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The 3C Urban Agriculture Program Takes a Break

01-09-2026

The 3C urban agriculture program, “3C Cultivemos el Clima y la Comunidad” (Let’s Cultivate the Climate and the Community), is taking a break. After 12 years of operation and several phases in which hundreds of activists have participated, the project is temporarily suspending its activities due to a lack of funding. Despite its enormous potential and impact on participants, as well as their extremely high level of satisfaction, Humana is unable to sustain this initiative, which began as a complement to textile waste management.


The 3C Programme was launched in 2014, based on the agriculture and rural development programme of the Humana People to People Federation. The aim was for activists (participants) to work on an allotment where they could grow organic produce for their own consumption and strengthen social ties amongst themselves.


It was rolled out in areas where Humana managed the selective collection service for used textiles. Consequently, it was initially funded using revenue from this service. Pilot schemes were carried out in Lliçà d’Amunt (Barcelona) and Leganés (Madrid), forming the basis of a network of organic urban allotments across a dozen municipalities in Catalonia, the Community of Madrid and Andalusia.


Last year, however, the uncertainty facing the second-hand sector meant that the 3C Programme had to be rethought. Humana proposed that the respective local councils cover the full cost of running their respective vegetable gardens – rather than just a portion of the cost, as had been the case in some instances – but they did not agree. For this reason, we decided that only those that were financially sustainable should remain active: in Rivas-Vaciamadrid and Ciempozuelos, municipalities in the Community of Madrid.


This final phase has been brief. On the one hand, the Ciempozuelos 3C allotment, which began in August 2025 thanks to funding from Humana and the BBVA Foundation, in collaboration with Ciempozuelos Town Council, came to an end last July. And the Rivas-Vaciamadrid urban allotment, which had been operating since 2022, closed its doors in August.


“The 3C Programme will have to wait for better times before it can be reintroduced,” say sources at Humana.
 

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