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Bananas for a better world
By Emile Hallez
ehallez@mscd.edu

Take that Sam’s Club card out of your wallet and torch it.

The Denver Cooperative Market, a member-owned grocery store specializing in vegetarian fair-trade, locally grown and organic foods, is under development. Before it can open its doors, or find them for that matter, the co-op needs a few people to put their money, well, where their mouths are.

Pending an adequate pile of investing members, the co-op will lease a space to set up shop in central Denver, where it will peddle everything from fair-trade bananas to organic vegan lip balm. It will be owned by its patrons; customers would pay $35 per year in membership fees, entitling them to discounts and voting rights denied to nonmember shoppers. Members could voluntarily serve on the market’s board of directors, if elected, said Denver Cooperative Market chairman David Blessing.

“It gives a sense of freedom and it gives a sense of stability” when communities have a grocery cooperative, Blessing said. “Until people take a handle on their own economy ... we will always be at the mercy of profiteering.”

The co-op needs $150,000, or about 2,000 members, to get started in a desired retail space, and so far it has amassed about $3,000 toward the cause, Blessing said. If it can’t raise the money, it could take business into volunteers’ basements, where customers could spelunk for spinach, or garages, where kumquats could be piled high in El Caminos.

“We’re looking for a central location in a neighborhood that would be supportive of a co-op,” Blessing said. Raising funds to get the store going could take less than a year, but it can be difficult to gauge an expected opening date, Blessing said. Many people are hesitant to invest in the co-op and wait for it to come to fruition while it slowly builds a financial base.

Membership dues aside, consumers could end up saving some serious dough. Because cooperatives use networks of local growers, they can get fair prices on goods.

Agricultural products such as bananas, coffee and chocolate have long been traded in deals that give growers in Third World countries the shaft. More companies are beginning to offer fair trade and organic produce, though these products are often more expensive and sparse in selection.

But shopping conscientiously usually costs more than picking through pesticide-ridden tomatoes among the screaming spawn of soccer moms at the local bargain barn. Any extra monetary costs would be far less than the social, health, environmental and animal-welfare expenses of supporting behemoth discount warehouses.

“All goods have an inherent minimal cost: either the consumer pays the reasonable price, or the laborers pay through substandard compensation,” states a pamphlet the co-op has been circulating.

Buying locally grown produce ensures farmers are well compensated. Further, the produce doesn’t have to travel very far and arrives on shelves fresher and crisper. Less air pollution results from the decreased shipping. And because the co-op won’t be carrying meat, it could further decrease carbon emissions; the greenhouse gases produced by the animal industry are roughly equal to that of transportation in the U.S.

I have yet to meet someone who vocally negates the value of human rights. Since companies like Wal-Mart aren’t ready to declare bankruptcy, though, it appears that what’s out of sight is out of mind for consumers. By becoming members of a cooperative, people are more involved in what they eat and how it gets to their plates. They can actually take control of how much they pay for groceries, how well growers are compensated and what products their store carries.

Though the co-op doesn’t plan to be strictly vegan, it will reek less of death than your average grocery store or hip organic market. If you demand better apples, better qualities of life for the people that grow your food or are just sick of your skin melting in the fluorescent lighting of King Soopers, step in line so we can get this co-op going. It’s about time, Denver.

To learn more about the Denver Cooperative Market, take a trip to denvercoop.com.