NCBA Clusa, the apex body for co-operatives in the USA, is teaming up with academics for a session looking at the future of food.
The Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, based at Arizona State University, is holding a series of conversations on issues surrounding food supply.
On Tuesday, 12 November, it hosts the discussion A Cooperative Approach to the Future of Food, with contributions from John and Carol Zippert, who worked for decades with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and have been inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame; Jerry McGeorge, executive vice president of dairy co-op Organic Valley; Sarah Tyree, vice president of policy and public affairs at rural financer CoBank; and Doug O’Brien, president and CEO of NCBA Clusa.
Moderated by Kathleen Merrigan, executive director at the Swette Center, discussion will explore what today’s climate of economic exclusion, inequality and political divisiveness could mean for the future of food, and how co-ops are placed to impact that future.
Panelists will unpack lessons from history and discuss current opportunities for co-operatives to shape the food system in America, say organisers.
They add: “Younger generations see economic exclusion and inequality, political divisiveness, and are demanding a greater say in the future of food. Could this be a co-operative moment? What can we learn from an examination of the history and current state of the US co-operative movement, which has been so significant to rural America?”
