In his editorial in the March-April 2010 issue of Utne Reader, “When Growth Isn’t Good,” founding editor Eric Utne laments the growth and necessary relocation of his neighborhood food co-op. The Linden Hills Co-op, in southwest Minneapolis, is one of the co-op movement’s shining stars, doing more than US$9 million each year in business and boasting more than 5,000 member-owners.
Utne’s grief comes from the potential impact of the co-op’s relocation on other locally owned small businesses in the neighborhood. And from the move from a small 5,500 square foot intimate boutique-like retail space to a larger more impersonal, more commercial space. Utne’s also unhappy about the Co-op’s management not communicating effectively about its growth plans.
But as Barth Anderson, writing as El Dragon, points out in his “The Utne Reader: Small grocery stores too big” response, Utne is thinking only about the micro element of a much larger picture. Anderson quotes Greg Reynolds of Riverbend Organic Farm as saying, “It’ll be a good bump for the co-op and it’s going to be a good bump for everyone who sells to them.” Anderson reports the Linden Hills Co-op is Riverbend’s fifth biggest customer and bought 33% more produce last year than it did the year before. “As a customer of mine,” Reynolds told Anderson, “Linden Hills Co-op is growing fast, and after a big move like this, they’ll buy more. They’re a fast-growing co-op, and that’s good.”
What’s “enough” for Utne clearly isn’t for either Linden Hills Co-op or Riverbend Organic Farm. In order for the entire organic foodchain to be sustainable, co-ops like Linden Hills Co-op and organic farms like Riverbend have to grow larger than Utne would like. One of the primary principles of the co-op movement—as Elizabeth Archerd, member services manager for the Wedge Co-op (which has annual sales US$30 million and occupies 11,000 square feet), points out in the comments to Anderson’s article—is voluntary and open membership. Co-ops are forced to grow because they don’t turn member-owners away.
It’s entirely possible that the Linden Hills Co-op could have communicated more effectively with regard to its growth plans, but I’ve got to say that I live in Saint Paul, and I’ve been hearing about the Linden Hills Co-op wanting to relocate to larger space for several years.
Are big box co-ops coming? If they’re cooperatively owned and managed, it really shouldn’t matter. Bringing good, affordable, sustainably produced food to more people should be seen as a good thing.
Disclosure: From 2002-06 I was Utne Reader‘s online managing editor and webmaster. I know Eric Utne personally and consider him a friend. None of that makes him any less wrong about this issue.
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