Local food cooperatives

RedStateGreen · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:09 pm Post subject: Local food cooperatives

What's the local food situation where you live?

One thing I love about Oklahoma is the Oklahoma Food Cooperative. A local TV network just put up a short piece on what we're doing:

I know most of the people in that video ... :D

There are a growing number of co-ops working off the Oklahoma model, and the co-op's software has been made open source so anyone can use it. It's definitely worth checking into to see if this might work where you live. A few months ago we had a group from Ontario, Canada come by to see what we were doing, and this month there's a group from Japan interested in visiting on sorting day.

Which I think is pretty cool.
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allenwrench · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 23, 2008 Posts: 893

http://64.71.143.109/

darwinsdog · Heavy Crude Joined: Jun 27, 2008 Posts: 170

The co-op movement has all but died, relative to it's heyday in the 1970s. Durango, CO still has its co-op, as does Silver City, NM & Bisbee, AZ (I think). Tempe's Gentle Strength has died, as has the Telluride co-op & many others large & small. Recently, Tucson Cooperative Warehouse, which supplied scores if not hundreds of local co-ops & buying clubs, went out of business. I bought bulk foods from TCW for decades. I don't know what I'm going to do now.

Ludi · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 3:26 pm Post subject: Re: Local food cooperatives

None nearby that I know of. Crying or Very sad

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catbox · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 3:36 pm Post subject: Re: Local food cooperatives

Super cool!
Here is another resource:
http://www.purefood.org/coopindex.htm
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uncarve_db_lock · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:22 pm Post subject: Re: Local food cooperatives

The local coop that I shop is the second largest single store (in sales) in the country after some coop in Minneapolis. I actually worked there for a few years as the facility manager until I learned about Peak Oil at which point I realized that I needed to make a career change. Cleaning refrigerators and managing janitors didn't really strike my fancy anymore. Anyways, as far as coops go, they seem to really have it together. The general manager is fully aware of what's coming down the tracks at us although I'm not sure the board of directors is. They really do support the local agriculture movement for sure. The organic farm I used to work at would make at least two runs a week during harvest season. The coop also has member worker programs where for four hours of work a month you get a 12% discount on food, helps me out for sure. I do fear for them though considering that as with any large (25,000 sf) grocery store that gets everything trucked in there will be some major pains in the near future. It really makes me wonder....

cowgap · Coal Joined: Jun 17, 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Central Texas

Neighborly visiting....the ultimate cooperative!

This afternoon I stopped in our local implement dealer to pick up combine parts for upcoming milo harvest. The lady behind the counter and I visited and I discovered that she had too much okra (ours is not doing well) and too many jalapenos. I overplanted on bell peppers (both yellow and green) and her " bells" turned out to be more jalapeno plants that were mislabeled. I am sick of canning and drying tomatoes (sauce, puree, whole, marinara, etc.) Her tomatoes are not doing well and I somehow missed getting jalapenos.

We are both too experienced to bring up zucchini.

sooo... we cooperate. Barter works and friendships strengthen us both.

Ludi · Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:52 am Post subject: Re: Local food cooperatives

Rohese · Coal Joined: Jul 30, 2008 Posts: 16 Location: Oklahoma

I'm a member of the OK Food Coop also. It's great to be able to buy from local farmers, especially products like wheat flour that can be hard to find local sources for. I buy pretty much all of my meat from the coop too.

RedStateGreen, just curious, is the coop membership and/or leadership generally aware of PO?

RedStateGreen · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:07 pm Post subject: Re: Local food cooperatives

dunewalker · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:43 pm Post subject: Re: Local food cooperatives

RSG, thanks for the very inspirational video!
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mercurygirl · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 1287

Thanks RSG, looks great.

My area has a group of dedicated and organized people working on starting a coop, which I'm thrilled about. There's one that's established, but about an hour+ away. I believe another city about 40 minutes away is starting up as well. I'll be volunteering and will try to get to a membership meeting in about a month. Right now they're in the fundraising/networking stage.

I'm going to pass your link on. Smile

Rohese · Coal Joined: Jul 30, 2008 Posts: 16 Location: Oklahoma

RSG, I'm not surprised to hear that Bob W. has such a group. He doesn't ever actually mention peak oil in his emails to the coop, but he often suggests things like keeping some of your savings in the form of food. (He alarmed/convinced me, I've been buying 25-lb pails of wheat berries from the coop!). Thanks for the info.

RedStateGreen · Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 6:36 pm Post subject: Re: Local food cooperatives