Keynotes

Current discussions in the food cooperative community often turn to the presence of food deserts in our cities and town and what the co-ops might do to address them. Mari coined the term food deserts to describe neighborhoods where mainstream grocers are distant (we call these areas Food Deserts) or where grocers are distant and unhealthy food is readily available (we call this condition Food Imbalance).  In these areas, it is generally difficult to buy a first-rate apple, tomato, or green bean. Many venues instead specialize in candy, soda, chips, and fried food. Residents of food deserts (who number in the tens of thousands throughout the country) have worse diet-related health outcomes including diabetes, cancer, obesity, heart disease and premature death. These effects are independent of income, race and education and are statistically significant for diabetes and obesity. There is not one single cause of Food Deserts and not one single solution. Everyone can do something. Your co-op can do something. Hear Mari’s ideas for what that could be.

These are turbulent times for cooperatives. Pressures and opportunities of globalization, world-wide recession, widespread concentration in the food industry, peak oil, genetically modified foods and climate change stress the connection between members and the co-operative, making it all the more important to discuss and rethink the co-operative’s functions in useful and realistic language. Globalization is putting pressure on the farms, households, wage earners, and consumers who make up cooperatives’ memberships. Widespread social-economic processes are working to differentiate members of co-operatives one from another, and overturn the past accommodations on which their cooperation has been based. New transnational competitors and new forms and methods of business are entering markets. As a result, co-operatives feel compelled to break with past practices and examine new approaches, new policies, and new structures – including transformations and creation of new forms of co-operatives. What does all this mean for your local food co-op?