The Market Is Open

Welcome to another week of cyber-foraging; the ALFN market is open!

News & Updates

1. Next weekend is Labor Day weekend, but ALFN will be open for pick-up on Saturday and Monday as usual.

2. You may notice there is a smell of freshly roasted coffee wafting through ALFN’s market. We have a new participant to join our list of growers and producers. Mylo Coffee, located in Hillcrest on Kavanaugh, is roasting for ALFN members. You can now order a batch of coffee, and it will be freshly roasted for Saturday pick-up. To check out what roasts and beans will be available, check out their page on ALFN’s market. Let the brewing begin!

3. One of our members, Rebecca Davis, is starting a documentary on the concept of bartering in collaboration with Aileron Media and East Creek Studios. The documentary will be used to help fund and promote a new Bartering Fair in Little Rock. Much like the “30 Days” TV series by Morgan Spurlock, the documentary will follow a life of bartering for goods and services. The idea is to open up a conversation about how bartering develops community economic exchange that isn’t built on money, but relationships. If you are interested in getting involved, email Rebecca at: mrsmagiclee@gmail.com.

Food Sovereignty #2: Cooperatives at Work

From our previous discussion on food sovereignty, I suggested our national food system is similar to medieval royalty. Corporations retain a kind of sovereignty over the public as a legal right. However, we are seeking to establish a kind of sovereignty that is collective. Decisions on what we eat, its origin, and who produces it are made from the bottom up in cooperative systems of democracy. You might find it interesting that cooperatives, such as Grass Roots Farmers’ Cooperative, are an ancient system of self-direction. Collectives are organizational structures that involve group decision-making AND group sharing. This kind of sharing is basic to human civilization. One person cannot afford 30 acres to begin farming, so five families start a cooperative to purchase the land with agreements over production and profits. On the micro-scale, families are basic collectives. The labor and service of a family is shared; the family cooperative economy culminates in daily rituals of sharing: meals. When we give chores to our kids, we are teaching the basics of this cooperative economy; an economy that is based on sharing life.

Cooperatives have greater social and economic power through the act of sharing. Many economists would argue we are in a stage called late-capitalism where battles between local interest and corporate interest are constant. For example, there are multiple battles over farm labor, fair wages, and GMO production in Mexico right now. These battles are originating from the U.S. food system and spilling into Mexico. (See the recent problem over wages and Driscoll on the West Coast)A collective called Demanda Colectiva AC that is composed of lawyers, chefs and producers fighting Monsanto in the Mexican courts. Without the formed collective power and ownership of many local participants, there would be no battle.

ALFN is a quasi-collective. All of us pay membership dues to collectively draw producers and eaters into a tighter relationship. However, there is still so much more we can do. Self-directed food collectives begins with individual ownership through communal sharing. A food system based upon sharing, ownership and cooperation is system based on food sovereignty. Let’s take back our ownership in local food.

Cheers,

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager