Food Co-ops in America - by Anne Meis Knupfer (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book examines the economic and democratic ideals of food cooperatives, showing what the histories of food co-ops tells us about our rights as consumers, how we can practice democracy and community, and how we might do business differently.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Food Co- ops in America is researched superbly and written with engaging narrative style. Knupfer's special attention to the historical archives of the individual coops is especially impressive, and her bibliography is exhaustive. The work should be appealing to anyone interested in cooperatives, food ethics, community economics, and the history of the contemporary "food scene." But the work also resonates with its insightful analysis of the success, and pitfalls, of community democracy in the modern era." --Eric Mogren, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society

Anne Meis Knupfer makes a compelling case for creating and sustaining food co-ops where lively political, social, and economic discourse converge on the all-important topic of food. Food Co-ops in America is a great book for anyone interested in the lessons and challenges of alternative economics.

Anne Meis Knupfer opens her study of food cooperatives in the United States by identifying the growing interest in the politics of eating sparked by best-selling books such as Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Food co-ops--grocery stores collectively owned by members who can participate in management decisions--are largely absent from Pollan's mediation on the 'industrial food system' and the alternatives to it. Knupfer fills the gap, arguing that cooperative grocery retailing constitutes 'a viable latnerative to corporate capitalism.' The strength of the study is the detailed local history of co-ops located in the Northeast, the Midwest, and in northern California. Knupfer has logged many miles visiting these stores and their archives.

As Anne Meis Knupfer deftly illustrates in Food Co-ops in America, the food cooperative movement worked to define democratic and ethical food buying practices in the United States dating back to the nineteenth century. As such, Knupfer's book is an important contribution to a growing literature that seeks to explore the ways that Americans have wrestled with the implications of food choices throughout the nation's history. Food Co-ops in America illustrates the way that cooperatives have historically either encouraged or stifled democratic participation, and the book's conclusions clearly illustrate the political implications of emphasizing profit over social consciousness.

In Food Co-ops in America, Anne Meis Knupfer offers a fresh look at a part of the co-op movement that has tended toward the small scale as opposed to many farmer co-operatives, which have often become big businesses.. What remains here of substantial value is the noteworthy fireld research, which will no doubt become the basis of textbooks on food co-ops and other secondary works.

Skillfully crafted, this study positions the history of food cooperatives as an extension of the histories of consumption in the US by authors such as Tracey Deutsch and Lizabeth Cohen.... Knupfer brings to light the significant scale and scope of cooperatives, reminding us in an age of individual responsibility and conscious consumption that collective models succeeded, and continue to succeed today. Her study underscores the importance of local commitments, and the democratic principles and practices that inform cooperatives and the work of building and sustaining community.

This is a book that will find its way into the hands of several different kinds of readers. Some will welcome it as a useful first effort at chronicling the history of food cooperatives in the United States, while others will read it as an advice manual for today's cooperative movement.... The combination of interviews, personal reflections, and archival research presented here makes for a thought-provoking history.

About the Author

Anne Meis Knupfer is Professor of Cultural Foundations at Purdue University. She is the author of three books, including The Chicago Black Renaissance and Women's Activism, and coeditor most recently of The Educational Work of Women's Organizations, 1890-1960. Half of the royalties from Food Co-ops in America are going to Food Co-op Initiative, which assists poorer communities in starting food co-ops. Their website is: http: //www.foodcoopinitiative.coop/.