Chapter Excerpts
Grocery Activism: The Radical History of Food Cooperatives in Minnesota
by Craig Upright
University of Minnesota Press
Published Spring 2020
by Craig Upright
University of Minnesota Press
Published Spring 2020
Introduction: From Niche Markets to Mainstream Meals
“This book explores one key period in the history of organic food, when the product was in its infancy and dedicated groups of activists promoted two separate but essential enterprises: the production of organic food and its distribution to the consuming public. While its proponents originally spoke of the ‘organic food movement,’ it eventually became an industry. Organic food slowly developed into a marketable product available even to those in both rural and urban areas who were not avid gardeners but who wanted to help create a more sustainable landscape. The emergence of organic food as a commodifiable comestible began in the 1970s, and the primary vendors for these products was a new type of cooperative store staffed and stocked by activists who were engaged in a quixotic project of social change.”
“This book explores one key period in the history of organic food, when the product was in its infancy and dedicated groups of activists promoted two separate but essential enterprises: the production of organic food and its distribution to the consuming public. While its proponents originally spoke of the ‘organic food movement,’ it eventually became an industry. Organic food slowly developed into a marketable product available even to those in both rural and urban areas who were not avid gardeners but who wanted to help create a more sustainable landscape. The emergence of organic food as a commodifiable comestible began in the 1970s, and the primary vendors for these products was a new type of cooperative store staffed and stocked by activists who were engaged in a quixotic project of social change.”
Chapter 1: The Cause of Organic Food
“The practices and ideologies of what we now consider organic or sustainable farming arose in response to the industrialization of agriculture. Various individuals and organizational efforts stood as challenges to emerging mainstream practices, critiques of a status quo we would later term ‘conventional’ farming. The scale of the transformations helps us better understand the critiques offered by the advocates of sustainable agriculture.”
“The practices and ideologies of what we now consider organic or sustainable farming arose in response to the industrialization of agriculture. Various individuals and organizational efforts stood as challenges to emerging mainstream practices, critiques of a status quo we would later term ‘conventional’ farming. The scale of the transformations helps us better understand the critiques offered by the advocates of sustainable agriculture.”
Chapter 2: Twentieth-Century Cooperatives
“Grocery cooperatives played a role in this larger social movement. They promoted an ethos of conscious consumerism, encouraging members to become more aware of where their food came from and the manner in which it was produced. One of the organizing principles of these stores was participatory democracy, allowing each member a say in how the stores should be run, the products they would sell, and who (if anybody) should serve as spokespeople or leaders. Politically, most of the activists who helped create and run these stores shared a critique of modern capitalism and a distrust of larger authorities, but, somewhat ironically, they also had to learn how to survive financially in a crowded, competitive economic market. While they did not have the same profit incentive as the mainstream corporations they criticized, they still had to maintain fiscal solvency if they were to continue promoting their message.”
“Grocery cooperatives played a role in this larger social movement. They promoted an ethos of conscious consumerism, encouraging members to become more aware of where their food came from and the manner in which it was produced. One of the organizing principles of these stores was participatory democracy, allowing each member a say in how the stores should be run, the products they would sell, and who (if anybody) should serve as spokespeople or leaders. Politically, most of the activists who helped create and run these stores shared a critique of modern capitalism and a distrust of larger authorities, but, somewhat ironically, they also had to learn how to survive financially in a crowded, competitive economic market. While they did not have the same profit incentive as the mainstream corporations they criticized, they still had to maintain fiscal solvency if they were to continue promoting their message.”
Chapter 3: Resistance and Persistence
“The remainder of this book focuses on the new-wave cooperatives that took root in Minnesota, a state with a long history of cooperative activity. At the vanguard of several national trends, Minnesota’s integration of cooperatives within many diverse sectors and demographic regions provides an excellent setting in which to study the development, struggles, and survival of cooperative organizations. Minneapolis and St. Paul witnessed the introduction of several new-wave cooperatives in the early 1970s, and, though they experienced a brief period of intense ideological competition (often distinctly uncooperative and occasionally violent), the groups’ attempts to resolve their disputes created an even stronger community of co-ops.”
“The remainder of this book focuses on the new-wave cooperatives that took root in Minnesota, a state with a long history of cooperative activity. At the vanguard of several national trends, Minnesota’s integration of cooperatives within many diverse sectors and demographic regions provides an excellent setting in which to study the development, struggles, and survival of cooperative organizations. Minneapolis and St. Paul witnessed the introduction of several new-wave cooperatives in the early 1970s, and, though they experienced a brief period of intense ideological competition (often distinctly uncooperative and occasionally violent), the groups’ attempts to resolve their disputes created an even stronger community of co-ops.”
Chapter 4: Dissent among the Dissenters — The 1975–76 Co-op Wars
“In the end, the attempts to challenge two different types of power—the agendas of mainstream society and the internalized culture of its members—became too difficult to pursue within the same movement organization. The Co-op Wars forced many activists to state more clearly what they were actually for—to make a decision, for instance, about whether the prevailing guidelines of the cooperative grocery store should be to work toward greater social change at a higher level of social structure or to promote the communal pursuit of healthier lifestyles among individual workers and patrons. In this case, a can of Campbell’s soup was an appropriate though conflicting icon: did it represent simple, cheap food for the masses or a hermetically sealed distillation of preservatives designed to further remove individuals from a stronger connection to their bodies and the land? Was it a tool of the revolution or a symbol of its suppression?”
“In the end, the attempts to challenge two different types of power—the agendas of mainstream society and the internalized culture of its members—became too difficult to pursue within the same movement organization. The Co-op Wars forced many activists to state more clearly what they were actually for—to make a decision, for instance, about whether the prevailing guidelines of the cooperative grocery store should be to work toward greater social change at a higher level of social structure or to promote the communal pursuit of healthier lifestyles among individual workers and patrons. In this case, a can of Campbell’s soup was an appropriate though conflicting icon: did it represent simple, cheap food for the masses or a hermetically sealed distillation of preservatives designed to further remove individuals from a stronger connection to their bodies and the land? Was it a tool of the revolution or a symbol of its suppression?”
Chapter 5: Developing Organic Market Infrastructures
“Throughout this book, I have focused on the population of new-wave cooperatives rather than on individual organizations. Though each particular collective has its own idiosyncratic history of challenges and triumphs, heartaches, and resolutions, none of them operated in isolation, ignorant of its larger institutional environment. Most social-scientific analyses of new-wave cooperatives took place in the 1980s. Those tended to consider co-ops as singular organizations, autonomous actors struggling imperfectly to implement principles of participatory democracy. Explanations of their rise (and, very often, their fall) looked inward, to the characteristics of the bounded group and to the motivations of individuals to join or contribute resources for its maintenance.
“I have demonstrated, instead, that from their earliest days, new-wave cooperatives have acted collectively as a community of organizations to further their individual and collective goals. This best explains how so many have survived to the present as well as how they more effectively pursued larger projects of social change. In particular, I point to how cooperatives put into practice one of the founding principles of the Rochdale Pioneers: cooperation among cooperatives.”
“Throughout this book, I have focused on the population of new-wave cooperatives rather than on individual organizations. Though each particular collective has its own idiosyncratic history of challenges and triumphs, heartaches, and resolutions, none of them operated in isolation, ignorant of its larger institutional environment. Most social-scientific analyses of new-wave cooperatives took place in the 1980s. Those tended to consider co-ops as singular organizations, autonomous actors struggling imperfectly to implement principles of participatory democracy. Explanations of their rise (and, very often, their fall) looked inward, to the characteristics of the bounded group and to the motivations of individuals to join or contribute resources for its maintenance.
“I have demonstrated, instead, that from their earliest days, new-wave cooperatives have acted collectively as a community of organizations to further their individual and collective goals. This best explains how so many have survived to the present as well as how they more effectively pursued larger projects of social change. In particular, I point to how cooperatives put into practice one of the founding principles of the Rochdale Pioneers: cooperation among cooperatives.”
Conclusion: Contemporary Legacies
“When I began to study the organizations that promoted organic food and cooperative retailing, I wanted to demonstrate how organic food served as a selective incentive to attract and retain members for these market-based social movement organizations. I suspected that the loss of that quasi-monopoly had forced the co-ops to professionalize and refine their missions. In the prevailing narrative, the 1970s new-wave cooperative movement experienced astronomic growth, then suffered retrenchment and decline, with the number of co-ops dwindling dramatically. As Cox wrote in Storefront Revolution, his definitive history of the Co-op Wars, ‘the movement died’ after the co-ops lost some of their revolutionary zeal. It is certainly true that some of the Minnesota organizations were shuttered over the two decades following that standoff. My evidence shows, instead, that this population remained strong even as it began to lose its quasi-monopoly on the retailing of organic food.
“. . . By merging a focus on benefits for the individual member-owner, including both an opportunity to contribute to local economic stability and the provisioning of healthier food products, cooperatives remain competitive while still supporting their founding principles. And by emphasizing ‘cooperation among cooperatives,’ they have helped to create an organizational field to support the distribution of organic food products even beyond their own brick-and-mortar boundaries. The social change many championed when this movement began more than forty years ago—the hope that they could challenge the dominance of prevailing agricultural paradigms—has been realized without leading to the irrelevance of co-ops.”
“When I began to study the organizations that promoted organic food and cooperative retailing, I wanted to demonstrate how organic food served as a selective incentive to attract and retain members for these market-based social movement organizations. I suspected that the loss of that quasi-monopoly had forced the co-ops to professionalize and refine their missions. In the prevailing narrative, the 1970s new-wave cooperative movement experienced astronomic growth, then suffered retrenchment and decline, with the number of co-ops dwindling dramatically. As Cox wrote in Storefront Revolution, his definitive history of the Co-op Wars, ‘the movement died’ after the co-ops lost some of their revolutionary zeal. It is certainly true that some of the Minnesota organizations were shuttered over the two decades following that standoff. My evidence shows, instead, that this population remained strong even as it began to lose its quasi-monopoly on the retailing of organic food.
“. . . By merging a focus on benefits for the individual member-owner, including both an opportunity to contribute to local economic stability and the provisioning of healthier food products, cooperatives remain competitive while still supporting their founding principles. And by emphasizing ‘cooperation among cooperatives,’ they have helped to create an organizational field to support the distribution of organic food products even beyond their own brick-and-mortar boundaries. The social change many championed when this movement began more than forty years ago—the hope that they could challenge the dominance of prevailing agricultural paradigms—has been realized without leading to the irrelevance of co-ops.”