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Last 14th December, Ciência Viva organized another "Café de Ciência" in the Portuguese Parliament. This time the theme was food safety, risk perception and food waste and Fruta Feia Co-Op was invited to join. The event that gathered politics, researchers, food sector specialists, public associations and non governmental associations.

Consumer cooperatives showed up in Portugal in the 1960's, as the first way of consumers' defense against speculated prices and, quality and quantity of sold goods. To be part of a consumers cooperative meant not just an economic interest, but also a civic conscience statement. It was an exact and active form of showing not only the oposal to an economic order, which one did not agree with, but also an effective  way to show that there could be a different path.

In a world in which half the food produced ends up in the garbage, in a Europe where 30% of the agriculture production is wasted due to mere aesthetic reasons, Fruta Feia consumers Co-op arose in 2013 with the willingness to invert this trend and to build an alternative consumers model.

In the beggining there was 1 worker, 8 farmers, 100 consumers and 1 delivery point in Lisbon, we weekly avoided 400 Kg of food wastage. Three years later, with all the world and the EU technocrats with their eyes set on us, we are quiet a few: 8 workers, 100 farmers, 2700 consumers and with 7 delivery points in Lisbon and Oporto, we weekly avoid approximately 8 tons of food wastage.

Congratulations everyone! For our work, for our commitment, for having retrieved the consumers cooperative concept so effectively and for showing the world that another way of consumption, with a higher social dimension and bigger respect for Man and Nature, is possible.

Some photographs of these last three years here.

We're now part of the Good Goal guide: a platform to map sustainable, inovative, local and authentic projects on an european level.

You can read the review here. 

Notícias de Cascais came to Fruta Feia's delivery point in Parede to get to know our project

Read article here (in page 12).