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Hungry for change? Put the power of food co-ops on your plate and grow your local food economy. Food has become ground-zero in our efforts to increase awareness of how our choices impact the world. Yet while we have begun to transform our communities and dinner plates, the most authoritative strand of the food web has received surprisingly little attention: the grocery store—the epicenter of our food-gathering ritual. Through penetrating analysis and inspiring stories and examples of American and Canadian food co-ops, Grocery Story makes a compelling case for the transformation of the grocery store aisles as the emerging frontier in the local and good food movements. Author Jon Steinman: Deconstructs the food retail sector and the shadows cast by corporate giants Makes the case for food co-ops as an alternative Shows how co-ops spur the creation of local food-based economies and enhance low-income food access. Grocery Story is for everyone who eats. Whether you strive to eat more local and sustainable food, or are in support of community economic development, Grocery Story will leave you hungry to join the food co-op movement in your own community.
In recent years, American shoppers have become more conscious of their food choices and have increasingly turned to CSAs, farmers' markets, organic foods in supermarkets, and to joining and forming new food co-ops. In fact, food co-ops have been a viable food source, as well as a means of collective and democratic ownership, for nearly 180 years.In Food Co-ops in America, Anne Meis Knupfer examines the economic and democratic ideals of food cooperatives. She shows readers what the histories of food co-ops can tell us about our rights as consumers, how we can practice democracy and community, and how we might do business differently. In the first history of food co-ops in the United States, Knupfer draws on newsletters, correspondence, newspaper coverage, and board meeting minutes, as well as visits to food co-ops around the country, where she listened to managers, board members, workers, and members.What possibilities for change—be they economic, political, environmental or social—might food co-ops offer to their members, communities, and the globalized world? Food co-ops have long advocated for consumer legislation, accurate product labeling, and environmental protection. Food co-ops have many constituents—members, workers, board members, local and even global producers—making the process of collective decision-making complex and often difficult. Even so, food co-ops offer us a viable alternative to corporate capitalism. In recent years, committed co-ops have expanded their social vision to improve access to healthy food for all by helping to establish food co-ops in poorer communities.
Hungry for change? Put the power of food co-ops on your plate and grow your local food economy. Food has become ground-zero in our efforts to increase awareness of how our choices impact the world. Yet while we have begun to transform our communities and dinner plates, the most authoritative strand of the food web has received surprisingly little attention: the grocery store—the epicenter of our food-gathering ritual. Through penetrating analysis and inspiring stories and examples of American and Canadian food co-ops, Grocery Story makes a compelling case for the transformation of the grocery store aisles as the emerging frontier in the local and good food movements. Author Jon Steinman: Deconstructs the food retail sector and the shadows cast by corporate giants Makes the case for food co-ops as an alternative Shows how co-ops spur the creation of local food-based economies and enhance low-income food access. Grocery Story is for everyone who eats. Whether you strive to eat more local and sustainable food, or are in support of community economic development, Grocery Story will leave you hungry to join the food co-op movement in your own community.
"Dating back to the early 1800s, cooperatives are organizations that are democratically owned and controlled by their members. They exist in all sectors of the economy, such as in agriculture, manufacturing, financial services, housing, healthcare, and utilities ("What is a Coop?" n.d.). As alternatives to investor-owned corporations, co-ops are locally owned by individuals in their community and serve the needs of their members rather than providing profit to outside investors (Hazen, 2010). The retail food cooperatives that today provide natural, organic, and local foods to consumers across the country are consumer cooperatives and are owned by their members who shop in the store (Hazen, 2010). This iteration of the retail food cooperative sprang up during the 1960s and 1970s, in response to the environmental, political, and social concerns of the counterculture movement (Knupfer, 2013). Due to the increased consumer interest in organic and natural foods, today's food co-ops face competition from supermarkets, discount stores, and national chains such as Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's, which now carry many of the products in which co-ops specialize (Haedicke, 2014). This competition puts the survival of co-ops in jeopardy, calling for greater insight into this phenomenon to keep food co-ops afloat. Food co-ops play a vital role in their local communities and economies - in a way that mainstream retailers selling organic foods cannot. To remain viable, it is therefore important for food co-ops to understand the current consumer perceptions in order to develop better marketing techniques that can help keep existing shoppers and engage new ones. ..." -- from introduction.
Abstract: A food co-op is a group of individuals and families which purchases food in bulk from a wholesaler, avoiding middle-man markup, and distributes to its members. The food co-op is an economical, political and qualitative alternative to food supermarket shopping. It is a response to inflationary prices. The food co-op popularity implies participants' needs for autonomy and more control over the forces that shape their lives. History of food co-ops from initial organizational meetings in Concord, Massachusetts to comparisons of 1930's and 1970's co-ops is presented. Chapters describe potential food savings and time commitments involved; organizational possibilities, growth and change over time; space, bookkeeping, financing and organizational needs; wholesale buying techniques; political ramifications. Appendices list wholesalers, national co-ops and co-op newsletters.
In the 1960s, the cooperative networks of food stores, restaurants, bakeries, bookstores, and housing alternatives were part counterculture, part social experiment, part economic utopia, and part revolutionary political statement. The co-ops gave activists a place where they could both express themselves and accomplish at least some small-scale changes. By the mid-1970s, dozens of food co-ops and other consumer- and work-owned enterprises were operating throughout the Twin Cities, and an alternative economic network - with a People's Warehouse at its hub - was beginning to transform the economic landscape of the metropolitan Minneapolis-St. Paul area. However, these co-op activists could not always agree among themselves on their goals. Craig Cox, a journalist who was active in the co-op movement, here provides the first book to look at food co-ops during the 1960s and 1970s. He presents a dramatic story of hope and conflict within the Minneapolis network, one of the largest co-op structures in the country. His "view from the front" of the "Co-op War" that ensued between those who wanted personal liberation through the movement and those who wanted a working-class revolution challenges us to re-thing possiblities for social and political change. Cox provides not a cynical portrait of sixties idealism, but a moving insight into an era when anything seemed possible.