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2 December 2015 | Interviews | Food Sovereignty

Production of ecological flour in Montevideo celebrated with a new "Harvest Festival"

The ecological grain and flour production cooperative, Graneco, is made up by a dozen family farmers, all rural inhabitants of Montevideo department. Graneco produces agroecological whole wheat flour and this year, as in the three previous years, they will hold a "Harvest Festival" aiming to share their experiences and strengthen the need for a National Agroecology Plan in Uruguay.

Mauricio Vives is member of Graneco and one of its founders. He told us that the cooperative was founded "because we were all family farmers and faced a scale problem to achieve a volume of grains that made the project sustainable".

The cooperative was founded three years ago. Starting with six hectares, Graneco today aims at expanding to reach 60 hectares with winter crops, rotated with other summer crops that are harvested with an old threshing machine that perfectly adapts to the needs and conditions of the members of the cooperative.

Since its creation, Graneco organizes each December, before the harvest of wheat and the sowing of maize, the "Harvesting Festival" that joins the celebration of a new harvest season with a space for farmers, social organizations, public institutions and the cooperative members themselves.

The main goal of the event is to contribute with the generation of a common identity based on Graneco´s experience. The cooperative is currently working on the building of a National Agroecology Plan together with other organizations.

The Festival will take place on December 4-5 in Punta Espinillo, on the coast of Rio de la Plata and Rio Santa Lucía.