Tuesday, October 3, 2023 @ 9:30am-1pm | Introduction to Cooperative Businesses
Tuesday, October 3, 2023 @ 9:30am-1pm | Introduction to Cooperative Businesses
Tuesday, October 3, 2023 @ 9:30am to 1pm
San Diego Food System Alliance
4070 Jackdaw Street, San Diego, CA 92103
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Through the Local Food Economy Lab, the Alliance is thrilled to offer a free Introduction to Cooperative Businesses workshop designed for small-scale farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and food business owners. This workshop is offered in partnership with Mai Nguyen (they/them) of Minnow, a people of color-led organization committed to advancing land justice through work on farmland tenure, indigenous sovereignty, workplace democracy, and resource mobilization.
Our vision of a healthy, sustainable, and just food system is inseparable from the practice of true democracy and cooperation in all aspects of our lives. The extractive, profit-driven economic system that is responsible for producing and distributing most food today is not sustainable. The cooperative movement offers a viable alternative for nourishing our communities, and reshaping our collective relationships with the land and its beings.
Cooperatives are taking shape and growing in all parts of the food system. And yet, their founders are swimming upstream in an environment designed for hierarchical business models. In this workshop, gain an understanding of different cooperative businesses in the food and farming sector, and discuss challenges and opportunities for truly working democratically across San Diego County’s food system.
This is a half-day, in-person workshop with lunch, snacks, and refreshments provided.
The session will be recorded and made available on the San Diego Food System Alliance website after the workshop.
While this workshop is free, we ask that you register so that we can plan accordingly. Space is limited.
About Mai Nguyen
Director of Farm & Policy Programs, Minnow
Mai Nguyen (they/them) is a well-respected farm owner-operator and farmer community organizer with a deep understanding of California's agricultural challenges, seen from an environmental, economic, policy and agricultural worker perspective. Serving as the National Young Farmers Coalition's California Organizer and Director, Mai organized California’s farmers of color to affect policy for the benefit of the state’s diverse and independent agricultural producers. Their social and environmental justice work has been recognized by Grist.org, Berkeley Food Institute, Rachel's Network, and the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and featured in CNN, SF Chronicle, VICE, and Patagonia.
At Minnow, Mai uses their cooperative development expertise to directly assist clients in organizing themselves democratically. Before co-founding Minnow, Mai supported existing and startup agricultural cooperatives and worker cooperative farms at the California Center for Cooperative Development. Mai’s close connections with farming communities enables Minnow to advocate for farmers' needs when designing land tenure structures and building equitable infrastructure and services.
Mai holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Geography from UC Berkeley and University of Toronto, respectively. They are chair of the Asian American Farmers Alliance, member of the inaugural CDFA Farmer Equity Advisory committee and co-founder of the California Farmer Justice Collaborative, which passed California's first agricultural civil rights bill, the 2017 Farmer Equity Act.
About Minnow
Minnow secures land tenure for California’s farmers of color and indigenous communities to support the heritage and foodways of those most affected by state-sponsored dispossession. Such conditions help repair the harms of settler colonialism, which persist to this very day under capitalism and white supremacy. We also facilitate democratic governance of land and food systems, so colonized peoples can thrive again in their cultural practices while contributing proven solutions to climate change. To achieve this vision of land justice and belonging, Minnow focuses on four work areas: Farmland Tenure, Indigenous Sovereignty, Workplace Democracy, and Resource Mobilization.
About the Local Food Economy Lab
The Local Food Economy Lab is a new 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 with four areas of work: Peer-to-peer Collaboration & Learning Opportunities, Business Resource Directories & Coaching, Policy Advocacy, and Access to Capital, Markets, & Market Research.