Country on Track to Build World’s Largest Urban Garden

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is on track to build the world’s largest urban garden by 2024, effectively providing a source of income and more affordable fresh food to disadvantaged families.

“The result of our project is not to have a beautiful garden. A beautiful garden is a consequence of our work. The result of our production is to see how many plates of food we [are] able to serve,” says Julio Cesar Barros, the founder of Hortas Cariocas and director of agroecology organic gardening for Rio de Janeiro’s municipal environment agency.

The project, Hortas Cariocas, was launched in 2006 and already serves around 50,000 families. The current project will expand the existing gardens, ultimately serving up to 100,000 families by 2024. Brazil’s objective of making Hortas Cariocas the largest urban garden in the world is merited – currently, 33 million Brazilians are facing hunger.