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When the grocery store in Elwood, Nebraska, closed in January 2012, Sharlette Schwenninger and LeahAnn Brell went into action. Today, the Elwood Hometown Cooperative Market has a bright future in a vibrant, engaged rural community. 
On the corner of Seventh Avenue and Virginia Street in Seattle is a restaurant. It’s a restaurant much like many other downtown restaurants: tall glass windows, comfortable seating, a view into a bustling kitchen and a creative – sometimes edgy – menu. But there is something that makes this restaurant different. 
Perched just 180 feet above sea level, Port Townsend WA (Jefferson County Seat) is a quaint Victorian town with a permanent population just over 9,000 people. It’s also the location of the 40-year old Port Townsend Food Co-op. The Food Co-op was officially launched in 1972 as a food-buying club; as were so many of the “second wave” of food co-ops during the 1970s. 
In recognition – and celebration – the NW Cooperative Development Center, the Alaska Cooperative Development Program, and Mission Mountain Food Enterprise and Cooperative Development Center, are partnering to present “Celebrating Our Food Community,” a conference to consider how cooperative business models will contribute to the future of our local and regional food systems. We spoke with Jan Tusick, Center Director for Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center, about her organization’s part in establishing and supporting co-ops in western Montana. 
In an effort to bring back a connection between small local producers and their wholesale customers, particularly by urban and land use planners, the concept of a “food hub” has been introduced. Or some would say, “re-introduced.” 
Until the day comes when we can teleport physical products from one point to another, we will have to depend on distribution networks that include trains, planes, and automobiles (or trucks). You can download an e-book or a movie, but you just can’t download a shirt or dozen eggs. 
Spend a little time in the presence of a local food advocate and you’ll hear a string of acronyms beginning with CS: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Community Supported Bakery (CSB), Community Supported Restaurant (CSR), Community Supported Winery (CSW), Community Supported Fishery (CSF). What is all this community support about and what do these programs really mean? 
Devon Peña, professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington, Seattle, interviews Sonia (Mendoza) and Carlos Cervantes about produce and prepared food sold in their market, Mendoza’s Mexican Mercado. 
When it comes to deli meats and sausage, there is no substitution. George’s Sausage and Deli has its own smoker in the back of the shop where pork sausage and pork shoulder are cured. About a dozen types of meats are smoked, cured or jellied in-house, including kielbasa, Canadian bacon, three kinds of ham, pork shoulder, and kabanosy. 
Walk into any of the nine PCC Natural Markets in Puget Sound and it’s clear your not in your parents’ (or grandparents, if you’re young enough) food co-op! No more cozy slightly run-down food markets with barrels of flour and bags of rice on the floor, around which barefoot children played tag while their parents debated politics and planned social actions against “the establishment.” Today, the PCC (as it’s fondly referred to here in Seattle) is every bit the contemporary supermarket. So what is so special about the nation’s largest natural food co-operative? |
 Video: Seed Saving Around the World
Kate Flint, Australian gardener and seed saver, talks about her seed saving passion.
The Growing Revolution is the story of Jubilee Biodynamic Farm in Carnation, Washington.
Pig Mania
Crown S Ranch, Winthrop WA
(Click the image for a larger version.) |
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