Living Arts
O.B. People’s
What It Means to Be A Co-Op
by Nancy Casady
Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market in San Diego first opened its doors in 1970 in response to the community’s need for wholesome, quality food that was fairly priced. In those days, the large chain grocery stores in Ocean Beach priced their food higher for the beach area because there were no other grocery stores in the neighborhood to compete. For the first fourteen years, O.B. People’s Organic Food Market operated as a worker’s collective. In 1985, the workers decided that since People’s had always been a community store, it would be a consumer-owned cooperative.
A cooperative is a business which is member-owned and member-governed and is operated for the benefit of its member-owners. The co-operative model applies to many different kinds of businesses, and is based on the principle that people can pool their resources and then participate equally in the economic activity that the business generates. In a co-op, no one can have more of a share than anyone else and the owners of the business all have an equal say in how the business is operated. This is accomplished by having a Board of Directors who is elected by the co-op’s membership. Member-owners invest a small yearly amount—in our case, $15 a year toward a lifetime total investment of $300. This entitles them to the benefits of membership: voting rights, member prices, special discounts and more.
The founding members of O.B. People’s wanted to include some other values in addition to running a successful food store. They agreed that the enterprise should promote ecological sustainability, promote products that would be nutritious, organically-grown, and vegetarian, and provide a workplace that honors the workers by treating them with respect, compensating them fairly, and providing a safe and supportive working environment. On a more tactile level, this means that People’s Organic Food Market supports animal rights, has solar cells on the store’s roof to generate electricity, supports local small farms, and continues to provide benefits to both full and part-time employees and their families.
The Co-op’s mission also requires us to be involved in food safety issues. This includes educating and advocating on the subject of genetically engineered food (GE). Genetic engineering requires human intervention in a laboratory to manipulate basic DNA. Because there are no testing standards and no labeling requirements, it is difficult to track any adverse effects GE food products may have on us and future generations. We know that nature never intended tomatoes to have fish genes or potatoes to have antibiotics in them, as human genetic engineering has created. We also know that the multi-national corporations that own the patents to these “Frankenfoods” have been declared the owners of the food itself by various courts. Subsistence farmers are no longer allowed to save seeds from year to year if they purchase GE seeds because they are patented and belong to the company from which they were purchased. In addition, the promise of less pesticide and herbicide use with GE crops has not proven itself; a new crop of “super weeds” and “super bugs” have grown up in response to genetically engineered pesticide/herbicide resistant plants. Consumers, when given the choice, want to know what they are eating and what they are feeding their families. Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market, along with hundreds of other organizations and individuals, support the legislation in Congress introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich. If passed, this legislation would require testing and labeling of genetically engineered food crops that are currently in the commercial food marketplace. These foods include—but are limited to—soy, canola, rice, tomatoes, wheat, squash and sugar beets. As stated by the USDA’s National Organic Program, food that is certified organic cannot contain genetically engineered ingredients.
Food safety also extends to the question of securing food. At the moment, it is estimated that more than eighty percent of our food is imported into the region. This figure includes food that we grow here in San Diego County, is driven to Los Angeles and then is transported back to San Diego. Given the rising cost of fuel, global climate changes and the reality of natural disasters, the Co-op is working with others in our community to address creating a regional food distribution system.
Feeding people? Let’s eat more local, seasonal, organic, and vegetarianw. It’s good for you and it’s good for Mother Earth.
Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market is located at 4765 Voltaire Street, San Diego, California, 92107. For information online, visit obpeoplesfood.coop. Nancy Casady is General Manager of O.B. People’s.