Manuela Santos

I live in Sao Paulo/Brazil, where I do an MSc in Applied Ecology, studying food activism and local food systems, trying to understand the impact of what we eat on the environment and the society. I also manage a project called Bota na Mesa (something like “Put food on the table”: http://gvces.com.br/bota-na-mesa-phase-1-in-review-2015-2016/?locale=en), whose goal is to help smallholder farmers access market. It is part of my routine to visit farmers around Sao Paulo, help them planning their production, teach them management practices, promote farmers’ markets, among others. Besides that, my father is the 4th generation of coffee producers in our family, so agriculture is part of who I am. I also have a great interest in literature and have written a couple of poems and short novels, some of them selected by Brazilian magazines and contests