying with the environmental legislation, certification requires the protection of water sources and water bodies, forbids the use of fire for pasture management, and, because the system does not allow the use of pesticides and other chemicals, it also prevents the contamination of soil and water resources which are located within the production unit.

Numbers – There are presently 16 farms (ABPO members) in Mato do Grosso do Sul state which have been certified or are in the process of certification and 10 others in Mato Grosso state, by the Brazilian Association of Organic Livestock (ASPRANOR), totaling 26 properties.  Certified farms total 131,200 hectares of area and 99,800 head of cattle.

Social & environmental Protocol

Last year, the Brazilian Association of Organic Cattle Ranching (ABPO) created an internal protocol aiming at production processes and social & environmental responsibility. Through this Protocol, launched by the association and WWF-Brasil, cattle ranchers commit to adopt criteria reaching beyond legal and certification requirements, which are relevant for environmental conservation. 

Among its innovations, the Protocol establishes an internal auditing system with periodical inspections to be carried out in cattle ranches, aside from the annual visits to be made by the certifier organization.  The document has also advanced in relation to the environmental legislation, such as banning charcoal activity in their properties and supporting the creation of an ecological corridor.  This ecological corridor will be composed of organic farms, through connecting Legal Reserve areas (a percentage of the rural property set aside for conservation and which cannot be clear cut) and Permanent Preservation Areas (APPs).  The protocol is available here: http://www.wwf.org.br/informacoes/english/?19540/organiccattleranchers

Pantanal Wetland

The Pantanal is the world’s largest wetland system. Its Basin encompasses an area of 624.320 km2 of which approximately 62% is located in Brazil, 20% in Bolivia and 18% in Paraguay. This huge freshwater reservoir is important for the protection of freshwater ecosystems, climate stabilization, land conservation, and the maintenance of its rich biodiversity. It is the home of 3.500 plants species, 325 fish species, 53 amphibious, 98 reptiles, 656 birds and 159 mammals. Because of its environmental importance, the Pantanal was Acknowledged by the United Nations as a World Natural Heritage Site, in 2000, and declared a Ramsar Site, in 2001, by the Ramsar Convention.

For this reason, since 1998, WWF elected the Pantanal Wetland as one of its main regions to work with projects that links conservation and regional development. To guarantee the sustainability of the projects, the work is done involving local actors, aiming to establish partnerships that stimulate the adoption of good social and environmental practices.