Equal Exchange’s history of co-op-to-co-op partnerships stretches back to its founding in 1986. Back then, three coworkers in a cooperative produce distribution warehouse wanted to find a way to connect U.S. consumers with the smallholder farmers growing their coffee. In defiance of the Reagan embargo on Nicaraguan products...
Radical Roots: How far back does cooperation among African-Americans in Minnesota go?
Tom Pierson: As soon as people are migrating into Minnesota from areas like Missouri and other places South for the most part, there are efforts at mutual aid. One of the common things that there is research on and there are publications on is clubs, societies and fraternities and these mutual aid societies that exist. In some ways those mutual aid movements are similar to the cooperative movement.
Interviewing people for Radical Roots, we heard time and again about the incredible energy and creativity taking place on Minneapolis’ West Bank in the late 60s and 70s. Having worked or volunteered at West Bank countercultural institutions created in the 70s like North Country Co-op, the West Bank School of Music and KFAI Community Radio, this was not news to me...
Another clip from Ed Felien’s Georgeville commune film, featuring a lovely song that, for me, epitomizes the optimism and confidence that allowed some in the Baby Boom generation to believe they could remake the world, which in turn allowed them to create so many things that we take for granted these days (like natural food co-ops).
At least it was for me, and I had a pretty good day. We’re digging into the great Minnesota music of the 1970s for use in Radical Roots, especially the work of Willie Murphy. Willie’s band Willie and the Bumblebees (better known as Willie & the Bees) seem to be omnipresent in our research on the early food co-ops.
In 2013 TPT’s Daniel Pierce Bergin produced a companion program to Dave Kenney and Thomas Saylor’s book Minnesota in the 70s. It contained a six minute segment on the Co-op Wars, featuring some great film and photos of the co-ops in the mid-70s, including part of an interview with Annie Young (one of our interviewees)...
On May 10, 1972 3,000 people, mostly University of Minnesota students, protested the mining of North Vietnamese ports. Some tore down fences, flipping a car and coming into conflict with riot police at the scene. Susan Shroyer, who had been instrumental in the People’s Pantry, the predecessor to the Twin Cities’ first natural food co-op, was there with her 8mm camera, and she shared her dramatic footage with Radical Roots.
Today Radical Roots: The Story of a Food Revolution launches our 45-day crowdfunding campaign on Seed & Spark. We need to raise $12,000 for the music, animation, editing and color correction that will make the film come together.
What a weekend! We were honored to have two events put on for Radical Roots, one by Roberta & Lynette Malles at their home and another by Rob Ramer at Pangea World Theater. Both featured very thoughtful discussions about the history and future of the food co-ops as well as insight about the Co-op Organization (CO) from people who had been part of it for many years. There are so many lessons to be learned from the "Co-op Wars" about how to be effective activists for justice.
We’ve been accepted by Seed & Spark! What’s that, you say? Well, it’s not only a crowdfunding platform (like Kickstarter) specifically for indie film, but you can watch films on it as well. And get this: 80% of the revenues from people watching the films go straight to the filmmakers (that’s us, y’all). The call it Fair Trade Filmmaking, which sounds right up our alley.
It's great to see that Al Milgrom's DINKYTOWN UPRISING is finished and getting attention. Like RADICAL ROOTS, it involves a political struggle in Vietnam War-era Minneapolis involving food. In 1970, students rallied for direct action against the first fast food place in Dinkytown, and Al was there with his camera (it's hard to imagine Dinkytown as a fast food-free zone, huh?). I'm glad they're adding more screenings at MSPIFF, because I can't wait to see it!
We’ve posted a new trailer for our documentary-in-the-making, Radical Roots: The Story of a Food Revolution. Trying to boil down our film into a few minute summation was a struggle, especially since we are still at the very beginning of the process of editing and figuring out how best to tell the story.
Lately, I've been transcribing an amazing interview with Audrey Arner of Moonstone Farm, so I thought I'd share a small bit of the inspirational insights I've been enjoying:
“I think the growing awareness of the co-ops that wasn’t just about quality of food, it wasn’t just the range of food, but where it originates.
