How I am getting top notch food while saving money

Eating well is a choice and is a matter of discipline (at the beginning) and awareness. Many people eat very bad and they are simply not aware of it.

Since 2018 I started purchasing lemons and oranges directly from a local producer in Sicily. I hear you thinking about shipment costs but making a shared purchase of a relevant quantity, shipment is well shared and the price gets very competitive.

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So, since 2018 I am buying lemons and oranges from Sicily, exactly from this producer, from a very nice area for citrus fruits in Sicily. We are purchasing 28 kilograms each order, reaching a price per kilogram of 1.9 or 2€/kg that for organic products is very good. So, starting sharing with my mum, my uncle and aunt and some kilograms here and there, here comes the “Shared purchase”.

Now, that I am living in Modena and my mum is still in Verona, I have doubled the purchasing group, starting another one here in Modena with my Yoga class-mates from Modena and Bologna.

Then, we noticed that organic almonds were sold at 24€/kilogram at an organic shop we have in Italy across different cities. So, I launched the idea to do the same with almonds as well. And we found a producer of organic almonds, with a short supply chain that sells down to 14€/kilogram. Here we are buying every time between 10 and 20 kilograms of almonds saving on shipment (as it’s free for such quantity) and getting fresher almonds (than mass distribution) and with lower price.

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Another Shared Purchase we are making is on Pasta, the traditional Italian Pasta but made of ancient grains AND organic. That pasta is far more digestible and it does not cause the typical sleepy attitude.

Then, we are purchasing high quality Olive Oil with purchases of more than 20 liters at the time, getting a discount on the individual price and getting again, a top notch quality.

You may be wondering why I am dealing these efforts for some food I would buy anyway somewhere else?

I have two big motivations driving this initiatives.

• The first one is to get real high quality food.
• The second is supporting (and educating to support) local producers, by-passing the mass distribution that always drain the profits from the small producers.

In this way, also small producers that would not be allowed to sell into the mass distribution, can get additional ways to sell their products AND therefore keeping their high-quality cultivations without compromises.

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I know that I am not changing the trajectory of economy with 20 people that now are joining this initiatives BUT what if we keep expanding before it’s too late and the small producers will be forced to sell to corporations or bigger players (like in Hawaii recently happened after the huge fire that I have no way to believe it was natural)?

What top notch quality of raw food can you grab yourself and at the same time supporting local economy?