Standing Tall for Co-ops

June 13, 2015

Erik Esse

One name we kept hearing and reading while doing research for Radical Roots was Kris Olsen. Kris was a dedicated co-op activist who popped up all over our story: befriending Moe Burton while helping out the Bryant-Central Co-op, being physically thrown out of Seward Co-op by the CO (they needed a bunch of guys - Kris was very tall!)...

June 9, 2015

Erik Esse

"A healthy, fair and just food system is more than just food on a plate"

June 9, 2015

Erik Esse

"A healthy, fair and just food system is more than just food on a plate"

“We … assume that our food system is healthy and fair and just and is operating to protect us, and what I began to find out was that that was less true than I could have possibly ever imagined.”

June 5, 2015

Erik Esse

A Cooperative Commonwealth in Minnesota?

June 5, 2015

Erik Esse

A Cooperative Commonwealth in Minnesota?

In this excerpt from our interview with Seward Co-op General Manager Sean Doyle for Radical Roots, Sean talks about his inspirational encounter with the Mondragon Corporation in Spain. Mondragon is a federation of hundreds of worker-owned cooperatives and is Spain’s 10th-largest business group

May 28, 2015

Erik Esse

Bryant-Central: Three Tries at a Co-op

May 28, 2015

Erik Esse

“No one would ever mistake Moe for a hippie. But I think he liked that service part, and I think it was part of his whole life's arc. That he moved away from that serious revolutionary political stuff, more into a service role. Trying to be more effective. Trying to be more productive.”

May 19, 2015

Erik Esse

The Midcentury African-American Co-ops of the Twin Cities

May 19, 2015

Erik Esse

The Midcentury African-American Co-ops of the Twin Cities

So right as this old wave is coming to a close, at least for the grocery co-ops, the folks in your documentary are first getting the idea that maybe we should just put some food out on a porch or we should find a way to do this at cost. It’s an interesting notion that as soon as the one wave recedes the other one starts to pick up the pace...