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March 9, 2015

Proposals and possible solutions

Necessity to give another dimension to these initiatives

In the first place there was a consensus to say that solidarity local partnerships between producers and consumers are essencials for several reasons (health, sustainable and respectful agriculture of the environment, energy transition, social cohesion, etc.) and are a way of citizenship that is necessary to disclose and widen as they allow support small producers, but, in general, the local population in rural places. With the growing demographic imbalance between the interior and the coast, local and solidary partnerships between consumers and producers are in fact one of the few ways that give a real and concrete immediate answer and without investment to allow the rural populations to continue living in their communities. Hence the importance of significantly increase the number of consumers involved to have a greater effect.

Possible solutions to increase the number of consumers

Several solutions have been identified in this regard:

Contact the companies to propose this concept to workers. The advantage of doing this with companies is that employees can recover the basket in the company and take it home without having to make a special trip for this.
Contact the collective consumers: IPSS, school cafeterias, restaurants, hotels, etc.
Have a place in the market to give notice to the concept. For example, distribute within the group or make disclosure in markets.
Diversifying baskets in order to better adapt to the needs of each family or collective consumer (diversification in size and content). Also this objective try new varieties of products to make them more attractive baskets and facilitate exchanges of recipes to help consumers find new ways to consume the products. To better understand consumer expectations was also proposed making a little questionnaire to know the motivations of consumers who entered and who left.
Increase the number of distribution places, also including major cities such as Lisbon and surroundings (like Barreiro), taking advantage of existing transport and travel.
Make disclosure in vocational schools, also proposing the organization of a contest “Master Chef of Cabaz da Horta”.
Develop promotional material: make a book of traditional recipes, make a website, etc..

Relations with public authorities

The question of the relationship with the public authorities was raised several times during the meeting. On the one hand it is important to sensitize them to provide support to this type of initiative and encourage individual and collective consumers to participate in them, is an essential form of citizenship to allow the rural populations to continue living in their communities.

On the other hand is necessary to use and disclose everything that the law allows. An intervention of Milena in this regard was very interesting. A working group intends to form in this regard to promote the legislation of the markets.

Solutions to organize

Taking into account the large number of identified solutions and the need to mobilize the maximum number of people to be able to realize them, we talked about the idea to form consumer groups and/or producers by town or area, or informal groups of people that coming together for common actions. Each group will have autonomy to organize activities to understand, using a list of suggestions referred on top or imagining other activities.