The whole co-op concept centres on community involvement, and on a much larger scale than simply paying at the checkout and putting back your trolley.

No food co-ops in your area? Try looking for local food buyers’ groups, which are similar in principle but smaller, more informal and generally lack shopfronts, with produce picked up from a central point by members.

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Buying local produce can be a tough task sometimes and often requires shopping around at different stores, or paying a premium. So what if there was a way to buy cheap, local produce at a single location owned by ethical investors? Welcome to food co-ops.

With names like Friends Of The Earth Food Group Co-Op and Thoughtful Foods, co-ops tend to wear their alternative roots on their signage. They have remained a bit of a hippy stereotype, which means they’ve existed largely on the fringe. But the hippies are onto something: co-ops are a source of affordable, healthy, ethical foods, as well as a convenient way to source sustainable products while supporting the local community.

Common values

Co-operatives have been around for more than 150 years, formed for everything from journalists (Associated Press) to orchestras (London Symphony Orchestra). The defining trait among these disparate businesses is that they’re democratic organisations, owned and run by their members, for their members. When it comes to food co-ops, as Beth Cameron from the Melbourne-based Friends of the Earth Food Co-op puts it, “A co-op is a community organisation that provides a cheap, organic alternative to health food stores and supermarkets; an alternative example. It’s somewhere you can put money where nobody owns it”. This shifts the emphasis from the corporate to the community, with its needs and priorities reflected in co-op management, policies, principles, products – and just about everything else.

At their most basic, food co-ops exist to provide their members with food – no surprises there! However, in Australia they’re not generally formed to counter a lack of food, but to provide access to products that aren’t readily available, with a focus on quality, ethics, origins and healthiness. Policies and products differ, but common considerations include organic, GM-free, local, seasonal, minimally packaged, farmer-direct, fair trade, vegetarian and cruelty-free fare.

Co-operative work

The whole co-op concept centres on community involvement, and on a much larger scale than simply paying at the checkout and putting back your trolley. Imagine your local supermarket but with a few key differences: all products on the shelves have been vetted against ethical, environmental and health criteria closely aligned to your own; customer suggestions are acted on; membership gives you discounts and a say in management; your bill can be reduced by working in the branch; and profits aren’t split between shareholders, but reinvested into the business to reduce prices and improve services. A faceless superstore it ain’t!

The details differ for individual co-ops, but the principles are the same: members pay a small fee which entitles them to a discount and a voice in the democratic running of the organisation (membership is generally $10 to $40 a year, with the discount around 10 per cent). Your involvement varies: you can join the management committee and make it your social hub, or pop in twice a year for an obscure herb and your hippy fix. Volunteers do a large percentage of the work, with benefits given in exchange (usually further discounts of 15 to 30 per cent). Most co-ops are open to the general public, although membership is encouraged. According to Sydney’s Manly Food Co-operative’s Karen Garrett, there are wide-ranging benefits: “If you’re a volunteer worker, you can buy at cost price. As a recession buster, it’s a way of helping the household budget while doing something for the environment.”

A set of seven principles guides co-operatives worldwide, covering everything from open membership and democracy to co-operation amongst co-operatives (try saying that five times fast!) Working for sustainable development is another tenet, most evident in the sourcing policies, with in-store labelling to promote informed decisions. As Nija Dalal, coordinator at Sydney’s Alfalfa House, explains, “We purchase according to our members’ desires but also according to a set of ethics that are determined by our members. Other stores that you go to, they’ll purchase anything that sells.”

Worth the effort?

There are many benefits of co-ops, apart from access to great, fresh produce. With member discounts, quality food becomes more affordable, while at volunteers’ rates, prices aren’t far off your standard supermarket. Moreover, shopping at a co-op eases your passage through the minefield of sustainable shopping, as groceries have already been screened against specified criteria.

Products are sold in bulk, with customers bringing their own containers and buying what they need: you don’t pay for unnecessary packaging, and nor does our environment. As Helen Rydstrand, a member of Thoughtful Foods co-op at the University of New South Wales elaborates: “I joined as it’s a cheap and easy way of getting organic vegies. I like it because it comes from just outside Sydney so it hasn’t come from very far to get to me and it’s very fresh. Buying from bulk bins is also much better because you don’t have all that excess packaging and you can fill up your jar as much as you want.”

And it’s not just about the shopping: by joining a co-op, you’re joining a network of like-minded people and choosing to spend money with those with similar interests and values. This gives you the opportunity to influence the place where you shop and support an alternative model to the corporate chain store.
In addition, through the ordering power of the co-op, you can help promote those values which can influence and support suppliers’ policies and produce. Many co-ops are more than just stores; they have cafés and noticeboards, and can provide information on everything from yoga to housing and work.

Drawbacks? Chances are that your local supermarket is more conveniently located (see box at left for where to find your nearest co-op) and its opening hours will definitely be longer. Co-op prices are generally higher than your standard supermarket (although so is the quality) and the range is necessarily smaller. But it’s not as hard as you might think.

As Jane Castle, a member at the Alfalfa House co-op, says, “I love going to Alfalfa House. It makes shopping a friendly and relaxing experience rather than a stressful and angst-ridden one.”

Megan Holbeck is a freelancer based in Sydney who’s passionate about the environment and loves being out in it.