アントニオ・ラットゥーカ / Antonio Lattuca

Antonio Luis Lattuca is an Argentine agronomist specialising in agroecology. As Rosario's poverty rate soared after the 2001 crisis, the city launched its Urban Agriculture Program (PAU) in 2002 so that unemployed families could grow their own food. Lattuca designed and ran it, creating the mechanism that opened idle public and private land as gardens.

The program's essence was to make gardens permanent urban infrastructure rather than stopgap welfare. Gardens were written into the city's land-use planning as 'Parques Huerta' — garden parks on flood-prone lowland and under power lines. Produce is grown agroecologically, without pesticides, and sold at permanent city markets, providing gardeners (huerteros) with income.

What began as crisis response grew into an urban strategy binding climate adaptation and social inclusion, and in 2021 the program won the grand prize of the WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities. Lattuca's work shows that urban agriculture from the Global South can set the example for the world.