Introduction to Producer Cooperatives: Food & Farm Edition
Last week, we were thrilled to partner with our friend Mai Nguyen to host the workshop Introduction to Producer Cooperatives: Food & Farm Edition. Thanks to all participants for spending the day with us to discuss producer cooperatives and how we can build a culture that supports cooperative economies.
Mai (they/them) is a farmer, grain grower, activist, co-op developer, parent, and most recently, a 2024 James Beard Foundation award finalist. They specialize in growing heirloom crops using organic, drought-tolerant, and soil-enriching methods. Throughout their farming, activism, and cooperative development work, Mai draws deeply on their experiences connected to diaspora communities and displaced peoples, including their own family, who were refugees.
To learn more about Mai and the services they provide, please visit their website and follow them on Instagram.
The food and farming sector has faced corporate consolidation over the past four decades, making it challenging for small-scale businesses to gain a secure place in the market. Producer cooperatives have historically been proven as a way for businesses to leverage an economy of scale that enables them to purchase, process, distribute, or sell products and services, thus preserving their autonomy while collaborating to meet common needs. The workshop provided a basic understanding of the structure and start-up needs for a producer cooperative business, and seeded dialogue around the transformative collective work that is needed to build a culture that supports cooperative economies.
Do producer cooperatives and cooperative economies excite you? Cooperation and solidarity are essential to cultivating a food system that belongs to all. These themes will be elevated at this fall’s 4th Annual Gathering for San Diego County Food Vision 2030.
Workshop recording
You can now watch the full workshop recording on the Alliance’s YouTube channel.
California Cooperative Conference
Registrations are still open for the 2024 California Cooperative Conference, happening this Friday and Saturday (May 31 and June 1) at Liberty Station Conference Center. The event is a great opportunity to learn more about cooperatives and network with experts and other folks interested in the topic. Mai will be speaking at the conference, as well as Sona from the San Diego Food System Alliance. For further details and registration, please visit their webpage.
About the Local Food Economy Lab
The Introduction to Worker Cooperatives workshop was designed for small-scale farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and food business owners, and offered through the Alliance's Local Food Economy Lab.
The Local Food Economy Lab is a program of the San Diego Food System Alliance that centers equity and community ownership, and works to support the viability of small-scale farmers, ranchers, fishermen, food business owners, and the communities they serve in San Diego County. The Lab serves small-scale farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and food business owners at all stages, especially those in our community for whom traditional business development services have been out of reach.
We focus on businesses led by Indigenous and people of color, immigrants, women, LGBTQ+, youth, seniors, individuals with low income, and those advancing community ownership and collaborative models. The Lab serves for-profit and nonprofit businesses through peer-to-peer collaboration and learning opportunities, tailored business planning and coaching programs, resource directories, policy advocacy, access to land, capital, markets, and more.
Thank you!
Thanks to all participants, and to Mai for sharing their knowledge and experience. Thank you to Cafe X for providing a community-rooted space for us to gather and learn together, and to Christina Ng for feeding us!
