Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 30, 2021 at 1:50:14 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Midwest]: Rizzo on Upright, 'Grocery Activism: The > Radical History of Food Cooperatives in Minnesota' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Craig B. Upright. Grocery Activism: The Radical History of Food > Cooperatives in Minnesota. Minneapolis University of Minnesota > Press, 2020. 264 pp. $25.00 (paper), ISBN 978-1-5179-0073-1; > $106.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-5179-0072-4. > > Reviewed by Mary Rizzo (Rutgers University) > Published on H-Midwest (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Dustin McLochlin > > Food is political, but rarely in a simplistic way. Take food co-ops. > While cooperative food practices date back to the nineteenth century > in the United States, they peaked when the counterculture of the > 1960s and 1970s revived them to put their oppositional politics into > practice. What could be more radical, suggested the hippies, than > pooling resources to buy groceries to stock a store where everyone > was owner, worker, and shopper, all at once? Some, but not all, of > those foods were organic, grown without pesticides and dangerous > chemicals, and hard to find in mainstream supermarkets. Today, > consumers looking for organic foods have few co-ops to turn to, > thanks to Whole Foods, a grocery store created by a union-busting > libertarian to sell organic and other supposedly healthy products > that was bought in 2017 by Amazon, a multibillion-dollar company with > a long history of violations of workers' rights in its quest for > profits. Is buying organic still oppositional politics under these > circumstances? > > Craig Upright argues for a qualified _yes_ in _Grocery Activism: The > Radical History of Food Cooperatives in Minnesota. _The book engages > the relationship between organic foods and co-ops through a > sociological study of Minnesota's history of cooperative food > activism broadly from the nineteenth century into the 2010s. While > capitalism may have co-opted them, co-ops helped train people in > "intentional consumerism," or more carefully considering "both the > origins and implications of their food purchases" (p. 7). He argues > that early co-ops became closely associated with organic food as > their "retailing domain," even though selling organic food was not > their main purpose (p. 125). He uses Minnesota, with its long history > and large number of cooperatives, as a case study, asking why co-ops > were able to spread and survive beyond the Twin Cities. > > The heart of Upright's book is the story of the new-wave co-ops of > the 1970s. Using trade publications, government reports, co-op > newsletters, and interviews with the founders and members of the > 1970s co-ops, he tells the story of the rise of new-wave co-ops in > the Twin Cities region thanks to the efforts of left-wing activists. > However, a conflict called the "Co-op Wars" erupted in 1975-76 over > the class politics of the co-ops and what food they sold. Upright > argues that, in response to the destructiveness of the Co-op Wars, > "beginning in 1976, individuals who were more pragmatic and dedicated > to issues of food production and consumption took the initiative" in > opening co-ops outside the Twin Cities (pp. 164-65). This reduced the > number of worker co-ops, where co-op members were required to work in > the store, in favor of consumer co-ops, where shoppers used them > solely to purchase goods that might be harder to find elsewhere and > that were associated with healthfulness. > > Upright rightly refuses to see co-ops simply as ideological spaces. > Instead, he reveals them as "minimalist organizations" that had to > innovate an infrastructure to do their work (p. 94). As the co-ops > grew, they became part of a network of people and goods that, he > argues, was created because of the Co-op Wars. In 1975, for example, > co-op leaders created the All Cooperative Assembly (ACA) for > increased coordination, education, and outreach and to "divorce > political issues from the distributing warehouses and to address a > division of labor across members of the organizational field" (p. > 161). > > Thanks to the ACA, which created an infrastructure to help new co-ops > open, they spread beyond the liberal hotbeds of the Twin Cities. The > new co-ops borrowed the structures of the earlier, successful co-ops, > except with fewer explicit political commitments outside of food > issues. For example, the St. Peter's Co-op, which organized in 1979, > asserted that it would "refrain from endorsing political stands or > candidates of any kind" (p. 169). Rather than setting off into the > unknown, these co-op supporters followed what already worked, > standardizing co-ops into the consumer model that paved the way for > Whole Foods. > > _Grocery Activism _suffers from two flaws. First, Upright argues that > mainstream acceptance of organic food is a sign that the food > politics of the 1970s changed Americans' orientation toward food. In > doing so, he downplays the power of capitalism for co-optation of > radical movements. That the least radical aspect of the co-op's > ideology has survived suggests that capitalism has yet again turned a > political movement into consumerism. > > Secondly, Upright ignores important secondary sources in his > research. Even though the book is published in sociology, I am > troubled by the author's lack of citation of historians who have > dealt extensively with the history of grocery stores and food > cooperatives, the counterculture as a social movement, > countercultural businesses, and even the Co-op Wars in Minneapolis, a > niche topic that has, nonetheless, been discussed by Barbara > Ehrenreich, Joshua Clark Davis, and me.[1] Where, for example, is > Doug Rossinow's excellent analysis of the politics of authenticity, > which dovetails beautifully with Upright's discussion of Steven > Luke's conceptualization of the third dimension of power, which seeks > to change individual values?[2] > > Possibly this is a function of disciplinary boundaries. Clearly, no > one scholar can read every book on their topic in every field. > Unfortunately, incorporating these works would have strengthened > Upright's book by allowing him to focus on his most interesting > argument regarding the spread of co-ops in Minnesota through the > creation of specific organizational types and distribution networks > rather than confirming what historians have already shown. > > While historians working on food and social movements in the postwar > period will find Upright's story familiar, his close case study of > Minnesota's radicalism and food politics adds a layer of analysis to > our understanding of how countercultural ideas were put into practice > that will be of interest to scholars of the Midwest. > > Notes > > [1]. Tracey A. Deutsch, _Building a Housewife's Paradise: Gender, > Government and American Grocery Stores in the Twentieth Century > _(Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010); Jessica > Gordon Nembhard, _Collective Courage: A History of African American > Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice_ (University Park, PA: Penn > State University Press, 2014); Joshua Clark Davis, _From Head Shops > to Whole Foods: The Rise and Fall of Activist Entrepreneurs_ (New > York: Columbia University Press, 2017); Mary Rizzo, "Revolution in a > Can: Food, Class, and Radicalism in the Minneapolis Co-op Wars of the > 1970s," in _Eating in Eden: Food and American Utopias_, ed. Martha > Finch and Etta Madden (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006); > and Barbara Ehrenreich, _Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the > Middle Class_ (New York: Perennial Library, 1990). > > [2]. Douglas C. Rossinow, _The Politics of Authenticity: Liberalism, > Christianity, and the New Left in America_ (New York: Columbia > University Press, 1998). > > Citation: Mary Rizzo. Review of Upright, Craig B., _Grocery Activism: > The Radical History of Food Cooperatives in Minnesota_. H-Midwest, > H-Net Reviews. April, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55515 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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