Co-ops: Why People Form and Join Them

October is Co-op Month, and the U.N. has declared 2012 the Year of the Co-op. Two guests give us more insight into why people form and join co-ops, the main barrier to forming more co-ops, and what it’s like to form a grocery co-op in Barre.

Guest 1: Don Kreis is a Vermont Law School professor, president of the Cooperative Fund of New England, and treasurer of the grocery co-op Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society, on the advantages of co-ops as a business model, where the tradition came from, and what the biggest barrier to co-op formation is.

Guest 2: Emily Kaminsky is chair of the board of a new cooperatively owned grocery store seeking to open in downtown Barre, Granite City Co-op. For more information on their community listening sessions or their October 19th harvest dinner at the Old Labor Hall, call her at 279-7518. To join a weekly produce order, call her for access and then visit the Food Works order site.

Carl Etnier hosted.