{"product_id":"grocery-activism-craig-b-upright-9781517900731","title":"Grocery Activism: The Radical History of Food Cooperatives in Minnesota","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA key period in the history of food cooperatives that continues to influence how we purchase organic food today\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Our notions of food co-ops generally don't include images of baseball bat-wielding activists in the aisles. But in May 1975, this was the scene as a Marxist group known as the Co-op Organization took over the People's Warehouse, a distribution center for more than a dozen small cooperative grocery stores in the Minneapolis area. The activist group's goal: to curtail the sale of organic food. The People's Warehouse quickly became one of the principal fronts in the political and social battle that Craig Upright explores in \u003ci\u003eGrocery Activism\u003c\/i\u003e. The story of the fraught relationship of new-wave cooperative grocery stores to the organic food industry, this book is an instructive case study in the history of activists intervening in capitalist markets to promote social change.\u003cp\u003eFocusing on Minnesota, a state with both a long history of cooperative enterprise and the largest number of surviving independent cooperative stores, \u003ci\u003eGrocery Activism \u003c\/i\u003elooks back to the 1970s, when the mission of these organizations shifted from political activism to the promotion of natural and organic foods. Why, Upright asks, did two movements--promoting cooperative enterprise and sustainable agriculture--come together at this juncture? He analyzes the nexus of social movements and economic sociology, examining how new-wave cooperatives have pursued social change by imbuing products they sell with social values. Rather than trying to explain the success or failure of any individual cooperative, his work shows how members of this fraternity of organizations supported one another in their mutual quest to maintain fiscal solvency, promote better food-purchasing habits, support sustainable agricultural practices, and extol the virtues of cooperative organizing. A foundational chapter in the history of organic food, \u003ci\u003eGrocery Activism \u003c\/i\u003eclarifies the critical importance of this period in transforming the politics and economics of the grocery store in America.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Craig B. Upright\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1517900735\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781517900731\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/07\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 264\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.70d","brand":"Craig B. Upright","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43983678013695,"sku":"9781517900731","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_e3442779-2e74-47b1-8a5a-b8d609bbdf10.jpg?v=1683268080","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/grocery-activism-craig-b-upright-9781517900731","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}