have to be eco-labelled, but there must be controls by the group, through which it could be stipulated that the manufacturers must produce the foods that are going to be sold within the group " in an environmentally friendly way ".
In any case, you must make the choice of what is more important, and this will define the context and the territory within which there the EPG will operate. In general, the group reach thus type of agreements by consensus within the group. Members must discuss the various proposals and reach a common agreement that everyone will accept, even though at first the ideas were different and even if not everybody agrees one hundred percent.
Some criteria that can be found in the solidarity groups in Croatia:
• QUALITY OF THE PRODUCTS: every groupwill adopt primary condition.
• REASONABLE PRICE: always taking into consideration the quality of the product and price transparency. With solidarity groups, you want to save money( although this is not the primary purpose) but you will also want to pay a fair price for your product. Therefore, it is always important to explain and justify the cost of the products.
• ECOLOGICAL, BIODYNAMIC AND SIMILAR PRODUCTS: foodstuffs whose cultivation has not caused environmental damage, in which there were a non-use of chemicals and GMO. Groups can opt for certified ecologic products, but can also choose green products without a certificate if they know the producer and its mode of production. In the end, it is easier to trust a farmer who you meet weekly, rather than believe to institutions that issues certificates.
• SEASONAL PRODUCTS: These are products that are not grown in heated greenhouses and that do not come from distant lands, with the resulting high-energy costs and the pollution caused by the transport.
• SMALL PRODUCERS: If your partner is not a great entrepreneur, he will find time to talk with you and to make you visit his farm, and the money that you will give for the products will not be shared in a public company, but will be used for the development of local agriculture. In any case, if you help small local producers, the benefits will be not be only used for their survival but you will also invest in a healthy and uncontaminated life. In addition, more than 80 % of the farmers in Croatia are producers with less than 5 hectares of land, so to choose small farmers also means, in general, keep the area healthy, take part of a land where in rural
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