2011 Schedule

• First Stop: Jimbo’s
• Second Stop: Sea Side Market
• Third Stop: Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market
• Fourth Stop: Henry’s Market

• First Stop: Coronado Island
• Second Stop: Wild Willow Farm and Educational Center
• Third Stop: Border Fence
• Fourth Stop: Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market

All CGIN members are invited to join us for CGIN's 14th Annual Meeting. Jonathan Rheinbold, from the Tierra Miguel Foundation, will be talking about the San Diego Growers Hub (ag co-op) and how co-ops can participate with similar existing groups or facilitate their own ag co-op to create further collaboration between cooperatives and producers. We'll also announce the highly anticipated election results, plus give you the chance to make a difference in the local community beyond the walls of the Hard Rock Hotel!

What or who is CCMA? Why would anyone pay $1,000 for a quilt they can't keep? Who are the Italian grocers? Why does everyone use letters instead of words? Answers to all these critically important questions and even substantive information about the CCMA conference will be revealed in a supportive, nurturing environment. Old timers are welcome to kibbitz.

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.

Workshops in all tracks at various locations.  Details can be found on the workshop schedule page.

Workshops in all tracks at various locations. Details can be found on the workshop schedule page.

Workshops in all tracks at various locations. Details can be found on the workshop schedule page.

Get your bids in! That precious co-op item might be snatched by another enthusiastic bidder! The auction ends at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday!

The silent auction benefits the Bowers Fund, which supports the food co-op sector by giving grants for training and education of food co-op managers, staff, and boards.  The Cooperative Development Foundation, which manages the Bowers Fund, and the Bowers Fund advisors thank you for your support of the Bowers Fund in the past and hope you will participate in the silent auction this year and in the future.

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?

Workshops in all tracks at various locations. Details can be found on the workshop schedule page.