The Italian context
The web site / portal www. retegas. org, amongst the most important web sites about Italian Epg’ s situation, counts with 989 EPG’ s associations enrolled, the great part of these is situated in the Po Valley area, only Lombardy hosts little more than a quarter of the national total amount. According the estimates, It is possible to add to this thousand groups a noticeable number of associations abstained from enrolling or, at least, not signed up yet: potentially we are talking about a greater number than that of the enrolled associations, as indicated by the rates of 2011 presented at the National Convention of EPG’ s, in Aquila.
Anyway, the numbers available show a general growing awareness of the importance of a conscious purchase and a conscious consumption. This trend, proved by the continuous birth of new EPGs and of associations directly connected to the central concepts of“ responsible consumption” and“ critical consumption”, is designing a new dynamic reality, still in evolution. The first Italian EPG was founded in 1994 and in 2011; Retegas. org recorded only 750 participant groups. Considering that EPG’ s spread is a recent fact, the current size of the phenomenon let us reflect about its relevance.
Despite this overview, apart from Lombardy, in the other regions of Italy, Umbria included, the data related to EPG’ s birth and activity are more restrained. Even though Umbria was the first region which adopted in 2011 an EPG oriented regional policy, which sustained EPGs, the data recorded during our research were the followings:
� 16 EPG formally registered, among these ones 13 signed up to Retegas. Org( however there are other“ informal” EPGs that can’ t be counted); � The great part of Umbrian EPGs are located in the province of Perugia � 2 of the EPGs founded during the data collection doesn’ t work anymore / are inactive, and one has serious management difficulties;
� Furthermore, differently from other Italian regions, in Umbria there is not a coordination between the regional EPG.
Anyway, apart from numeral data, the philosophy of Umbrian EPGs agrees with the principles of the EPGs of the rest of Italy. The main interest is the research of biological and natural products, provided by local producers according to production ecofriendlytechniques and fair and respectful working policies; EPGs put s the economical
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