Demand for a Good Supply, part 1
When the New Orleans Food Cooperative first began meeting to talk about and develop plans for growing cooperative grocery in New Orleans a couple of years ago, we split our efforts into several committees to investigate different aspects of the problem. One of those, the Supply Committee, met regularly to learn more about how groceries end up on the store shelves. We wanted to know more about production, transportation and availability.
We discussed local and/or organic food availabilty, the inelegant homogenization of the grocery industry, the environmental impact of national and international distribution, the loss of family-owned farming operations, the environmental and economic un-sustainability of corporate farming, labor practices that rely on underpaid and uninsured laborers, the impact on the local economy of grocery suppliers that are owned and controlled from outside the area and the insecurity of centralizing food production in the hands of a few national distributors.
When one considers grocery stores, it is apparent that we are all involved in the selection of the products available to us and the practices by which they are made available. Without consumer demand, the food industry will neither take steps to create a unique local identity in any grocery store, minimize the environmental impacts of long-haul transportation and wasteful packaging, nor invest in sustainable farming operations that do not pollute the environment. Without a concerted demand from consumers, unfair labor practices will persist and industrial farming will continue to chip away at the disappearing heritage of small family-owned farms. The only proven way for consumers to affect change is via demand by supporting organizations, suppliers and products that reflect these issues. This is evident today in the increasing number of organic products appearing on grocery store shelves as a result of consumer demand. Consumers are demanding them, and food producers are responding. Consumers expressed their reluctance to buy genetically modified potatoes, and the fast-food industry virtually eliminated the use of GMO potatoes in this country and Europe by refusing to use them in their fries. However, supporting organic products does not even begin to address all of the inequities and potential disasters befalling our national food production.
In time we became overwhelmed. When we learned of the details of many of these issues, we realized that the chances of just a few of us of effecting change were slim. To top it off, we didn’t even have a platform from which to address these issues credibly. This fact, combined with advice from a few local progressives interested in supporting the growth of local cooperatives, led us to begin operation of a Buying Club.
