Event encourages the production of PANC in Minas Gerais

The cities of Sete Lagoas and Prudente de Morais will host HortPANC 2025, between July 1st and 3rd. Held by the Minas Gerais Agricultural Research Company (Epamig), in the experimental field of Santa Rita, the event will feature the participation of producers, researchers, students and lovers of Non-Conventional Edible Plants (PANC). 

To Marinalva Woods Pedrosa (pictured above), a researcher at Epamig and one of the event coordinators, this year’s HortPANC could not be in a better location. “Minas Gerais is pure PANC. We have many regional customs, where many of the traditions in our daily eating habits are maintained. It is part of our Minas Gerais culture. That is why bringing HortPANC to Minas is a wonderful and natural thing, because it has everything to do with the Minas Gerais way of life”, she celebrates.

HortPANC is a space for stakeholders from different segments of food production to meet and exchange information. Producers with their challenges in the field, nutritionists with their perspectives on including these foods in different diets, the food industry searching for the potential of these foods, consumers reconnecting with their food origins through ancient customs and affective memories; researchers, teachers and students listening to this diverse knowledge to propose solutions throughout the process, from identification to production and consumption.

“Everyone will find at HortPANC a space for exchanging knowledge that aims to present technical and scientific knowledge and value our biodiversity and customs, respecting each territory with which we live. In this way, the event brings opportunities to the production sector that are in line with the expectations and needs of consumers, aligning technologies with regional and ancestral knowledge”, he explains.

The event is also a space for contact networks to be expanded and strengthened, always with the aim of generating improvements to production processes and generating information for consumers.

“Our expectation is that at the 8th HortPANC we can listen to and combine the diversity of knowledge that each actor will bring in their baggage. And, in this way, we can think of paths that will lead us to adequate and healthy production and conscious consumption”, says Epamig researcher Izabel Cristina, who is also the event coordinator.

Izabel also points out that most PANC are products that come from oral tradition, passed down from generation to generation. Since they do not have a structured production chain, they are not commonly present in market statistics, although they are linked to cultural movements, including regional festivals, such as the Ora-pro-nóbis Festival and the Jabuticaba Festival in Sabará; the Angu Pastry Festival in Itabirito and the Coffee and Biscuit Festival in São Tiago.

“The watchword is Respect. Respect for nature, Respect for our origins. Respect for the knowledge of each community represented there,” he concludes.