Last June 5, International Environmental Day, Bioleft and the team from “Al Rescate del Tomate Criollo” [To the Rescue of Creole Tomato] participated in the First UBA Environmental Conference held on the Faculty of Agronomy campus, with the goal of meeting, interacting and making visible the University contributions on environmental matters. It was an enrichment day, where we could gather and learn from experiences of management and innovation and become aware of the actions and contributions of the University community on environmental matters.
UBA’s chancellor, Ricardo Gelpi, and the Faculty of Agronomy dean, Adriana Rodriguez opened the conference. Adriana stressed the importance of this event in a context where, despite the dissemination of views that deny climate crisis, “the changes produced by human activities on climate endanger the planet´s capacity to sustain life, an evident consequence is biodiversity loss”.
During the day, environmental management experiences were shared, and discussion tables, screenings and tours were held. There was also, a fair with stands and posters on various topics, including garbage and recycling, wetlands, community gardens, biological control of vectors, water rights and access, and different extension projects.
The “Al Rescate del Tomate criollo” Project is framed under the collaboration between the Agronomy Faculty, the Ministry of Agrarian Development of Buenos Aires Province and Bioleft, and seeks to recover tomato lost flavour, collaboratively evaluating and characterizing almost 200 varieties of tomato cultivated decades ago in Argentina and conserved on foreign germplasm banks.
During the day, more than 70 people passed by our stand, where we could talk and share information about the activities that we are developing since 2019. As part of our proposal, we offered seeds of different varieties of tomatoes.
