ABSTRACT: Current food production, distribution and consumption patterns have been a central theme to the international debate on sustainable development. This theme is intrinsically linked to researches in the fields of urban agriculture and sustainable territorial planning. Examining this issue in the Brazilian context, it is crucial to understand the above-mentioned patterns when taking place in small municipalities that play a central role in the Brazilian system of food supply, at the same time that suffer the environmental impacts generated by such production. These relationships, if better understood, may help to guide these municipalities towards a more sustainable territorial planning. With basis on such understanding, this paper objective is to analyze the food flows in the municipality of Feliz, in the State of RS, adopted as a research case study, and their environmental implications. Studies aimed at understanding the relationship between resource flows and environment impacts are usually conducted with the aid of the concept of urban metabolism and use the Material Flow Analysis (MFA) method, which was adopted in the research. Data gathering and processing required the development of specific procedures, suitable for the data format available in the Brazilian context, which were obtained from statistical and local sources and locally available electronically issued invoices. Some main results can be highlighted: (a) the quantification of one-year food flows in the municipality; (b) the identification of food production and consumption patterns and (c) the analysis of the related environmental impacts associated to contamination and waste generation.
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