Other Avenues Are Possible

Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff

Description

Other Avenues Are Possible offers a vivid account of the dramatic rise and fall of the San Francisco People’s Food System of the 1970s.

Weaving new interviews, historical research, and the author’s personal story as a longstanding co-op member, the book captures the excitement of a growing radical social movement along with the struggles, heartbreaking defeats, and eventual resurgence of today’s thriving network of Bay Area cooperatives, the greatest concentration of co-ops anywhere in the country.

Integral to the early natural foods movement, with a radical vision of “Food for People, Not for Profit,” the People’s Food System challenged agribusiness and supermarkets, and quickly grew into a powerful local network with nationwide influence before flaming out, often in dramatic fashion. Other Avenues Are Possible documents how food co-ops sprouted from grassroots organizations with a growing political awareness of global environmental dilapidation and unequal distribution of healthy foods to proactively serve their local communities. The book explores both the surviving businesses and a new network of support organizations that is currently expanding.

Sujets

• Rainbow Grocery Cooperative
• Food desert
• Food politics
• Coopérative

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 10 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781629633169
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Praise for Other Avenues Are Possible
In this book, Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff inspires us all by recounting how cooperation created other avenues for workers and consumers by developing a food system that not only promoted healthy food but wove within it practices that respect workers and the environment.
-E. Kim Coontz, executive director, California Center for Cooperative Development
Anyone who cares about progressive social change should ponder the history of the Bay Area food co-op movement of the 1970s.
-John Curl, author of For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America
I have been waiting more than twenty years for this book! Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff s Other Avenues Are Possible details the history of the People s Food System, a grand experiment in combining good food and workplace democracy. Other Avenues answers many of my questions about how the food politics of the Bay Area developed and points the way towards a better-and more cooperative-future. A must-read for anyone who eats food.
-Gordon Edgar, author of Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge and a worker owner of Rainbow Grocery Cooperative
Shanta Sacharoff has written an illuminating account of the power and potential of food cooperatives. Other Avenues Are Possible sheds light on the many possibilities and challenges of community and individual participation in the way we acquire and share our food. This book is about building a healthier world, engaging communities, and driving social and civic responsibility. In order to understand the eddying forces that constrain and control the food that we put on our plate, read this fascinating book.
-Jaya Padmanabhan, editor of India Currents

Other Avenues Are Possible: Legacy of the People s Food System of the San Francisco Bay Area
Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff
This edition copyright 2016 PM Press
Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff
ISBN: 978-1-62963-232-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016948142
Cover by John Yates/Stealworks.com
Interior by Jonathan Rowland
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PM Press
PO Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
www.pmpress.org
Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan.
www.thomsonshore.com
Contents
Preface
Introduction
PART I: COOPERATION BUILDS COMMUNITY
Chapter 1: Food Cooperatives in the United States
Chapter 2: The People s Food System
PART II: THE PEOPLE S FOOD SYSTEM SURVIVORS
Chapter 3: Veritable Vegetable
Chapter 4: Rainbow Grocery Cooperative
Chapter 5: Other Avenues Food Store Cooperative
PART III: FOOD SHARING BUILDS COMMUNITY
Chapter 6: My Journey with Bay Area Food Co-ops and Other Avenues
PART IV: THE FUTURE IS NOW
Chapter 7: Sustaining Food Co-ops
Chapter 8: Keeping the Vision
APPENDICES
Suggested Literature and Other Sources for Further Study
Lists of Co-ops, Markets, and Organizations
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
P REFACE
Some years ago, my young neighbor, who was in second grade, asked me for help with his homework assignment. I have to do a five-minute interview to learn survey skills. Can I interview you? He had three questions:
Question #1: Do you work?
My answer: Yes.
Question #2: Where do you work?
My answer: At a food co-op.
Question #3: Do you like your work?
My answer: I love it!
The boy was so excited he almost fell off the chair. I asked why he was so happy, and he replied that out of the six people he interviewed, I was the only one who loved my job-and that made his day. Others had said that they worked for money or to keep busy or because it was the thing to do, but mine was the only affirmative response to work that he received. Many years later, I still feel the same way. I love my workplace and the community it supports, and I feel that my work contributes something positive to the world.
This book tells the story of the food co-ops and the complex of community businesses that thrived in the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and 70s. The system was built by a group of people dedicated to harnessing the power of collaborative community to obtain and share healthy food or Food for People, Not for Profit. My personal journey within this movement included working in many capacities as a cooperator and also creating and then sharing recipes with others. While participating in this movement I came to understand the powerful positive effects that our work can have on our community.
This is the story of the many people who came together to bring healthy food to the people, building a strong foundation for the cooperative business models of today. Their experience bears witness to the ways that the workplace can change, replacing hierarchical models with participatory democracy.
The global economy is unstable, with an increasing gap between the haves and have-nots. World food security is under constant threat. Now more than ever, we need guidance to bring back sanity and a vision of sustainability for the future. The People s Food System was a humble experiment by the food-system visionaries of the San Francisco Bay Area, with the participation of thousands of people. Their experience left us a platform from which to address vital questions, such as how can concerned citizens work toward global food sovereignty and create a more equitable distribution of food in today s economy? This book offers information and resources to help create new co-ops and build enthusiasm for future generations to continue this work. Today s co-ops can offer direction for harnessing the power of collaborative community and hope for the future.
I NTRODUCTION
F OOD, WONDERFUL FOOD !! In ancient Sanskrit writings food is compared to Brahma himself, the Creator, Giver of Life. Food not only sustains our bodies, but also unites the spirit of the people who share it. The way that a society grows and distributes its food says a lot about the strength and resourcefulness of its communities. Food gathering, distribution, preparation, and sharing all offer natural opportunities for connection to the larger world. On every level, food connects humans in social interaction, community collaboration, and political development.
Not long ago, farming was a shared experience between growers and consumers, and in many agrarian societies it continues to be so today. Since the industrial revolution, much of the world s farmland has become a commodity owned by agro-capitalists motivated purely by gain, who systematically destroy fragile ecosystems, diluting our food with fillers and preservatives, and packaging it for maximum profit.
When I first came to New York from a small Indian village, I was astounded to read the label on a can of peas and find that it contained as many as twelve ingredients, only one of which was the peas. Later, when I moved to San Francisco in the mid-1970s, I was delighted to find many small shops selling bulk food out of burlap sacks the way they do in India. Corporate food chains such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe s had not yet arrived in the Bay Area. Instead, there was a small group of Real Food Company stores, a number of health food corner stores, ethnic markets, and farmers markets offering alternatives to the packaged foods sold by the big grocery stores. Going to the Alemany Farmers Market for the first time and seeing all the colorful seasonal produce sold by farmers was truly an ecstatic experience for me! And there, I met people of many ethnicities from various parts of the world willing to share and exchange recipes and cooking techniques.
Soon I discovered the San Francisco Food Conspiracy, a group of people who had organized to buy fresh and bulk food together and to share progressive ideas of a sustainable lifestyle with like-minded folks. In the 1970s, everything was conspiratorial and exciting, and I joined the club; it shaped my food choices and my work forever.
As Food Conspiracy members, we ordered, divided, and often cooked and ate our food together. We educated one another about the politics of food and rallied together against the corporate takeover of our food sources and distribution systems.
When the Food Conspiracy became too large to manage from houses and garages, we began to open storefront outlets. I started to volunteer at one of the first stores to open, the Haight Community Food Store, and embarked upon a lifetime commitment to the Bay Area s food co-ops. I began to participate in a dynamic movement that shaped the small experimental food-sharing clubs into a significant number of democratic workplaces. Later, I became a worker-owner of Other Avenues Food Store Cooperative. Working there for more than three decades, I witnessed the growth, changes, and challenges of the Bay Area s food co-ops.
This book tells the story of a community s shared dream of a food distribution system where farmers, wholesalers, delivery people, worker-owners, and shoppers all cooperated to support a vision of sustainable farming and a clean planet through their work options and food choices. It is the story of a community that created viable tools for sustainability by believing that other avenues are possible!
PART I
COOPERATION BUILDS COMMUNITY
C OOPERATION IS CENTRAL to human evolution. Early civilization took a major leap forward when people began to realize the power of collaboration to build communities. Just as the invention of the wheel enabled a new level of mechanical efficiency, so a circle of people contributing their many hands to making unwieldy tasks easier allowed communities to prosper. Even more, working together and sharing