Solidarity Purchase Groups and the new critical and ethical consumer trends: first results of a direct study in Sicily

Recently in Italy, the evolution of food consumption occurs through the purchase of healthy and environmentally friendly foods. This trend is confirmed by the birth, in Italy of many solidarity purchase groups (called in Italy Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale or GAS),made up of individuals or families who choose to purchase products with a high ethical value. In this paper we try to identify socio-economic conditions and motivation of individual members of GAS, and for this purpose we developed over 205 questionnaires.