The aim of the Ethical Purchasing Groups( EPGs) is to change people lifestyle. If people want to buy the products by the local producers, they must first understand what the seasons are. When they will choose to buy seasonal products, farmers will have to explain them that oranges are eaten in winter, strawberries in summer, that olive oil is produced in the fall. The Fishermen will explain them that the summer is not the season for fresh squid, but that squid are fished in winter, even if all the restaurants on the Adriatic offer fried squid during the tourist season. In solidarity groups, you never stop to learn, you learn to listen to the rhythm of the Earth, of your location, of the territory within which we live. When consumers try to buy products from local producers and try to get in touch with them, to create a network of trust, they must listen and learn what they do and they have to understand the reason of everything. Through the possibility to exercise volunteering at local producer ' s farms, the consumer more easily understand why some tomatoes are small and with cracks, other tomatoes large and with irregular shapes, why the carrots are small or irregular. The consumer who participates to the production process appreciates more the vegetables and the fruit, and by feeding on those raw materials, acquires the energy of the earth, which fails to recognize thanks to the local producer. In this way, they discover that life is tied to the land, to all its splendour and caprices.
All territories and all parts of Croatia have their traditional foods and their recipes that thanks to the EPGs are learned and appreciated again. Buying local and seasonal products, people will start to appreciate again the fruits of the earth and the local heritage, to reinforce the links between the countryside and urban life( which nowadays tend to disappear). For many, watching the colours of a garden, admiring a wheat field, to witness the realization of the cheese, to hear the sound of bees going into a cellar and to taste the new wine poured straight from the barrel, will be unique and new experiences. Basically, all the raw materials that each of us consumes for food, will no longer be taken for granted by consumers who will join EPG. In modern times, where the imported goods exceeds that produced in Croatia, it is important to reflect on food sovereignty, sustainability, ecology, on the return to nature, to return to the principles that bind us to others.
At the global level is increasingly present the awareness that economic models are no longer adequate and the awareness that the problems related to ecology will cause inevitable damage strengthens. It ' important to realize that all that concerns us directly, and that we, as individuals, are still in time to turn things around. The solidarity groups are engaged in solidarity practices that have a transformative potential. Although they can more easily be
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