Buying Groups—often referred to as Solidarity Purchasing Groups or Food Coops—started to emerge across Europe in the 1990s, as people began to question how food was produced, distributed, and consumed.

In Italy, these groups appeared under the name GAS (Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale), while in France they took shape as AMAPs. In Germany, they were born as community-supported agriculture (CSA) schemes, and in Spain, they became consumer cooperatives focused on food sovereignty and ethical consumption.

Although each country shaped the idea in its own way, the core remained the same: people coming together, choosing to buy directly from local producers in a way that prioritizes values over profits. This movement was not born from institutions, but from below—from the need to rebuild a connection with food, with the land, and with one another.

What is a Buying Group?

At its heart, a Buying Group is a community of people who decide to collectively organize their consumption. They meet—sometimes in person, sometimes online—to place shared orders, coordinate logistics, and receive fresh, seasonal products directly from small-scale producers.

These goods are often grown using organic or regenerative methods, and always with attention to fairness, transparency, and environmental care.

But Buying Groups are not just a different way to shop. They are spaces of mutual support and shared responsibility, where participants take part in decisions, contribute to the daily functioning of the group, and often build long-term relationships with the farmers or artisans they support.

In some cases, these groups expand beyond food to include other needs: eco-friendly cleaning products, natural cosmetics, even shared services and transport.

The structure is almost always horizontal. There are no managers or customers—just people working together, pooling resources and energy to support a way of living that feels more aligned with their values.

These moments of exchange often grow into something bigger than grocery shopping. They become meetings of trust, friendship, learning, and sometimes even activism. Through shared action, everyday needs are transformed into opportunities for collaboration, care, and community.

Why they matter today

Buying Groups offer a response to some of the most urgent issues of our time: environmental degradation, corporate control of food systems, rural abandonment, and social disconnection. They rebuild local economies, support ethical producers, and reconnect people to food and land.

In a world where the act of buying has often become automatic and impersonal, Buying Groups invite us to slow down and look closer. They remind us that food is not just a product, but a relationship. That behind every vegetable, every jar of honey, every loaf of bread, there is someone who grew it, someone who cares for the soil, someone who deserves to be recognized—not just paid.

Buying Groups are not perfect, and they are not always easy. They take time, coordination, and commitment. But they also create something rare and necessary: a space where values come before profit, and where daily choices become a quiet but radical form of transformation.

How to take part?

Joining a Buying Group is a way to step into a different kind of economy—one based on cooperation, transparency, and shared care. In most cases, groups are open to new members, and some even offer support for starting new ones. It can begin with a conversation, a meeting, or simply a message to a local group.

On www.eutopia-earth.com, you can explore a continuously updated map of Buying Groups across Italy and Europe, with links, contact information, and guidance on how to join or create your own.

This is not just about changing where you shop—it’s about reconnecting to who you are, where you live, and how you care for others through your everyday choices.

In a Nutshell

Buying Groups are more than just an alternative food system. They are a form of collective care, a grassroots expression of solidarity, and a quiet reweaving of community in times of fragmentation. They help us remember that change does not always come from above—sometimes it starts with something as simple, and as powerful, as how we choose to feed ourselves.

Because even the most ordinary acts, when shared, can become seeds of a more just, sustainable, and connected future.