|
Oklahoma-grown food co-op celebrates third year
The Norman Transcript
Transcript Staff
As it celebrates its third anniversary this month, the Oklahoma Food
Cooperative has sold nearly $450,000 worth of Oklahoma-grown products, with
local farmers receiving 95 percent of the proceeds.
The food co-op is an original, homegrown take on the cooperative concept,
delivering only Oklahoma grown or processed food to customers around the
state, according to the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
It has opened up statewide markets to individual farms and allowed members
to purchase foods they cannot easily find on supermarket shelves.
"We're just trying to figure out how to produce good food and how to sell
it," said farmer Kim Barker of Waynoka, who sells lamb and beef through the
co-op. "The more people we can get doing that, the better."
During its first three years of operation, the co-op has had nearly 2,000
products in its inventory at one time or another.
Offerings include staple foods like meat, vegetables, and eggs, prepared or
processed foods like cake and coffee, and even non-food items such as soaps
and music CDs. In October, there were about 1,300 different products for
sale.
"The Oklahoma Food Cooperative is owned by its members -- producers of
Oklahoma foods and the customers who want to buy from them," said Robert
Waldrop of Oklahoma City, the co-op's president and founder.
The co-op treats farmers and customers as equals, and each pays a one-time
fee of $50 to join. The co-op plays the role of an agent. It facilitates
the ordering, delivery of and payment for Oklahoma foods between the two.
Customers order online once a month. Waldrop posts messages on the co-op
list serve reminding members to order. In his newsy e-mails, he also
describes new products, profiles farmers and shares recipes for dishes made
with co-op products.
Later in the month, food travels from farms all over the state to a central
distribution point at a church in Oklahoma City. There, members sort orders
and route them out to pickup points in the Oklahoma City metro, as well as
Norman, Stillwater, Checotah, Muskogee, Tahlequah,Tulsa, Waynoka/Enid and
Weatherford/Clinton/Hobart/Cordell.
The co-op's success has surpassed all expectations. When it ran the first
order cycle, in November 2003, it had 36 orders, for a total of about
$3,200 in sales.
By October, the membership had surpassed 800, and monthly sales were
between $22,000 and $24,000. The co-op has been almost entirely
self-sustaining financially since the beginning.
That variety and the freshness of the products bring in customer members.
"Once you've had a farm-fresh egg," one satisfied customer said, "grocery
store eggs aren't even palatable."
Others are drawn to the co-op as a source of food security for themselves
and their communities.
"When I see all the chicken in the store coming from one company, I ask
why," said longtime customer Kathy Tibbits of Stilwell. "The co-op idea was
interesting to me because I saw that there was essentially a monopoly on
retail food."
"I think we're losing something if we put all of our hopes in the
industrial food system," she said. "What if the complex,
transportation-dependent national way of doing things were disrupted?"
For many, other appealing aspects of the co-op are the health and
environmental benefits of local, sustainably grown foods.?
The co-op does not permit products raised in confined-animal feeding
operations, nor those including material from genetically modified crops.
Foods fall into one of four categories -- certified organic, all natural,
standard and commercial.
Each producer member has an individual product page on the co-op Web site
with detailed product descriptions. Customers can select items produced in
ways compatible with their own personal preferences.
The co-op is good for both farm and rural economies, Kerr Center officials
say. While farmers' share of the food dollar averages 19 cents nationwide,
every dollar spent with the co-op sends 95 cents straight into the pocket
of an Oklahoma farmer.
"With every meal," Waldrop said, "we are restoring and completing the
'circle of life,' re-weaving the relationships and connections that once
united rural and urban Oklahomans."
While sustaining farms and increasing access to local food within Oklahoma,
the co-op also has stimulated similar developments in neighboring states.
It has hosted visitors from Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Texas, and
received inquiries from Missouri, New Mexico and even Washington.
Such a record of success may seem surprising to those who have never
thought about the economic potential of local markets for locally grown
food. But Waldrop takes it in stride, wrapping up his monthly e-mails with
his trademark, "Y'all bon appetit, you hear!"
For the original news article, click here.
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
|
|
