Posted in Co-ops on December 13, 2012
I am organizing a series of special sessions on cooperatives and alternative food and agriculture initiatives at Congress 2013 in Victoria, BC. Contact me if you’re interested in participating or learning more.
With 2012 being celebrated around the world as the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives, the time is ripe to reflect on the role of cooperatives in agriculture, food systems and community development in Canada. The Canadian Association for Studies in Cooperation and the Canadian Association for Food Studies are convening a series of special and joint sessions that explore cooperatives and alternative agri-food networks at 2013 Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities.
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences” – Lorde, 1986
I recently had the pleasure of giving a talk at Oregon State University in Nancy Rosenberger’s anthropology of food class and at Washington State University in Jahi Chappell’s graduate agroecology class about a paper I’m in the process of working up about co-operatives, alternative food networks and social justice. I am arguing that co-operatives are too focused on the ‘self’ and often reflect the inequalities that exist in society, especially in agriculture and food systems.
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Posted in Co-ops on November 12, 2012
With 2012 being celebrated around the world as the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives, the time is ripe to reflect on the role of co-operatives in agriculture, food systems and community development in Canada. At the Food Secure Canada general assembly in Edmonton, we held a workshop that critically interrogated the co-operative model as a tool to enable social change for an alternative/co-operative economy-society. This session explored the question:
“do co-operatives promote inclusivity, democracy, sovereignty and transformation?”
Using an interactive world café format, we (more…)
We’ve published a new paper about how farm households adapted to the BSE (mad cow) crisis in Canada. Click here to visit the outcomes section of our website to download the research brief or the full paper which is also available at:
Anderson, C.R., McLachlan, S.M., 2012. Exiting, enduring and innovating: Farm household adaptation to global zoonotic disease. Global Environmental Change 22, 82-93.
From April 19th – April 22nd 2010, five delegates from the Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative (HMLFI) and one from the Farmers Market Association of Manitoba went to Oklahoma City to learn about the operations of the Oklahoma Food Co-op (OFC). The delegates had the opportunity to: 1) Tour, and collect video documentation of the operations centre 2) Participate in the OFC’s drop-off and delivery days on Wednesday April 20th and Thursday April 21st 3) Meet and talk to producers and volunteers on drop-off and delivery day 4) Meet and talk with several key members of the OFC including the Co-op’s founder, Bob Waldrop, the general operation manager, Kara Joy McKee, the volunteer coordinator, Megan Dosher and one of the financial administrators, Lori Lyon 5) Record interviews with Bob Waldrop, Kara Joy McKee, Lori Lyon, and producers and volunteers on delivery day. Most importantly the group of delegates had the opportunity to see, in the context of the OFC, how important a multi-stakeholder approach, and inclusionary principles are in creating a successful local food distribution system. The key message from OFC organizers was the importance of communication, policy and governance structure including multiple stakeholders (e.g. producers, volunteers, eaters etc.) and an ability to adapt and change when necessary.
