Do you embrace a vegetarian-friendly lifestyle? Are you a community-supported-agriculture (CSA) shareholder? Does your home and/or garden contain a composting element? Have you been looking forward to spring so that you can get your organic vegetable garden going again?
If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, consider yourself a fellow health-minded environmentalist.
Thirty-plus years ago, at a time when my “food” values were being formed, one irrepressible fellow college chum named Patrick Harfst forever changed the trajectory of my life. He introduced me to a new way of looking at the connection between food and the environment by giving me a copy of Francis Moore Lappe’s book Diet for a Small Planet. Lappe’s work, considered controversial back then, became the framework for how I would forever look at food and the recipes within became my foray into vegetarian cooking. Diet for a Small Planet is considered “the blueprint for eating with a small carbon footprint since long before the term was coined” [JM Hirsch, Associated Press].
At the same time, I was introduced to a different way of grocery shopping – the food co-op, specifically the Duck Soup Co-op in DeKalb, Ill. Like most other co-ops, Duck Soup was a unique enterprise organized as a buying group in 1974 with the purpose of offering good food for its members. Another typical feature of a co-op is its members have a say in how the business operates. Happily, Duck Soup remains alive and well today.
It has moved twice over the decades and now has almost 800 members and a staff of nine, including a general manager. And, it is now open to the general public.
A few weeks ago, while visiting DeKalb, I dropped by the co-op. It was, for me, the perfect shopping experience. The space isn’t too big or too small. It offers long rows of multi-level bulk bins filled with wholesome nuts, oats, flours, dried fruits, and more. Its aisles are lined with healthy, affordable foods.
One of the things that I most appreciate about food co-ops is that they do not offer a mind boggling array of same items in different brands , i.e. household cleaners, crackers, pet foods, beverages, etc. Unlike the average number of products carried by a typical supermarket (50,000), it limits its shelves to one of two of the best brands that its members have voted on. This allows the overall space required to house the co-op to remain relatively small which keeps overall costs down and makes for a much friendlier, more intimate, shopping experience. Its size also allows for stress-free, time-saving shopping as everything is found within a few, short, manageable feet - no advanced maneuvering or gym shoes required.
The Duck Soup Co-op now occupies 1,613 square feet. Compare that to the average store size (gross square feet) of a Whole Foods Market at 50,000-plus square feet. It’s not hard to see why a food co-op offers a totally different shopping experience. And for me bigger is not better.
Chicagoans who live near the Logan Square area are blessed to have a new 1,400 square foot co-op of their own – The Dill Pickle (3039 West Fullerton Avenue). Like the Duck Soup Co-op, the Chicago one was formed by a dedicated team of volunteers who wanted to bring something special to their community. I applaud the Dill Pickle for remaining steadfast over the years as they built their member base and dealt with an almost overwhelming number of issues to open their doors. I so wish I lived near the Dill Pickle. Maybe one day.
What experiences or books set in motion your belief system toward food and the environment? Who helped you form the framework and direction of your eating habits and lifestyle choices? How can we best take what we’ve learned to influence and inspire those around us today? How can we leave the world in a better place for future generations? It is quite the challenge.
Note: Francis Moore Lappe will be in Chicago on June 3 speaking at Growing Home’s Annual Benefit.
