From a market stall to an integrated ecological living centre…

The Buğday organisation sowed the first seeds of a healthy production-consumption network from a market stall on the street market of the Mediterranean holiday resort of Bodrum in 1990. Cultural, social and economic exchanges were made face to face at the weekly market. Natural and healthy products were sold and each product's story was shared.

Evolving from the shop Başak the Bugday organisation transformed into a restaurant and integrated ecological living centre. The Bugday Restaurant served to build bridges, and create practical solutions and hope-filled approaches to the problems of living as a human.

In 2000, 10 years after its first market stall, Buğday was again at Bodrum Market. In a Project which lasted 6 months organic products were sold on a local street market for the first time in Turkey.

The Shops
In 1999 Buğday moved the Buğday Restaurant and Başak Natural Produce Shop to İstanbul where the market is greatest. The experience gained during this period was important for the establishment in the domestic market of shops selling ecological agricultural produce.

The first step in İstanbul was the setting up of the restaurant Nuh'un Ambarı (Noah's Warehouse) by the Society for the Protection of Nature (now the WWF Turkey) Wholesale ecological produce: Buğday's pilot projects in 1999-2000 gained the organisation necessary experience on the basis of which the organisation undertook the wholesale and distribution of ecological produce, at first primarily that of Rapunzel and subsequently a growing selection of other ecologolical produce, to an increasing number of sales points.

CSA: Community Supported Agriculture Projects:

In 1998, from its place in Bodrum, Buğday sent the city dwellers of İstanbul fresh seasonal vegetables and fruit by the basket, which arrived the following day. In 2001 and 2002 Buğday proposed creating a system of distributing the produce of Ulupınar Environmental Protection, Development and Management Cooperative in Çıralı, Antalya throughout the entire growing season directly to the consumer in boxes. In 2003 a project called ESAS (Ecological, Healthy, Fair, Sustainable) was set up to deliver organic produce to homes in areas where such produce was not normally available and also with the aim of getting people used to organic food and thereby increasing the sales of ecological produce shops.

Buğday Points and Natural Living Directory:

Buğday Points area network of locations in large cities and towns, first and foremost İstanbul and Ankara: shops which sell organic produce, restaurants with an organic food menu or personal development centres.

* The Natural Life Directory which is published in Buğday Ecological Living Magazine and its diaries give readers information about places where ecological goods are sold or used and aim to inform people about activities related to ecological living.

Electronic Marketplace:

After the opening of Buğday's Ecological Living Portal Buğday set up an electronic internet marketplace: www.epazaryeri.org. Aiming to connect producers with consumers as well as informing the public about institutions and personal development centres in different regions of the country.