"Food System" Defined | p. xiii |
Preface | p. xv |
Note from the Author: Big Food | p. xix |
Introduction | p. 1 |
1 Rise of the Grocery Giants | p. 15 |
A&P - The First of the Giants | p. 15 |
Other Giants Emerge | p. 18 |
Self-Service | p. 20 |
Regulating the Rise of Big Business | p. 23 |
Expanding the War on Chain Grocers | p. 26 |
Enter the Supermarket | p. 28 |
2 Retailer Market Power | p. 31 |
Taming the Chains | p. 33 |
The Giants Break Loose | p. 37 |
The Accelerating of Supermarket Dominance | p. 40 |
Regulating Market Power Today | p. 42 |
The Generational Effect and Self-Reinforcing Apathy | p. 43 |
3 Food Prices and the People Who Grow Our Food | p. 45 |
The Farm Crisis of the 1980s | p. 46 |
The "Farm Share" and "Marketing Share" of Our Food Dollars | p. 47 |
Squeezing Food Dollars Through Bottlenecks | p. 50 |
Farm Value vs. Retail Price | p. 53 |
Eaters Pay the Price for Concentrated Markets | p. 56 |
Mergers Decrease Prices Paid to Farmers | p. 59 |
The Most Extreme Expression of the Farm Income Crisis | p. 60 |
4 Grocery Stores - The Food System's Control Center | p. 63 |
Shaping Food - Literally | p. 64 |
Losses in Flavor | p. 65 |
Cosmetic Requirements and Food Safety | p. 66 |
Genetic Diversity | p. 67 |
Food Standards as Buyer Leverage | p. 67 |
Standards and Food Waste | p. 68 |
Marching Orders for Suppliers | p. 68 |
Suppliers Finance Their Own Servitude | p. 71 |
Category Management | p. 72 |
Pay to Play Pay to Stay | p. 74 |
Is It Bribery? | p. 76 |
Private Labels (Deliberately Anonymous) | p. 78 |
Barriers to Entry | p. 81 |
Setting Food Policy | p. 82 |
Eaters at the Controls | p. 84 |
Interlude |
Welcome to What's Possible, North America | p. 89 |
Welcome to Resistervilie (Nelson, British Columbia) | p. 91 |
Grocery Giants in Nelson | p. 93 |
The Regional Food Movement | p. 95 |
Viroqua, Wisconsin | p. 97 |
5 Enter the Co-op | p. 101 |
What Is a Co-op? | p. 103 |
Mission-Driven and Transparent | p. 105 |
Resilience | p. 106 |
History of the Cooperative Movement | p. 107 |
The First Consumer Co-ops in Canada and the United States | p. 110 |
The Empowered Consumer | p. 111 |
6 The Food Co-op Waves | p. 115 |
The Consumer Wave | p. 115 |
The New Wave | p. 119 |
The New Wave Grows Up | p. 125 |
The Newest Wave | p. 128 |
Beyond Natural Foods - Co-ops for Low-Income Communities | p. 131 |
7 Consumer Food Co-ops Today | p. 133 |
There's Nothing Cookie-Cutter About Food Co-ops | p. 133 |
Food Co-ops as Community Centers | p. 137 |
Education | p. 138 |
Kitchen Skills Training | p. 139 |
Children's Programming | p. 139 |
Co-ops in Schools | p. 140 |
Food Access | p. 140 |
Inexpensive Meals for Community Building | p. 142 |
Community Giving | p. 142 |
Nonprofit Arms | p. 143 |
Positive Workplace | p. 144 |
Working Members | p. 145 |
Cooperation with Local Businesses | p. 147 |
The Co-op Footprint | p. 148 |
Community-Owned Good Food Media | p. 149 |
College Town Co-ops | p. 150 |
Governance and Ownership | p. 152 |
Profiles of Board Directors at Food Co-ops | p. 152 |
Engaging Members in Their Co-op | p. 153 |
Diversity | p. 155 |
Social Cohesion | p. 155 |
Activism | p. 156 |
On Prices | p. 157 |
Unleashing Potential | p. 160 |
8 Co-ops as Food Desert Remediation | p. 161 |
Greensboro, North Carolina | p. 162 |
Cincinnati, Ohio | p. 167 |
Other Stories of "What's Possible" | p. 172 |
Starting a Co-op Isn't a Shoo-In for Success | p. 174 |
9 Food Co-ops and the Local Economy | p. 175 |
Easier Access to Eaters | p. 176 |
True Local | p. 176 |
The Language of "Economic Development" | p. 180 |
Food Co-ops as Economic Development | p. 183 |
Local Food System Stimulation | p. 185 |
Anchors for Main Street | p. 189 |
Retention and Rearing of Community Leaders | p. 190 |
A Different Kind of Profit | p. 191 |
10 Local Foodmakers -The People Behind the Products | p. 193 |
Co-ops as Small Business Incubators | p. 195 |
The People Behind the Products | p. 200 |
Where Does Your Food Dotlar Go? | p. 205 |
Planning the Co-op Shelves with Local Producers | p. 206 |
11 Threats to Food Co-ops | p. 209 |
Fierce Competition | p. 213 |
The Co-opting of "Local" | p. 215 |
The "Whole Foods Effect" | p. 217 |
The Demise of Co-op Atlantic | p. 220 |
Closed | p. 222 |
Relevance | p. 223 |
Ideology | p. 225 |
Institutional Isomorphism | p. 227 |
Member Engagement | p. 227 |
12 Growing Food Co-ops, Growing the Movement | p. 229 |
Start-ups | p. 234 |
Financing Food Co-ops | p. 236 |
Co-ops Supporting Co-ops | p. 238 |
Epilogue: Where Do We Go from Here? | p. 241 |
Acknowledgments | p. 245 |
Grocery Story's Supporters | p. 247 |
Endnotes | p. 251 |
Index | p. 271 |
About the Author | p. 281 |
A Note about the Publisher | p. 282 |