Our History
The Buğday movement, seeds of which were sprinkled at the Buğday’s (Wheat) Vegetarian Cafe, the first all-organic store – restaurant & eco-cultural centre in Bodrum at the beginning of 1990’s, has been operating officially since 2002 under the name of Buğday Association for Supporting Ecological Living.
Some Milestones of Buğday Movement:
- 1990, the first market and consumption research for wholesome food began in Bodrum, Turkey
- 1991, a health food store opened as the base and meeting point for the movement in Bodrum
- 1992, the store transformed into a restaurant and an education center which served as a national and international meeting point and base for the next 8 years
- 1998, the first bi-monthly Buğday Ecological Living Magazine was published and distributed around the country
- 1999, the first congress on “Healthy domestic organic market” organized
- 2000, different models for marketing organic products were established
- 2002, Buğday Association was legally established as the umbrella organization for the movement
- 2003, TaTuTa organic farm holidays and volunteers program was established
- 2005, the first community supported organic city garden project was executed
- 2006, the first 100% Ecological Farmers’ Market was established in İstanbul, Turkey
- 2007, the 3.5 years project for the preparation of Agri-Environment in Turkey started
- 2008, Turkey’s seed network was founded
- 2009, Camtepe rural research and education center was succesfully completed and opened in 2010.
- 2010, the first international permanent representation was established in Brussels